On a vessel's hull, a strake is a longitudinal course of planking or plating which runs from the boat's stempost (at the bows) to the sternpost or transom (at the rear). The garboard strakes are the two immediately adjacent to the keel on each side.
The word derives[1][2] from traditional wooden boat building methods, used in both carvel and clinker construction. In a metal ship, a strake is a course of plating.
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary -"Strake" (from Old English "streccan", stretch), nautical: each of the several continuous lines of planking or plates, of uniform breadth, in the side of a vessel, extending from stem to stern. Hence, the breadth of a plank used as a unit of vertical measurement of a ship's side,(late Middle English).
- ^ Collins English Dictionary - "Strake" (also called "streak") nautical: one of a continuous range of planks or plates forming the side of a vessel.