ELECTRIC KITE EXPERIENCE

[ricki]

More related info here: http://www.kiteforum.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=2321146

including:

'Though if you're sailing and not touching ground you shouldn't be able to have any concequences from it if it strikes you. !'

Wrong. How many people do you know of that have been struck by lightning, particulary while standing in a ground (water) that suffer no injury (burns from a 50,000 F arc)?

You caught the fact this guy lives in Florida, right? We have had a lot of people injured and some killed by lightning, more than any other place in the USA.

Have you ever seen lightning strike water? It happens very often and it strikes the highest object in the area most frequently. The surface of the sea IS THE GROUND! Forget about the kite for a moment. Just consider all 5 to 6 feet of you on an open sea. You're the highest object in the area.

For more info, checkout The vast majority of lightning injuries and deaths on boats occur on small boats with NO cabin. Sounds like us.

More stats, • The odds of becoming a lightning victim in the U.S. in any one year is 1 in 700,000. The odds of being struck in your lifetime is 1 in 3,000. * Your odds in ignoring an OBVIOUS hazard are much greater of course and even more so in Florida.
* From: HERE

Being a survivor of a lightning strike may not be a picnic either. Lots more people survive than die in lightning strikes, sometimes with serious impairments. More about this HERE and HERE.


The following figure about lightning and boating is from:
http://www.cdc.gov/nasd/docs/d000001...07/d000007.pdf