Carvel (boat Building)

Carvel (boat Building)

In boat building, carvel built or carvel planking is a method of constructing wooden boats and tall ships by fixing planks to a frame so that the planks butt up against each other, edge to edge, gaining support from the frame and forming a smoother hull. Such planking usually require caulking between the joints over and above that needed by the clinker built technology, but gives a stronger hull capable of taking a variety of full-rigged sail plans, albeit one of greater weight. On the upside, Carvel built construction enables greater length and breadth of hull as well as superior sail rigs because of its strong framing, and is one of the most critical development that enabled the centuries long dominance of the powers of Western Europe in the Age of Sail and beyond.

Carvel developed through transition from the age-old Mediterranean mortise and tenon joint method to the skeleton-first hull building technique which gradually emerged in the medieval period.