Welcome!!! You have a great sailing venue
I have visited Port Townsend and Victoria on a couple of occasions and loved it!!
The mainsheet does go thru a few blocks: There is a fiddle block on the traveler, three to four blocks on the boom (depending if your fiddle block has a beckett where the bitter end of the sheet is tied or tied under the boom to an eye), and a swivel block at the base of the mast then it runs thru a fairlead then to a rope clutch(if you have one) or a cleat/winch combo at the companionway. I'll agree that it takes a bit of effort to pull the main in under load, I don't have too much difficulty but my wife does........so I am currently upgrading all of the blocks and traveler to the Garhauer lite stainless steel units.
...I'll post a picture when finished.
Happy Holidays
Tom