I really appreciate all of the inputs and hope that some more people who had this unfortunate lightning strike would continue this thread and add their story.

Based on the input we have so far, and the finding on the current case I have at hand (friend's yacht with many problems after a storm with no visible signs of burn, charring, or blown components...) It looks like lightning strikes are causing some major magnetic field around the path from masthead to water (ground) and that magnetic field is damaging the components internally without leaving any external signs.

This can probably be compered to a Micro EMP (caused by the very large lightning strike current flow) that induces a current in every conductor that happens to be within the vicinity of the magnetic field. (As any conductor that has current flow is causing a directly proportional magnetic field around the conductor => Any conductor that is within a magnetic field will develop a current that is proportional to the magnetic field.) It would be interesting to hear from sailors who might have had a Faraday Cage around some devices and that this saved the device from the strike damage. (My own personal yacht is a steel Roberts 53G and I hope that that fact will save my instruments as the whole yacht could be considered a "Faraday Cage".)

For those who wondered, i am looking to increase my knowledge in this area and hopefully develop some system/process that will allow a sailor to reduce the damage from lightning strikes.

This first hand information is very helpful to me and I hope also to other members of this board. Thanks again to all who contributed!

Anyone wants to communicate with me directly for a more detailed discussion, please use e-mail found in my web site. (Or the one in this BB)

For your enjoyment I attached a photo of the rock of Gibraltar as seen form the deck of my yacht "Aliza".