Grounding point on outside of hull on '71?

[sandbarbilly]

Stripping off about 10 layers of bottom paint on my '71 222 and I notice what looks to be a stainless NAIL driven into the bottom of the hull. This is dead center about a foot behind where the keel ends. Can someone tell me if this is some kind of grounding point? Or do I just have a nail in the bottom of my boat?

[JimCt]

It maybe a past owner's concept of a grounding plate.  Doubt it though, since how could he get to the other end of the nail to attach a wire to?  That being said, someone put it there for a reason.  Will require some detective work to figure out what the reason was.

[billh1963]

Doesn't sound logical to me. Maybe there was a keel guard/strip on it at one time and they forgot to pull the last  one out?

To Jim's point (and as an electrical engineer) a stainless nail attached to nothing in the middle of nowhere has no value as a grounding point.