Raja Laut - Marine Services

Hull Construction Method

In terms of the method of construction itself, wooden boatbuilding tradition strongly favours carvel planking in which a smooth hull is formed by wooden planks attached to a frame.

This true both in the West and in the East, but in Indonesia there is one twist - here the traditional boat builders have been building their carvel boats for centuries by putting the planking in first, prior to the frames (similar to the clinker method).

In Indonesia, the planks placed edge to edge are "blind edge fastened" to each other using wooden dowels. As the planks are fitted together, frames are then fitted and attached into the hull shape with fastenings. Therefore the planking what Westerners would refer to as "carvel" even though the methodology is similarly to the "clinker"style. This is a style which produces a very strong wooden hull. The clinker style produces a relatively light structure that is quite rigid.