Tried and tested, proved and patented. Asia Yacht Services secures Asia-wide distribution rights for Dinnteco’ leading lightning protection technology.
Modern yachts are packed with sensitive and expensive electronics, and are extremely vulnerable to high voltage atmospheric discharges – lightning strikes to you and me. Until recently, protection from lightning has involved providing the discharge with an ‘easy’ route – a physical pathway of low-resistance material for the current to follow to allow it to pass by swiftly and safely, and leave the surroundings unharmed. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always work. The insurers’ books are full of claims for both material and electronic destruction. One well-known Hong Kong insurer reports 14 lightning strikes out of 71 claims in the last five years, involving sums of between 15 and 20 times premium. Add in the inconvenience caused during the repair period, and a substantial amount of money is involved. Clearly, what is needed is a strike prevention mechanism. This exists in the form of the patented Dinnteco DDCE (Electronic Charge Compensation Device) and Dinfil systems. A DDCE is a passive device that carries electrical currents away, continuously, to the electrical Earth field. It prevents the impact of lightning and derivative electric current pulses, and reduces radio frequency disturbances in the protected area – ie your yacht and all the electronics in it.
This is how it works: during electrical storms, a negative charge is created at the bottom of clouds, shadowed by an area of positive electrical charge in the air and on the ground below the storm. The ground positive charge can accumulate in high points – for example the top of a mast – before suddenly discharging towards the negatively charged cloud as lightning. The Dinnteco DDCE Marine unit “facilitates a continuous low-level discharge of the two fields downwards into the ground, preventing the generation of the upward electrical ‘tracer’ that gives rise to a lightning strike against the vessel it protects”. In practical terms, this means that the Dinnteco system prevents the build-up of a positive static field beneath an electrical storm, substantially reducing the possibility of a lightning strike. “In 18 years of field experience we are still with zero recorded lightning strikes in over 8,000 units installed worldwide,” notes Dinnteco’s Juan Mitjans. “It is a completely passive system, and requires no power input.” Major Australian yacht insurance specialists, Pantaenius, are on record as being impressed by the system, saying that “a properly installed lightning protection system such as the Dinnteco DDCE not only protects against damage and injury, but also against any excess in the event of a claim." In Europe, Pantaenius even offer discounts on premiums for vessels with Dinnteco DDCE protection installed. In addition, the Dinnteco Dinfil ground filter works as a high reactance filter for protection against high frequency ground induced overvoltage surges from atmospheric discharges, electromagnetic pulses and other sources. It’s an EMP protector, with extras. Of course, prevention is always better than cure – or in this case, an insurance claim. If you need any further convincing, the Dinnteco DDCE and Dinfil combination is endorsed by NATO and is ISO 9001 compliant. Between 2003 and 2018, the Les Pardines Telecoms Tower in the Pyrenees experienced zero lightning strikes, while the ground in the immediate vicinity (<1.25km radius) soaked up 1,609 hits. It works. Impressive! Dinnteco DDCE and Dinfil systems are now available in Asia. To install a protective force field on your yacht, please contact the sole agent, Asia Yacht Services, in Hong Kong.
