i am guessing that the mast forward setup was a result of the very windy conditions at the worlds and a desire to induce a lot of mast bend to flatten the main. the wind was around 20 kn for most of the regatta. sail7 said he was sheeting block to block with extreme mainsheet tension so i guess the modern short block system would still be needed. i am definitely going to try the mast bend thang, my crew and i are pretty light and the sea breeze has been kickin!