Strike One

The retired chief biomedical scientist, whose home overlooks the Tresillian River, said he took the opportunity to get some shots as he heard the storm approach around midnight on July 1.

'When it got louder and closer I became aware of the flashes,' he said. 'I thought, well I'll set up my camera and have a go. Of course, I didn't know when the flash would come.'

After an hour, Mr Evan's patience was rewarded when his 10mm wide-angled lens captured the milliseconds of the moment the bolt tore through the night sky - and hit the mast of his neighbour's yacht Red Fox.

'The end of the lightning stopped just where it touched the mast,' he said. You can see the green navigational light was on. I think it was because electricity from the flash went through the circuits.'

Red Fox's owner, Jason Goodden, said he heard a loud bang but had no idea it was his yacht that had been hit until Mr Evans showed him the picture the following day.

The renewable energy engineer and father-of-three said: 'I heard the crack, I heard it outside my window. I thought, that's a loud one. I wish I had been looking.

'I didn't know anything about it until I was shown this photo the next day, so I went out with some trepidation. I didn't know what I would find.'

Mr Goodden, 59, said he thinks the damage, which appears to be limited to a radio aerial and a light, was minimal because the mast acted as a lightning conductor for his family's sailing boat.

'It just discharged it like a lightning conductor - straight through the boat. If someone had been in there touching that I don't like to think what could have happened.'