I think we have a good and workable handicap system in the U.S. already. It's called Portsmouth. I don't think we need a new system - here is why:

• The system is already well understood by racers and race committees.
• It already has modification factors for adjusting from stock (e.g. adding or deleting a spinnaker).
• There are not so many new classes/boats hitting the market each year that we need a system based on measurement formulas (which in turn are based on regressing a large data set). The existing "guess and modify over time with data" gets the job done
• I think the scarce pool of people who volunteer to do something for the good of the sport could acheive more focusing on other issues

America has the inch, lb, gallon and Portsmouth
Europe has the mm, kg and liter and Texel/SCHRS
Vive La Difference!

As Tammi said - the fast guys seem to end up front. And in my experience, there is always a vocal minority who spend more time talking about handicaps than practicing. I suggest a handicap system based on spinnaker color and zip code to keep these people happy.

Chris.