Me neither! 😉
But as the old adage goes… “you learn something new everyday.” Boy, ain’t that the truth! And we recently learned about rub strakes.
Since owning our boat, the starboard jib sheet has been incessantly chafing the teak on our cockpit coaming (basically the rail around the cockpit) at every use.
We needed something to fix this chafing issue. So we added this to our boat project list early on.
^^that shiny piece of metal is one of our new rub strakes!^^
Jereme researched various options to fix the chafing problem. But, honestly, nothing seemed like it would be the perfect solution.
Then, one day while out sailing on our friend John’s boat (s/v Zanzibar), Jereme noticed that John had these awesome (approximately foot-long) stainless steel pieces screwed into his boat’s teak. Although, John’s weren’t really being used so much for chafe protection, but more so for footing (and aesthetic purposes only), Jereme still thought these metal bars would be the perfect solution to our chafing issue!
So, he went to work searching online for the same piece of hardware he had seen on John’s boat. He searched “anti-chafe protection,” “sailboat chafing,” “stainless steel hardware thingy,” etc., but had an extremely tough time figuring out what the hell these things were called.
After a relentless search, Jereme somehow managed to stumble upon the same ones he had seen on s/v Zanzibar! Lo and behold, these babies are technically known in the nautical realm as RUB STRAKES!!!
Accordingy to various marine hardware websites, rub strakes are designed to prevent chafing of dock, fender, and anchor lines. Yup! Precisely what we needed!
We ordered two of these rub strakes
Now you know (if you didn’t already) what a rub strake is. You’re welcome. 😉
>>Thanks for visiting LAHOWIND sailing blog! We’d love for you to get to know us and follow our story as we attempt to navigate a whole new world of sailing.
MORE new boat terminology!? Thanks for sharing – I never would’ve figured out the name either, if we were to need one…