October 19, 2011 Doug sent in a really interesting video clip of Aspara sailing herself without an autopilot. Here is his email and link. (Webmaster Note: I'll work on the picture quality -the original was fine - it was eroded by my limited technical skills - it is a "Print Screen image of the video start page, then scanned, cropped and image size reduced - there is certainly a better way...)

Thought I'd pass along this short clip of Aspara steering herself without an autopilot.  I've had many people raise their eyebrows when I tell them that the boat will maintain a steady course to weather without autopilot, so I thought I'd take a short film of it, to confirm that it's true, etc.  I sheet the jib in fairly close, and crack the main off about 45 degrees;  the boat 'walks' uphill all day, even in rough seas, maintaining a very steady course.  Here's a link, with pretty dodgy sound quality, for those who are interested:

http://vimeo.com/29943157

Regards,

Doug Pease