I think staring down 40 optis lined up on the finish line was the scariest sailing moment of my life.
Haha, last year i crewed in the Mini-macho man race. We were sailing down to the clearwater spider buoy (12 mile west of the clearwater pass) and saw about 30 optis racing out to the same area. We ducked behind them but were immediately covered by their power chase boat... bull horns blasting at us "GET OUT OF THE RACE COURSE". we yelled back, "WE ARE IN OUR RACE COURSE" and continued on. They persisted and shouted "YOU ARE NOT IN A RACE"... but we were.. and they didnt beleave us.
After we rounded the bouy and popped out the spin.. 2 minutes later we were completely cut off by a second chase boat (he ran in front of our bows), this one with lights and sirens (aux coast guard) screaming at us with a PA.
He completely cut us off, and we were not within a mile of the optis at this time.
We yelled back "WE ARE IN A RACE".. He didn't believe us, and then moved on to the next catamaran in our race... "GET OUT OF THE RACE COURSE".... again the optis were no wheres near us by this time...
Darn optis!