Mike and Thom,
A strut is a beam which carries a load along its axis. It has nothing to do with up, down, front,rear or sideways. In the catamaran industry a Pelican stricker is a strut that extends upward like on the front beam of a big ocean going cat and is associated with the forestay. A dolphin stricker is a strut that extends downward under the main beam of many beach cats or downward under a spinnaker pole. If some class wants to call a strut a jack rabbit, so what. Let it go. It is time to move on.
Bill