I didn't say it was a catilever under spi loads - it may or may not be depending on how well the pre-bend matches the spin loads.

It is most definately a cantilever when there are no spin loads due to the pre-bend, which is just as bad from a fatigue viewpoint.

The high degree of constraint at the bridle and the much lesser degree of constraint at the end of the pole is a pretty gross violation the truss idealization. This means there will certainly be some bending in the pole. To reduce or eliminate the bending on would need to:

A - put a hinge in the pole at the bridle. This would decrease the compression force resistance of the pole due to a different buckling mode, however. You would also need something to keep it from drooping down too far when the spin is not up.

B - use extreamly stiff lines between the bows and the end of the pole, and eliminate the pre-bend. As Berny said, because of the acute angle of those lines, the loads in them are greatly magnified. Stretch in those lines causes the tip of the pole to move upward (I figure this is why you use pre-bend, so that the tack of the spin doesn't go to high). Because the pole is highly constrained at the bridle, this leads to bending stress in the pole. You would need some super-stiff line (perhaps made of unobtainium) to keep the end of the pole from deflecting an appreciable ammount.

C- Decrease the constraint at the bridle, by removing the compression strut. This would decrease the apparent stiffness of the pole by increasing the length over which it is bending. This will make the lines take more of the upward force of the spin by decreasing the resistance of the pole to that force via bending.

Anyway, this may be a systematic problem, or just a random event. My understanding is that the Blade is pretty new design. Maybe other Blade runners will encounter this problem in the future, in which case the design of the pole needs to be changed. Or maybe they won't.

If I owned a blade, I wouldn't futz with my pole at this point. However if it broke in a similar manner, I would certainly consider modifications to the design.