tomodda wrote:Well, as long as we're picking nits (my favorite game!),
Miriam-Webster:
cleat noun
\ ˈklēt \
Definition of cleat (Entry 1 of 2)
1a : a wedge-shaped piece fastened to or projecting from something and serving as a support or check
b : a wooden or metal fitting usually with two projecting horns around which a rope may be made fast
2a : a strip fastened across something to give strength or hold in position
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OK, this nit is thoroughly picked! In reality, they are pretty much interchangeable terms.
On a wooden boat, that actually has frames, a stringer, running horizontally, would tie them together; my understanding was that for fiberglass boats such terminology usage was effectively "by analogy". Therefore, any long strip or reinforcement placed against the hull and running longitudinally would also be called a stringer.
On a wooden boat, if you had (usually several) stringers and used one of them to also attach a seat or thwart, it would still be called a stringer.
I checked with the Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea, which is normally an excellent reference to nautical usage, and found this:
- piece of wood or metal with two arms placed at convenient stations on board ship, or on a yacht, to which ropes or falls can be made fast by taking two or three turns under and over the arms.
- Small wedges of elm or oak fastened to the yards of square-rigged sailing ships to prevent ropes or the earings of the sails from slipping off the yard. See also thumb cleat.
From: cleat in The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea
Notice the focus on the "small wedge" aspect for the second meaning, but that like the horn cleat, these also are used with ropes. Now, thinking over this, I might agree that this usage may allow expansion to a triangular support that's smaller than a bracket. For example, if the thwarts were supported at their hull end by a triangular piece of wood no longer than their width. (In wooden boat building, where you need to extensively shape most parts anyway, I can see someone taking the time to make such a piece a true o partial wedge to accommodate the angle of the hull while presenting a flat surface to support a thwart).
There may be other terms for short pieces of wood that act as supports to seats or shelves on board, but I've not been able to find any. Many online dictionaries are rather hopeless (e.g. cleat only being known in the context of shoes...).
However, if I understand your description correctly, the seats are supported by a continuous piece of wood 1x1/5" running the length of the seat. I would definitely tend to call that a stringer, even if in a fiberglass boat there's no need to tie frames together.