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STRAKE
Open sea by day: a long swell running towards you under a pale sky, a breeze feathering the water and sunlight scattered across it.

Drawn for open water.

Over the sea, in red lead, the lines of Hull 00: her sheer, her waterline and her eleven stations, with 00 painted at her bow. Along her sheer: the first line an owner falls for, and the last one we stop adjusting. Along her waterline: where she will float, loaded for sea.

Strake designs and builds sailing and motor yachts to order, in our own hall on the Port River at Port Adelaide. Every line of her is faired by eye, for one owner and the water they mean to cross.

Open water by day: a long swell, and a sea breeze filling in.

Over the water, her sheer and her stations; below the line, the rest of her drawing. Her lines are written, not labelled: read them the way we fair them, slowly, bow to stern.

STN 1

Bow to stern

A yacht is drawn at eleven stations, bow to stern. So is this page.

Strake draws and builds sailing and motor yachts to order. Each is drawn from a blank sheet, for one owner and the water they mean to use.

The drawing office and the hall are under one roof on the Port River, so the people who draw her lines walk down and check them against the frames. An owner talks to both.

  1. 0Open water
  2. 1Bow to stern
  3. 2The water first
  4. 3Her sheer, and where she floats
  5. 4In a seaway
  6. 5Read the batten
  7. 6The frames stand up
  8. 7Sail, or motor
  9. 8From a first conversation to her marks
  10. 9Owners ask
  11. 10Tell us about the water
AThe body plan is the boat cut straight across at every station, the slices laid over one another like the leaves of a closed book. Here each slice is a part of this page.

STN 2

The water first

Before we draw a boat we draw her water. Not a picture of it: the sea taken apart into the swells it is made of.

Add them together and you have the line at the foot of this drawing, the sea she will actually meet. Everything below it on this page, from her sheer to her quarters, is an answer to that line.

  1. AThe long lines are swell: sea made by weather a long way off. They decide how she pitches, and whether a day's passage leaves you rested or worn.
  2. BThe short lines are wind waves, made where she is, today. They decide how much water comes aboard and how the helm feels in your hands.

STN 3

Her sheer, and where she floats

Renderings come after the drawing, because the drawing decides how she behaves. Every line here says what it is. Read along them, bow to stern.

From the side

  1. This is where she will float, loaded for sea, and every other line on the drawing is measured from it.
  2. The sheer is the deck edge seen from the side: the first line an owner falls for, and the last one we stop adjusting.
  3. A little higher, the same cut again, the way she sits when she has everything aboard.
  4. A little lower, the same cut again, for the day she sails light.
  5. Near her centreline, the run: how quietly the water leaves her.
  6. Further out, the cut rises clean from under the quarter.

From above

  1. From above, the deck edge: fine at the bow, fullest a little aft of the middle, drawn in again to the transom.
  2. Just above her marks, the shape she has when she carries all she can.
  3. At her marks, the waterplane itself: its breadth steadies her, and its shape is how she settles.
  4. Lower down she narrows, and the fullness arrives gradually, the way a tide comes in.
  5. Deepest of all, the shortest line: where the water parts for her, and closes behind.
  1. AThe stem is raked forward, so she lifts to a sea instead of cutting into it.
  2. BThe fin carries her weight low and gives her something to lean on.
  3. CThe rudder hangs well aft, deep enough to keep its grip when she heels.
  4. DWe draw one side only; she is the same on the other.

STN 4

In a seaway

Choose a station

The stem. Where she meets the water first. Raked a little forward, it lifts her bow away from a sea instead of cutting down into it.

The entry. Fine, and a little hollow, so she parts a head sea quietly. Make it too fine and she puts her bow into the next wave instead of rising to it.

The shoulder. Here the fullness starts to arrive. If it comes too early she will pound; we bring it in gradually, the way a tide comes in.

Forward of the keel. The sections deepen and soften. She begins to carry her weight here, and the forward cabin lives in this slice.

The leading edge of the fin. The canoe body is near its deepest, and the keel starts to take hold of the water.

Amidships. Her fullest section, and the one every other must agree with. A firm turn of bilge lets her stand up to her sail; a softer one lets her ease over a sea rather than argue with it. Displacement is decided here, in plain terms: the weight of the boat, told as the water she pushes aside.

Just aft of the middle. The quietest place aboard. We keep the heavy things between here and station four, where the motion is least.

The run begins. The sections flatten and lift, so the water can leave her without dragging.

The quarters. Enough bearing here keeps her from squatting and wandering in a following sea.

The rudder. The spade hangs here, far enough aft to steer her and deep enough to keep its grip when she heels.

The transom. Where she lets the water go. Cut clean and just above it, so at rest it is dry and under way the wake leaves quietly.

Red: the station you are reading about.

The eye forgives a small unfairness. The water doesn't, and on a long night a day out from land, neither will you.

STN 5

Read the batten

Duck 3 is pulling the batten out of fair. Ease it, and watch the words settle before the line does.

A thin timber batten bent in a fair curve across drafting paper, held down by four lead ducks.

Drag a duck, or tab to one and use the arrow keys.

The batten moves when the page has its script.

A batten is a long, springy strip of clear timber; ducks are lead weights with a hooked nose. You let the timber find the curve, move one duck a hair's breadth at a time until nothing kinks, then sight along it low, like down a plank. Anything you can see there, the water will find later.

The screen does the arithmetic now. The eye still decides.

A strake is one of the long runs of planking or plating from bow to stern, and every one of them has to lie as fair as this.

STN 6

The frames stand up

The frames of a yacht standing on their strongback in the hall, with long battens run over them, seen from the bow end.

Lofting

Every station is drawn full size before anything is cut, because a curve that looks fair on paper can hide a flat the size of a hand.

The frames

They are cut to those stations and stood up on the strongback in our hall on the Port River, and battens are run over them to prove the lines one last time. This is the day an owner first walks along her shape at full size.

STN 7

Sail, or motor

Sail

Heeled, a sailing hull is a different shape from the one on the drawing, so we fair her upright and heeled, and she is as easy at a steady heel as on the mooring.

The fin and the ballast in it are what let her stand up to a breeze.

Motor

A fine entry, a firmer turn of bilge and a flatter run aft, with the weight kept low and amidships, for a boat that meets a head sea without slamming and a following sea without wandering.

We draw her engine room and her tanks with her lines, not after them, so she floats level and stays that way as the tanks run down.

Not sure yet? Start with where she will go. The water usually decides.

STN 8

From a first conversation to her marks

A yacht hull in grey primer standing in her building cradle in the hall, a fine painted stripe running along below her sheer.

  1. The water first

    Where she will go, who will be aboard, and the seas you want to be comfortable in. We listen before we draw anything.

  2. A brief on one page

    Accommodation, rig or engines, and how she is to be handled and by whom. One page, in your words and ours.

  3. The lines

    Sheer, waterlines and stations, faired by batten and then on screen until both agree. We walk you through them before anything is built.

  4. Structure and weights

    Frames, plating and systems are drawn together so nothing fights. Every weight is added up, so she floats where the lines say.

  5. Built in our hall

    Lofted, framed, plated, faired and fitted out under one roof. Owners are welcome to walk the hall at any stage, arranged through the form.

  6. Afloat, then sea trials

    She goes into the river on the morning tide and settles to her marks. Then out to the gulf, to learn whether she feels the way the drawing said she would.

A newly finished sloop afloat at first light, her mainsail furled under its cover, lying just off a quiet wharf with mist on the river.
Her marks are the waterline her drawing gave her. The drawing office checks she lies where the lines said she would.

STN 9

Owners ask

How long does a boat take?

It depends on her size and her systems. A schedule follows once the lines are agreed, and it is the drawing that sets it.

Can I come to the hall?

Yes. Ask through the form and we will arrange a time to walk the hall and the drawing office.

Sail or motor, if I'm not sure?

We draw both. Start with where you will go and who will come.

Do you only build your own designs?

We draw every boat we build, so the lines and the hall answer to each other. If you bring lines from another office, they still have to satisfy our batten.

What happens to the drawings?

They stay with the boat. An owner is given her lines, and a copy stays in our drawing office, so anyone who works on her later can read her.

STN 10

Tell us about the water

This form isn't connected: what you write here stays in your browser.

However you'd like us to answer.

Sail or motor

Say: the two of us, and family at weekends.

In your own words: easy, dry, lively, steady.

The hour you chose

Day: a long swell, and a sea breeze filling in