Talk:Strake

It seems like there's rather more discussion here of boatbuilding than is necessary to explain what a strake is. Shouldn't this material be in a boat building article, and just pointed to from this one?


 * It's all about strakes. If you don't want to know about strakes in connection with boatbuilding, there's nearly nothing left to write about.(RJP 10:26, 21 November 2005 (UTC))

Examples of "Strake"
Would it be appropriate to mention significant uses of the word "strake"? In particular, I'm thinking of the US military's designation of a new munition, "Divine Strake," as follows:

Washington Post article refers to Divine Strake
Pentagon to Test a Huge Conventional Bomb By Ann Scott Tyson Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, March 31, 2006; Page A09

A huge mushroom cloud of dust is expected to rise over Nevada's desert in June when the Pentagon plans to detonate a gigantic 700-ton explosive -- the biggest open-air chemical blast ever at the Nevada Test Site -- as part of the research into developing weapons that can destroy deeply buried military targets, officials said yesterday.

The test, code-named "Divine Strake," will occur on June 2 about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas in a high desert valley bounded by mountains, according to Pentagon and Energy Department officials.

68.22.199.109 17:22, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

What are they *for*?
This article goes into a great deal of detail about what a strake *is* (in boatbuilding), but says almost nothing about *why* there are strakes.

A quick look at the dictionary suggests to me that "strake" may be the generic term for any longitudinal strip of hull planking. Is that true? If so, the entry here should be rephrased to clarify that. The current phrasing suggests to me that a strake is an extra piece of wood or metal attached on the outside of the hull for some additional (unspecified) purpose. Elysdir 04:48, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

You are correct, they are simply fore-aft shell structure. There are a few 'special' strakes, as mentioned in the article, including rubbing strakes. Parts read as if taken right from a book, website or interview though. Probably should be tagged for cleanup and/or verification.

This article attempts too much
The article is not encyclopedic in that is attempts to cover a great variety of topics. It should be broken up into small articles or merged with existing work. see Strength of Ships and Shell plating. Jmvolc (talk) 14:55, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

interwikis
All links to other language wikis point to pages dealing with "Spant" (or Varango). " Spant" in German means frame (rib, timber), so it is something completely different. Strake should link to Plankengang, which now is a redirect to planke (plank). My attempts to change/remove these links all failed, i.e. there allways seems to be a bot to restore them. I'm not sure what to do, just wanted to let you know... (uwehag) --87.185.95.190 (talk) 20:43, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

term "joggle"
Text uses the term "joddle" refering to a manner of joining strakes. For this use, the term is probably "joggle" which is defined as a manner of fastening two parts. In other texts on ship building, joggling is referred to as a way to form and join deck planks so as to avoid the poor fastening characteristics of a point. The term is interesting in itself and could use a separate page. Pwhavens (talk) 15:41, 30 December 2008 (UTC)
 * "Joggle" now given a reference.--217.155.32.221 (talk) 17:06, 7 September 2021 (UTC)

Strakes On Buildings etc
Aren`t the spiral structures at the top of some cylindrical constructions also called strakes, like the ones in this picture (which is at the top of Emley Moor transmitter) : http://www.aerialsandtv.com/emleymoortx.html#TopOfEmley

--JustinSmith (talk) 14:51, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Information on "stealers"
The following passage was excised as OR but contains information that may prove valuable to an editor willing to dig up some supporting cites for its claims:


 * 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.

Wikiuser100 (talk) 16:18, 19 January 2019 (UTC)


 * Good move, retaining this deleted copy pending rescue with supporting citations. I'm thinking tht when that - hopefully - eventually happens, we may need to take care with the theory it presents about stealer < steeler.  That looks very much like a  false ('folk') etymology.  Steal is an interesting word, capable of appearing in unexpected forms and places (steal / stale / stealth; cf heal / hale / health, weal / wale / wealth).  I'd rate it as quite capable of taking on the meaning "short strake" with no assistance from steelworking!  -'' SquisherDa (talk) 19:08, 5 February 2020 (UTC)
 * No help with the above detailed post, I'm afraid, but the tag has been replaced with a link to the short definition in OED--217.155.32.221 (talk) 16:52, 7 September 2021 (UTC)