[sailingfool]

You have the number mechanics down correctly, but some clarifications may help. First higher numbers per se are not generally preferable to low, what a racer wishes for is a boat that will sail faster than its rating - which is hard to find since the rating is purely subjective, based on the opinions of a board of very experienced racers. If a boat SEEMS faster than its rating, then they simply give it a lower number until the preception goes away. What a serious racer should want is a boat that sails well to its rating, whether high or low.

Line honors go to the first-to-finish boats, ratings being ignored. Handicap honors go to boats wining based on their times adjusted by their ratings.

You don''t need to buy a maxi boat to get into negative numbers, in New England a Farr 36 can get you to 0.