Steve,
I do not disagree with your statements but just for fun lets complicate the issue by also considering the movement
of the hull bridle fittings.

Lets assume the hulls are flexing around the main beam when they tow in.
This will mean the bridle fittings on the hulls come closer together.
So the apex of the Bridle wires between bridle fittings on the hull and forestay will move up.
This in turn will allow the compression strut above the pole move up which will allow the pelican strut to move up.
Which in turn will allow the pole tip to move up.

I asked myself how does this influence the situation?

Intuitively, I don't think very much.

But I don't know so I dug up the Tornado rules to get some dimensions to do some rough calcs.

Supposing the Tornado bows towed in 30mm under load.

The movement of the apex of the bridle wires will allow the pole tip to move vertically by approx 22mm with the pelican strut.

However without the pelican strut the pole tip lines would allow the pole tip to move approx 60mm.

As I said the calcs are rough because I don't have the exact height of the pole above the bow attachment point but this would be close.

So just for fun they maybe minimising the pole tip movement to 1/3 of what they would get without the pelican strut.


Regards,
Phill