Strake

A strake or stringer is part of the shell of the hull of a boat or ship which, in conjunction with the other strakes, keeps the vessel watertight and afloat. It is a strip of planking in a wooden vessel or of plating in a metal one, running longitudinally along the vessel's side, bottom or the turn of the bilge, usually from one end of the vessel to the other. Stringers run horizontally along the ship's frame providing structural strength. On a longboat, one strake will typically be made up of numerous planks running end to end.

The strake immediately adjacent to the keel is known as the garboard strake. There are two, one on each side of the keel.

The uppermost continuous strake along the topsides is called the sheer strake. In old vessels, a rubbing strake was built in just below a carvel sheer strake. It was much less broad but thicker than other strakes so that it projected and took any rubbing against piers or other boats when the boat was in use. In clinker boats, the rubbing strake was applied to the outside of the sheer strake. The strakes adjacent to the garboard are referred to accordingly as the first broad and second broad. Each strake thereafter has its own special name such as bottom strakes, lowers, bilge strakes, topside strakes, and uppers. Many current pleasure craft reflect this history by providing the boat with a mechanically attached (and therefore replaceable) rub rail at the location formerly occupied by a rubbing strake, often doubling to cover the joint between a GRP hull and its innerliner. A stealer is a short strake employed to reduce the width of plank required where the girth of the hull increases or is necessary due to a tuck in the shape. It is commonly employed in carvel and iron/steel shipbuilding, but there are very few, possibly only one type of, clinker craft that use them. "A stealer is a short strake employed to reduce the width of plank required where the girth of the hull increases or is necessary due to a tuck in the shape." This statement represents a mis-understanding of what a "stealer" is tasked with accomplishing as a hull is lined-off. After determining the widths of strakes amidships (there are three categories), a quantity can be determined for all these strakes. This quantity is then divided into the height of the stem to determine the width of the average hood-end. This width must be twice the hood-ends thickness or it will not be able to carry its fasteners. If the hood-ends are not wide enough, the quantity is dropped by one until the resulting revised width is strong enough to carry its fasteners. Stealer is actually a misspelling of the word steeler, the plankers borrowed this word from their peers in the foundry, where forgers would strengthen a piece of metal by steeling a different metal to the original piece. This was analogous to strengthening the hood-end by making it wider, providing more wood mass around each hood-end. Wider meant fewer hood-ends. A device was needed to compensate for the drop in strakes that actually reached the stem. The device was a strake that was stooped short of the stem by burying its forward butt end into a notch chiseled into a through plank. This strake was called a steeler by the plankers and a drop plank by the liners who originated it by counting strakes during the lining off process.

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Wikipedia