"Rubbing strakes"?

alant said:
Yes HR have their strakes below "deck level", but not in any position where they might be useful when mooring onto a pontoon.
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My HR strake was a boon when a German motorsailor dragged down onto me in a Croatian anchorage in a 60 knot bora gale in 2012. His tethered RIB wound around my anchor chain and prevented him powering away but brought him crashing against my hull with some severe impacts. The strake is a very substantial protusion in the topside capped with a bronze strip that took the major shocks but his gangway subsequently took away my guard-rails and splintered the massive teak capping rail. I'm sure the 'rubbing-strake' defended me from some considerable hull damage.

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Tranona said:
What is the point of that statement? They build boats that suit the conditions in their market - how sensible! Just the same as UK builders built boats for the UK market that buyers in other countries did not find attractive. On the other hand it is clear that many people outside Scandinavia do find their boats attractive and still buy them.
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Exactly. And some other Scandinavian features are less attractive here just as cosy (poorly ventilated) cabins and safe (small, deep) cockpits on traditional British boats were unsuited to the Med. Our Swedish boat is clearly designed to anchor by the stern in the Scandinavian fashion, with a dedicated stern anchor locker and windlass plinth (albeit no windlass fitted for the British market), whereas the bow roller is fairly small and the bow anchor locker has no good place for a windlass, further compounded by stowing the gas bottles there.

Pete
 
mjcoon said:
Having two boats rafted both with rubbing strakes sounds like a terrible idea. They would mash each other up as the boats rolled (unless at very different heights above the water).
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There should be fenders in between.

The same problem, though, is why a rubbing strake makes little sense for pontoons even if it was mounted lower like Alan wants. Two horizontal edges (rubbing strake and pontoon lip, or two rubbing strakes) don't go together, same as two vertical ones (pile and conventional fender) don't. To fend off effectively you need a vertical edge crossing a horizontal one, which is why we hang vertical cylindrical fenders against our pontoon edges and other boats' gunwales, and the Scandiwegians put horizontal strakes to rub along their vertical piles.

Also note that a strake at pontoon level would be creating drag in the water as soon as you heeled a bit.

Pete
 
The metal strake on my HR 34 doesn't present a problem to boats coming alongside generally. The topsides at that level are fairly vertical, and fenders will normally stay in place. The strake doesn't come into play in UK sailing, but is indispensible in the Baltic and much of Holland, so much so that boats going there will often fit a strake if not already present, as a friend did with his Hanse, or have to put up with deploying a rope along the sides below the toe-rail.

The only boat I have had trouble with mooring against, other than Dutch boats with leeboards, was a Legend from About 15yrs ago. The topsides were flared, somewhat like a motorboat, and a metal strake fitted at the widest point. This was exactly at the level of my blue stripe and because of its shape, fenders just flipped off. Since it was my neighbour in the marina and its owner incompetent, I had to arrange for a change of berth.
 
Most of the berths in Empuriabrava are box moorings and my Furia's metal toerail goes over the hull/deck joint, effectively forming a rubbing strake. Unfortunately, there are large bolt heads protruding under each stanchion base so I make sure I'm well fendered coming alongside anything.
 
Barnac1e said:
My HR strake was a boon when a German motorsailor dragged down onto me in a Croatian anchorage in a 60 knot bora gale in 2012. His tethered RIB wound around my anchor chain and prevented him powering away but brought him crashing against my hull with some severe impacts. The strake is a very substantial protusion in the topside capped with a bronze strip that took the major shocks but his gangway subsequently took away my guard-rails and splintered the massive teak capping rail. I'm sure the 'rubbing-strake' defended me from some considerable hull damage.

.
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Hardly something the boatbuilders could foresee.
 
Barnac1e said:
My HR strake was a boon when a German motorsailor dragged down onto me in a Croatian anchorage in a 60 knot bora gale in 2012. His tethered RIB wound around my anchor chain and prevented him powering away but brought him crashing against my hull with some severe impacts. The strake is a very substantial protusion in the topside capped with a bronze strip that took the major shocks but his gangway subsequently took away my guard-rails and splintered the massive teak capping rail. I'm sure the 'rubbing-strake' defended me from some considerable hull damage.

.
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Hardly something the boatbuilders could foresee.
 
A simple act, querying rubbing strakes position on a hull, creates such friction. The thread is this place in a microcosm.
 
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