Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

Lightning bonding bar

During our major refit in Port Townsend we are going to install an external copper or bronze bar on the hull near the keel. TAPPAN ZEE is a fiberglass Coast 34 with the ballast inside of a fiberglass keel so no keel bolts to bond to. I am planning a 3/8" X 2" X 8' strip with bronze bolts near each end to bond the mast and engine and 2 more bolts to bond the chainplates. We are leaving the Pacific NW this summer for Mexico and beyond. I will be using # 4 wire to bond the mast and # 6 for the rest, I plan to tap a SS machine screw into the mast and isolate the wire terminal with nylon washers. Any points I overlooked?

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