wrote:
Why would a buyer who is putting up 120K plus be biased? We put up the
money and there is no return to being brand loyal. The buyer should
control. I have owned gliders from AS and SH, no bias only want the
best my dollars can buy.

Because the "best" is highly subjective, and will change over time and
with future contest results. What is the intent? To win a regional,
national, or world contest, this season, or 5 years down the line?
Mostly 15M or 18M? East coast, west coast, somewhere in between, or
somewhere else entirely? How many hours total and per season? How many
of those hours are in contests? Fly all the time loaded to the gills
with water, or only occasionally? Who do you fly with, and what do they
fly? Cockpit safety important to you? How long are you willing to wait
for delivery? How much are you willing to spend, and how much more will
you spend to get things set up the way you want? Etc.

Right now, bias is pretty much all you have to work with. The ASG-29 is
the latest design from a respected manufacturer, which is based on a
previous design that worked well enough for lots of people to win
contests in them. It can carry more water than the last generation of
gliders, so it will likely outrun most everything on those 10 knot days.
If money, delivery time, pilot size, and the possibility of having to
pay to reprofile bumpy wings are not issues to you, then it would be
silly to order anything else at this moment. If I were in that
position, I'd have put in my order in the day it was announced...