Scantlings Rule for Modern and Traditional Carvel Construction

Carvel planked construction forms are very old. Carvel planked trading vessels sailed the seas of the ancient world long before anyone thought to write down anything about even the military vessels of the times. The history of this form is measured in thousands of years and has been used around the world. Possibly no one thought to dedicate the first written records to carvel ship construction simply because it was so "old fashioned" as to be uninteresting to these early scholars.

As covered here carvel planking refers to a smooth skin of longitudinal planks fastened to transverse frames. The skin may be single or double planked. The seams may be caulked, "tight" or glued. The plank may be wide or narrow. The fastenings may be wooden pegs with wedges in the ends, called trunnels, bronze screws, copper rivits, hand wrought nails, or almost anything else. Frames may be sawn from grown crooks of timber, double sawn from more ordinary lumber, steam bent, or laminated.

Variations in fastenings, framing types and spacing, and planking variations have made carvel planking quite confusing, especially for people trying to judge a vessel constructed with a different set of methods than what they are used to. We hope this rule will be of use to everyone interested in scantlings for Carvel Planked vessels.

The contents of the rule are:

• Introduction
• Formulation of the Rule
• The Knowledge Pool
• General Intent
• Basis for Calculations
• Planking
• Frames, Steam Bent
• Frames, Sawn or Double
• Frames, Laminated
• Deck Planking & Beams
• Longitudinal Members
• Transverse Members
• Mast Steps
• Mast Partners
• Deck Blocking
• Fastenings
• Carvel Planked Scantlings Spreadsheet
• Table of Displacements for Use with the Rule
• Minimum Bending Radii for Various Thicknesses of Wood
• Fastenings Diameter vs. Fastenings Area

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