His mast-step probably can't rotate past 90 degrees so it's likely not possible to step from the front...and your mast is lighter!

Which brings up another point. The original 5.2 had a non-captive mast base. You pretty much had to have someone keep downward pressure on the ball (or tie a keeper line on it) while stepping. Later versions had a base castings that would receive a keeper pin that would temporarily lock the base casting onto the ball. The pin should be removed later so that should some rigging fail (heaven forbid), the mast will fall and simply pop safely off the ball. If it is pinned and the mast comes down, there will be damage to the ball/pin/mast and there's a possibility that someone could get trapped between the mast and the boat...so take the pin out when sailing - it's not needed to keep the mast on the boat (just make sure your rigging is not floppy when setting up the boat).