I have had lightning strike the water next to me twice. Once on a prindle 19, that one shocked me as I had an aluminum tiller, since switched to fiberglass. The other was on the way to the bahamas, there were 4 of us keel boats traveling together. Lightning hit the water between us all, but not any of the boats. That was a real head scratcher. What made it even more troubling, was we were sailing Hobie 33's. Because our fuel tanks are so small we have about 6 cans of gasoline tied along the rail so we had enough gas to make the trip. We thought that would have made a nice picture. Later that week during the Abaco regatta a boat got hit sailing during a race. Also recently had our cat hit on the beach while is was on the beach wheels. Our conclusion was it would have had less damage had it been grounded better.
I think real answer is we have no clue. Best to avoid lightning storms if you can. So you still raise your hand to answer this question.