We had a similiar boat when we first started sailing almost 10 years ago. (its a precision daysailer 17 and we still have it) it is undoubtedly the perfect boat to learn on. You are forced to learn the basic fundamentals (also correct weight displacement) or the boat will never respond, but when the wind is right, the sails are trimmed correctly, it sails perfect.
The one down side i found is that it never sailed downwind that well. the
boom vang really helped and kept the boom pretty low. without it, it would just fly out there and always seemed to a dangerous situation.
Last year we bought a typhoon (19'' 2000 lbs w/ fixed keel) and this year a bristol 29.9. We haven''t sailed the bristol yet but the daysailor was a lot harder or should i say more challenging to sail than the typhoon. With the typhoon we could set the sails, lash the tiller, sit back and sail for miles. Thats why i''m keeping the daysailer when i want to actually SAIL.
ROB