An Australian sailor has spoken about a dramatic lightning strike on day five of the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series, revealing that he felt the lightning through his body.

Racing had to be called off when Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa narrowly avoided lightning strikes on the water in Barcelona.

The Italians were leading the Kiwis when fork lightning hit the water just 200 metres in front of the Italians.

The strike prompted some colourful language from the New Zealand sailors who quickly decided to avoid the storm.

Aussie sailor, Jimmy Spithill, skipper of Luna Rossa, wasn't put off by the storm.

'I actually felt OK because I've been struck by lightning twice before,' he told The Telegraph. 

'They say when you've been hit before your odds of getting hit again are way smaller. So I reckon we were the safest boat in the fleet.

'It would have been catastrophic for the boat, though, no question. Both times I've been hit it destroyed the boat. The first time the boat actually caught fire because it was wooden and it hit the rig.

Aussie sailor Jimmy Spithill (pictured) said he felt the lightning through his body

'I felt the lightning through my body. You get a shock but it's like your eardrums get blown up.'

Kiwi helmsman Peter Burling, who has also been on boats struck by lightning before, said he wasn't taking any chances.

'I got a pretty good view of it,' Burling said. 

'The amount of damage [to the boat] if you do get hit is just crazy,' Burling said.

'For us it was about making sure we could get near to something tall to look after the boat.'

Kiwi trimmer Andy Maloney said it was the right decision to make. 

'You never want to be out there when you start seeing lightning bolts that close to the race course,' Maloney said.

'It is pretty scary. I think we did the right thing, getting out of there as soon as we could, getting our sails down and getting close to some tall superyacht rigs.

'It would destroy the boat. All the electronics were stuffed when it happened in SailGP.'