Don't give up racing. If you want to race your boat and not be left too far behind see if there is a portsmouth dinghy class. These boats are a lot closer in speed to a slow cat than say an I20. Keep in mind that you can't copy the techniques used by most dinghys. You have to sail your boat like a cat (check out Rick's books) but the other boats will close enough to your speed to see if you are improving (plus with an aggressive dinghy fleet you learn some really neat starting line tricks)