Once again ... the NEW Leopard 45 is in fact 45' LOA. Up until the release of this brand spanking new model, all Leopard 45's were, and still are 44'7" LOA. See the date of the press release on Robertson and Caine's website:

Introducing the new Leopard 45

It is common practice to reference the model name (ERRONEOUSLY) as the actual length.

Your boat, the Lagoon 44, is often referred to as a 44 footer. However, it is actually 44'8" LOA ... one inch longer than the Leopard, so I think you were pretty evenly matched.

If you truly believe you were wronged by the volunteer race committee, may I suggest you call the number on that website and ask what year the yacht was built. If it does happen to be a 2016 model, ask if it was delivered before or after the new Leopard 45 made it's WORLWIDE DEBUT at the Annapolis boat show just last month on [color:"red"]October 9, 2016[/color].