The hound position depends entirely on the strength of the mast, its bend characteristics, and to a lesser degree, the cut of the mainsail (although a sail is generally cut to suit the mast rather than vice versa). There are all sorts of hound position ratios i.e. 3/4, 7/8 even 2/3, and all percentages in between. The best hound point is set where it fully supports the mast the best taking into consideration how you want the mast to perform and bend with out "S" bending and/or breaking under unacceptable low loadings. If the sail works better when the head twists off early or needs to shed load early due to it being "over powered” for the cat, or the crew is very light, (among other reasons) then the hounds can be positioned lower to allow more bend above the hounds. The reverse IE higher hounds, if the mast is required to stand up straighter under greater loads. There are also other concerns as well IE does the mast have diamonds or not, if it does, how long are the spreaders, and are they raked backwards and if so how much rake, and what tension is on them etc. These are just a few considerations to be taken into account when positioning the hound position on a mast.