I think doing the capsizing early on was a great way to allay fears about sinking the boat. Maybe doing a few more (two or three practice capsizes) would have been good early on.
It was going out on my own (on the afternoon of day two) that everything taught on the first day became apparent. It was quite daunting but it's a fairly steep and exciting learning curve, and was the most enjoyable and confidence building part of the weekend
Yes, Shauna I thought was particularly good at explaining complicated ideas using simple analogies that you could understand whilst falling asleep on a hammock
It was great to get into the boats early on. The simple tacking excercise on land was a good way to realise that that's all that needs to be done. I think one way of speeding up the learning process would be to go out with someone more experienced, attempt the tacking and capsizing all in one session (beginner with experienced). Then next you could put people in at the deep end by either making them go out on their own or with another beginner (on day one). We thought that it was then when we learnt actually how to sail - when no one was telling us what to do. But honestly, it was great as it was.