The racing yacht, called Schuss, was out of the water at Sandringham Yacht Club around 7pm yesterday when thunderstorms swept through Melbourne.
A bolt of lightning struck the boat, frying the wiring and melting a hole in the hull.
Schuss crew chief David Rutter told 3AW this morning: “It went through the mast, electricity went through all the wiring, started a fire and completely ruined the boat.”
“It melted quite a lot of the side of the boat on the inside,” he told Tony Jones.
“Unfortunately, she’s probably going to be an insurance write-off.
“It’s the end of our navigation for a while.”
Mr Rutter said while the boat didn’t look “too bad” from the outside, the inside was wrecked.
“The start of our season was next week at the Geelong Festival of Sails, unfortunately that’s out of the question now.”
