On Tuesday, December 24, 2019 at 12:46:16 PM UTC-5, wrote:
Nick- Give precedence to advice from pilots who have owned/flown both.

My 2 cents: Loved my 27B, never have flown the V2. With the 27B in western conditions, anything over a 3.33 knot day (standard IGC thermal at the time of design) is full ballast. Handling full is remarkably quick and it climbs really well at that high wing loading. It's also very easy to fly in good conditions as a flapped ship- you basically just have thermalling flap and running flap and it settles into correct speeds nicely without re-trimming in both modes. Knowing Gerhard Waibel and having worked with him some through the IGC Sailplane Development Panel, he did it all with lots of margin for error- outstanding engineering. Safe. Able to land really short in a jam and has very effective spoiler/landing flap combo. Good roll control until the end with the AS flap/aileron mixer.

Full of water, 27B performance is arguably still state of the art in 15m. Last year, at the South African Nationals where new JS-3 15m entries were the bulk of the racing class- 1st place, 2nd place, 3rd place were all ASW-27's if memory serves right. Mostly strong conditions throughout the contest. I can't seem to find this year's results. I'm not anti-JS, I fly the JS1C-21M now and it is spectacular. But the 27B is an absolute bargain if you find a decent one at market pricing. It would scream over the San Juan's.

Another factor to consider: Differences between the 27 and 27B were small- going to a wet tank and taller winglets. With the V2, how many changes were made over the years to keep up? There are so many combinations of tails, fuselages, winglets, etc. that you can hardly keep track of all the different versions. Gerhard essentially got it right from the start, with the design only seeing minor tweaks over a very long and successful production run. A remarkable design when introduced, and still remarkable.

Gary Osoba

I like my 27B, have a few flights in it and was happy with the handling and performance. Wish it was as comfortable as my ole ASW20L, now there was a great flying and riding ship. Wish my 27 had that same flap arrangement as the original 20, if you guys never flew a Jesus flapped ship then you are missing out. My wife also flies the 27 and likes it very much, although she like her ASW24. Bob