Gaff rig, woodmast, synthetic shrouds and lightning protection

[benz]

This topic has been flogged to death on other forums without a conclusive answer--it seems we still know less about lightning than we'd like. I fall into the camp of: "why offer lightning a path to ground?" and thus my aluminum mast is not grounded to anything--it just ends at it's tabernacle on deck. The synthetic shrouds also don't offer a path, and since they're non-absorbent, there would only be surface water to act as a conductor.
So far we haven't been struck, but I attribute that more to Providence than to having done the right thing. Since I'm still not sure what the right thing is.

Good luck.
Ben