whoa whoa whoa! It can't be all THAT bad....let's see:

A) you got out sailing (bing! = A+ always)
B) you went sailing with other people and boats (bing!)
C) look at that sunset! (need I say more?).
D) nothing broke! (bing, bing, bing!)

Looks like a great day sailing to me!

On to the racing...I get reminded of it everytime I hit the race course: "There's a lot to this thing!". I buy new sails, fix up the boat, wax the hulls, etc. and I get my butt handed to me because I haven't gotten much practice seeing and working with windshifts. It's always something. To do the racing thing and keep your mind right, you have to go out with the attitude of "what can I learn today" rather than "win win win". While I don't think the venture cat is going to be the fastest boat in the fleet, I would bet you money there are a few things you can discover about squeezing some more speed out of your boat so you can pass those monodulls. Get someone to go for a sail with you on your boat - who knows?

Secondly, maybe it's time to step up to a Hobie 16 or similar (they do not have boards either). There are so many of them that they are a great resource to learn from and they make a great baseline to quickly tell if you've got everything right.