Hi Larry,
I absolutely love the cockpit enclosure on Paragon and wouldn't want to be in a storm without it... It's not too much windage to interfere with the wind vane and doesn't impair hearing anything outside even if it's fully enclosed... It does slightly impair visibility when fully enclosed and sometimes I'll roll the panels up to see better. I also designed a zippered opening in the top for when I need instant perfect visibility. I stand on the helm seat, poke my head out of the top, and steer with my feet. From outside I think I must look like a gopher looking outside a hole, but it works great.. I had that accidental gybe in 25-30 knots at night because I didn't have an adequate preventer... One of the invaluable lessons I just learned from Eric Forsyth on Fiona was how to correctly rig a preventer... I think I'm just getting used to new Aries wind vane... it works well, but just not as great as the old discontinued Aries Lift-up wind vane which is what I was used to from my previous boat (Westsail 32.)