Wiktionary
a. (context nautical English) (''of a wooden vessel'') Having the planks of the hull laid flush and caulked to make a smooth finish.
WordNet
adj. (of ships) built with flush (rather than overlapping) hull planks [ant: clinker-built]
Usage examples of "carvel-built".
They ship a great deal more water than the southern carvel-built ships, but they are stronger, in the sense that they are more elastic.
She looks to be carvel-built, which could mean she hails from the Middle Sea… the south, anyway.
She looks to be carvel-built, which could mean she hails from the Middle Sea .
She was pretty - fine-grained teak, carvel-built, as smooth as a dolphin's skin - but Stephen's eyes were fixed on the island ahead, as black and jagged a mass of tumbled rock as could be desired and surely uninhabited, but by no means as barren as he had supposed.