What is it?  I looked it up and got this

part of a boat or ship. It is a a horizontal strip of wooden planking or steel plating on the exterior hull of a vessel, running longitudinally along the vessel from the stem to the stern

But I still am not quite sure where it is located exactly and what it's purpose is.

Cart?

OK, so it's a picture of a model boat.    Anyway, strakes are those horizontal ridges in the hull you see in the picture.

In a typical boat they help provide lift and aid in deflecting spray out away from the hull when the boat is underway.

thank you sir

Nice looking boat you have there Cart! What size motor to you put on it?

On aluminum hulls they are simply ridges; down south we add 1 V-shaped aluminum angles welded on top of the strakes to provide better bite when turning sharp thus keeping the hull from sliding.

Nice looking boat you have there Cart! What size motor to you put on it?

It's a new 1 man bassboat I'm working on.  You ride it like a surfboard.  

Don't hang ten in gator country.

Catt, you gave me a great idea.  I had the bed liner on the bottom of my boat to reduce wear when we have to drag it (often).  as many of you know, it failed.  It still wore off on the "V" channels (pretty much the only place you need it because that is obviously the contact points)

It is mainly the rear that gets dragged so I am thinking maybe I could have Matt5.0 weld on some 3 ft strips of angle iron on the rear "V" channels.  Like Keel guards but of metal.  I'll grind down the ends so they taper and won't creat more drag.

Thoughts?  Do they make angle iron out of stuff that doesn't rust?

I wouldn't use iron because it's hard to weld iron to aluminum; you can buy aluminum extruded angles from Lowe's or Home Depot in 6' lengths. I don't know why but they are called ice runners down south, like there is ever ice around here.

Aluminum flat and modified V bottom boats are notorious for sliding when cornering adding this extruded angler greatly reduces this problem. To get into many marshes in South Louisiana you have to pull your boat over a levee, this is accomplished by a set of rollers built up and over the levee; the ice runners reinforced the boat bottom.  

I agree with Catt, you need to use aluminum dissimilar metals will not bond and lead to corrosion problems for NAVY ships construction they blast the iron and aluminum together to bond at a molecular level.  I think you need a Tig welder for aluminum.

Welding aluminum is tough....and of all the welders I know personally, there is only a small handful that can do it correctly and consistently.

Man, I bet dragging that boat will really be a job now, you know, since you hung that 300 Pro Max on it. Be sure to trim it up prior to dragging.  

Yes, I know using diff metals is tough, especially with aluminum, i should have asked "can you get the angle iron in aluminum,....angle alum?,lol.

I also know that not just any guy with a mig welder can jump in and fix it but Matt 5.0 is a former union welder and race car fabricator, he had all the right tools and knowledge to fix her up last year,...looks like I'll be owing him another favor this spring

You can get angle aluminum.  Will be a lot cheaper at your local scrapyard (assuming you have one).  You can get both new, and used metal at your scrapyard, and often, there is brand new stuff that people scrap, because they don't need it, so you can get it cheap.  Just have to spend a while poking through, to see what you can find (probably the funnest part - we do it about every second Saturday - came home with 225 dollars worth of brand new steel, out of the used pile, at 20 cents a pound last week)

As for welding aluminum.  Ideally, you will want to find someone with a good TIG setup.  Those will weld the aluminum a lot neater than the alternatives.  But, they are super expensive to own and operate.

But, someone with a correctly setup MIG welder can do it too.  You need a different wire, different tips and all, and a different composition in the shielding gas, but it can be done (we do from time to time)  It won't make it quite as neat, but should be fairly okay structurally.  

You could go the route of riveting.  You can get air powered rivet guns, and all the dies off of ebay, for reasonable prices.  The gun itself is like any air hammer, or air chisel.  But, it is variable speed.  You can do the research on it - a lot to know about that.  

Russ buy your aluminum extrusions from Lowe's or Home Depot, they don't cost that much and Matt 5.0 can handle the welding easily. Forget the rivets they will not hold, after dragging the boat a few times they will work loose and then you have to drill holes in the hull to install them. Weld it and be done with it!

FYI:

TIG welding (heliarc) for thin metals; is slower than MIG welding, but it allows for more welder manipulation.

MIG welding used for welding plate (over 1/4-inch thick), where deeper penetration of the weld is required.

I agree welding is the way to go, but riveting, if done right, will hold, or else they wouldn't rivet strakes on.  On every jon I have seen, with strake problems, it is because it wore through, not broke the rivets.  

Catt, I would love to see the pricing at your big box stores.  At mine, an 8 foot stick of 1 1/2 inch angle is 20 bucks.  New material at the scrapyard would be 10 - 12 for a 10 foot stick.  "used" which can be new culls, cutoffs, or not needed material is 2 bucks a pound.  

LBH, sounds like Matt can hook you up welder wise.  Seems he knows what he is doing.  

Good luck

LBH what about looking for some clearance keel shields or keel guards. They are a stick on, we all use them on our glass boats and we routinly run then right up on shore.  

I've been around boats my entire life (56 yrs) and I've never seen strakes riveted or welded on; they are press formed into the bottom of the boat. In 15 yrs as a manufacturing engineer I've don't remember rivets breaking but rather the rivet hole becomes elongated and then the rivet rips through the sheet aluminum.  

I've been around boats my entire life (56 yrs) and I've never seen strakes riveted or welded on; they are press formed into the bottom of the boat. In 15 yrs as a manufacturing engineer I've don't remember rivets breaking but rather the rivet hole becomes elongated and then the rivet rips through the sheet aluminum.  

Well, I will post a picture or two of a riveted on strake this afternoon.  At least one of my boats is pressed formed, and the other two are riveted on.  I haven't seen welded on ones though.

Awesome info and input from everyone, thank you.

Keep in mind, I am not using these as strakes.  They are to be metal keel guards for where we drag it.  as mentioned earlier, the rivet heads would be the first to get ground off again.  I also DO have a scrap yard on one of the routes I do, they would give me 3-4  five foot sections for free knowing these guys.

MATTY......Fire that thing up, we got work to do buddy

(On that note, since meeting Matt less than a year ago, he has turned out to be one heck of a friend.  Helping out with CAST events and anything he can do, he does (Welding, etc).  Now he works at UPS with me.  Looking forward to a good long friendship right there. )

Thanks again for all the input guys.

LBH what about looking for some clearance keel shields or keel guards. They are a stick on, we all use them on our glass boats and we routinly run then right up on shore.

This sounds like a good idea to me and a hell of a lot easier.....Al

Where we drag it, and the media we drag it over (ashfault road and rip rap, not beach sand) would torture those.  Plus, I am not sure how pliable they are.  I don't know if I could "fold" it tight enough to fit on the angle involved.  

My original thought was to just weld on 2 ft lengths  of round stock to the rear.  (it is only dragged one rear 1-2 feet due to angle of launch).  File the ends to taper smoothly and be done with it.

This way, If I use 1/4 in stock, I have 1/4 of metal to wear through before replacing as opposed to the thinner thickness of angle aluminum.

Thoughts?

LBH That one time we went out in the Z12 I was amased at what you go through to get that thing off the trailer down a cliff and in the water. Even with the rollers.

I saw a small boat on J pond this year with some sort of 2 wheels back by the small outboard.

Seeing as your pushing 40 and that thing isnt getting any lighter what about making some sort of bracket with 2 lawn mower wheels that just sit a few inches below the bottom. If the bottom is getting thin by all means your aluminum angle iron is needed but think how easy that would move with a couple wheels?

BTW dont ever whip his A_S the first time out on his home lake, he'll never ask's you to go agian. :'(

But it did enjoy that one time ;D

We can grab some AL angle at Home Depot..... I'll fire up the inverter For those looking for a fantastic portable TIG machine, we bought a Miller Dynasty 200 DX a few years ago. What a great machine. We run it on 110v at the shop, more than capable for Aluminum.

After reading through all the replies, I thought we could stitch weld them on...say every 6 inches or so. That way, if (when) they get worn down, we can zip them off with a cutoff wheel and replace.