Thanks, all, for the encouragement. Very good advice! I actually did enjoy most of the racing. Looking back at it all, I think I see where some improved skills would really help.

One question I remember was the downwind leg. Do cats sail fine wing-and-wing, or should I have gybed down wind. I ended up going wing-and-wing, but it felt like I was just crawling. I tried shifting my weight in different directions. I even tried going off the wind at an angle to see if I went any faster. Nothing seemed to really improve the speed, so I concluded that going downwind is pretty cut-and-dried. I realize that it's going to feel very slow, since I don't have apparent wind to feel.