Coast Guard Rescues 7 After Lightning Strikes Boat
The Coast Guard rescued seven people on June 25 about 100 miles off Clearwater, FL, after their boat was struck by lightning.
The 39’ (11.89 m) center console was participating in a fishing tournament when the weather turned and the crew tried to outrun the storm. Josh Guy, a passenger on the boat was standing on the starboard side of the console, holding onto the aluminum structure that supports the hardtop when the bolt hit. It came down through the metal, passing through Guy, knocking him out for a few minutes. His girlfriend, who is 25 weeks pregnant, was on board, but she and the other passengers were not hurt.
Proper Equipment
The owner of the vessel, Glenn Rumer, is an experienced boater, but said the number of lightning strikes in the area were “overwhelming.”
The key to being rescued was that the boat was equipped with an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EIPRB). It’s a device registered to the vessel that alerts the Coast Guard that the boat and its crew are in distress and in need of a rescue. The lightning disabled the boat’s engines and electronics and they were too far offshore to have cell service.
Rumer activated the EPIRB on the boat and 90 minutes later, a Coast Guard helicopter arrived on the scene. The five women on the boat and two men were lifted into the helicopter. Rumer worked local salvage firms to recover his boat.
This is the second lightning strike on a boat that we’ve reported on. On June 8, a couple left Hampton, VA, on a sailboat bound for the Azores Islands. About 800 miles into the trip, their boat was struck by lightning. The two had to rig a spare sail and returned to Virginia.