There is a "yardstick" handicapping system used almost universally here John, maintained by the Victorian Yachting Council, known as the Victorian Yachting Council Yardstick, shortened to VYC YS. It is based on multiple results from all over Australia from regattas, club races, etc, on an ongoing update “back calculation” from those results. As it encompasses, most, if not all classes racing, no matter where and when and through every imaginable sailing condition, as long as there is this regular accurate reporting of comparative results between different classes, then the resulting allocated performance “yardsticks” of every class compared to each other, is very accurate.
It seems to have worked well here for many many years, and it means that it doesn’t matter where you want to go to sail at any regatta, you know exactly what your “handicap will be and what every other boat sailing at that regatta will be as well. It encourages boats of different design, size etc, to compete against each other on the course as regardless of where you finish over the line, you know how you sailed against every other boat on the water. It enables you to compete against a much larger boat and if, for example you had sailed up to your yardstick and you had still finished five minutes over the line behind that larger/faster boat BUT he had not sailed to his yardstick, the results will show that you had out sailed him and won, on yardstick.
Similar to many handicapping systems world wide, but it is a system that works to perfection and everyone seems happy with it (no small feat when dealing with sailors?)