I too got a Patriot, a few weeks ago when changing to a new lathe.
I previously had a K10 Axminster, which seemed to work fine, the only thing that I personally found slightly 'fiddly' was the need for '3 Hands' to operate the tommy-bar, the C Spanner and to hold the workpiece all at once.
The Patriot does away with that, being operated with the Ball-Allen that comes with it, leaving your free hand to control the workpiece itself during chucking.
I've only got the jaws that came with it - as time goes on, and skills improve hopefully, I think I'll probably add to the jaws, and I must say, I do fancy the Wobble-Chuck for it, just for a bit of a 'play', but I believe its not going to be available until early 2009.
As mentioned already, its Sorby, and as such its up to their usual A1 Standard, beautifully engineerd and made, and as Chas said, its British.
I did look at some other options when trying to decide, it came to a coin-toss between a Nova and the Patriot for me. And as I like every Robert Sorby Chisel and gouge I've got, above all others.... I thought Go with the Sorby chuck and you can't go far wrong.
Very pleased with it so far, I have to say.