Not having an income for 5 years and the costs involved with the lawsuits and appeals is enough to ruin someone forever, both professionally and personally.
He made a mistake but the penalty is excessive, there is not even any proof that his actions had any effect on performance.
I think that he (and others) took a shortcut with the boat repair, in a series which no-one was taking very seriously anyway (the last regattas some teams didn't even bother showing up).