Sailing A Dana

I met Paul while bicycle riding with our club, he was a new rider on our DFW Airport ride but it was soon obvious he was not new to riding. While putting in about 60 miles we struck up a conversation and found we also had sailing in common, he is an accomplished sailor with a solo Atlantic crossing under his belt. I mentioned that if he ever wanted company on a day sail e-mail me and I would like to go. Another thing we have in common is that we are maybe a little more enthusiastic about sailing in cold weather than our wife's are.Well, this developed into a full day of sailing on his Pacific Seacraft Dana. a beautiful little ship that is a pleasure to sail and is maybe the best built small sailboat out there. I was also introduced to an auto pilot made by sailo-mat. This is a servo pendulum type of steering device that moves the rudder to keep the same angle to the wind, it works perfectly and is an ingenious device. On this cold windy morning it steered us while he made a pot of coffee on the gimbaled stove while close hauled into 15 mph winds.
Almost 6 knots close hauled with a reef in the main and this vessel is only slightly heeled over, most boats I have sailed or owned are heeled way over and require concentration to steer in these conditions.
Thanks for a great day Paul, and when you get ready to do some bright work let me know.

Dennis