Actually the strut is a standard item on F16's ever since the beginning of the class.

And Phill is right Ncik, your test won't work well because of this strut. You reasoning with regard to the difference between the pelican striker on cat pole and skiff poles is correct again. On skiffs the pelican striker setup is fixed to another point then the beginning of the pole itself and thus secures the pole in the vertical plane. On the cat pole this is not the case and all is dependent on the importance or not-importance of the strut under the bridles relative to the influence of the tip support wires.

Additionally the strut does indeed negate the need for a pelican striker in the way of shoring up the spi pole in the buckling failure mode. In fact, the strut and bridle support wires to the pole are even more effective in this way then just the pelican striker on its own.

The only way out of this situation is to just rig up the boat on land and actually measure the spi pole tip displacement of both setups when sheeting in the sails relative to the top of the decks. The difference in flexing (if large enough to be measureable) can be scientifically attributed to the pelican striker setup. When devided by the total amount of flexing one can surmise the relative contribution of the pelican striker setup.

Wouter