Originally Posted by Taon

The thing is, this has happened every time with a swan race event; very few people, if anyone, have been able to collect and spend on the last race before the event goes away. Unless/until the devs fix this scenario, it's utterly pointless to even try and neither of you are newbies who might not know better.

There's only been one other swanboat event before this. It's understandable that people aren't aware of it.