I think I tracked the basterd down.

The lightning came in through the VHF antenna, entered the cabin via the coax cable, and left the boat via the autopilot ram, the tiller and finally the rudders. You can clearly see burn marks like welding spatters, caused by sparks jumping from the ram to the tiller. It was, however, not before I replaced the motor of this ram with an old, spare motor, that I noticed this. Now, given that these sparks were about half a cm long, I can only assume that the spindle, ball race etc of the ram are also damaged by similar sparks. And what to think of the wiring? So far I have not been able to trace the path ot the main lightning through the wiring, though.

Tomorrow will be a busy day, mostly ordering the replacement equipment like the MF/HF radio and modem. I will start early!

Bart