I agree with most of what you guys are saying but I also believe -nothing- will get the adrenaline pumping like real, tight, windy, racing. Racing forces you to perform under pressure, pressure you will never face when you are out "cruising".
When I first got into sailing some 30 years ago, I had no intention of racing, in fact, my first boat was a peice of crap but cheap. My girlfriend and I were just going to cruise but I had no idea how to sail.
I wanted to take some lessons and learn to do it right but I didn't know who to talk to, so I approached a guy on a dock who was putting away his (racing) boat. He took one look at my ride and said, "Sell that thing and get one of these, you will learn more in one year of racing than in 3 years of goofing around in that thing." Well I eventually sold it, bought a racing boat, and after 3 years racing, working my way up from the back of the fleet, slowly learning, I finally beat him. It might have been that I had his daughter as crew that day, and she was telling me exactly what he would do and when. ;^)
The truth of it is, racing improves your skills, because you push yourself and you also get to watch and learn from the better sailors, who BTW, are also racers and builds your confidence for when you are not racing.
