Hi Rick,
I agree that regattas are important, but a lot of people get turned off by regattas because they are new and they know that they don't have a hope in hell..Better to ease them into the sport with some pleasure sailing, and also crewing in regattas.

Also, I think that a sailing school would do great things for cats... Why do we have all these dinghy schools at yacht clubs and no cat schools? (Or very very few?) I think that cats are a natural progression out of dinghys and so lets get these sailors hooked before they start dragging lead around at 7 knots.
Dave