To clarify.

He was standing on solid ground in the boatpark.

Lightning hit the water adjacent to the boatpark.

Quite common to get a shock from that kind of distance. A yacht I race on had all the instruments blown out from a strike 100m away.

And at the sailing club in Singapore, quite often the boat masts and rigging are tingling with electricity in a storm. Best to be under cover for sure in these situations.