Hi,
I own a 1988 aft cockpit 41.1 (also for sale!!), on which I took a year off to sail around the Caribbean with my family.
I find the boat sails very well. It is remarkably well balanced and can sail for hours unattended in the right conditions. The heavy displacement is nice in any kind of sea - just plows through all the little stuff. And it does surprisingly well in light air - that's with a 145 genoa. The only negative is that it's rolley in a beam sea which I attribute to the round underbody (typical of Hood designs). The centerboard helps to curtail this a bit but it bangs around in the trunk in these conditions. We did many offshore passages on our boat and always felt secure.
Nowadays I often go out by myself for short sails and just roll out the
jib in 10-15 knot winds and the boat will sail over 6 knots.
These are very solid boats. I just wish they had better engine access!!
Good Luck.