Austronesian vessels are the traditional seafaring vessels of the Austronesian peoples of Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, Micronesia, coastal New Guinea, Island Melanesia, Polynesia, and Madagascar. They also include indigenous ethnic minorities in Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Hainan, the Comoros, and the Torres Strait Islands.
Taumako single-outrigger tepukei, an example of the basic mastless crab claw sail
Motuan catamaran lakatoi with crab claw sails on fixed masts
Ipanitika of the Tao people of Taiwan
The Kapal Nur Al Marege, a Makassar padewakang from Indonesia
Lashed-lug boats are ancient boat-building techniques of the Austronesian peoples. It is characterized by the use of raised lugs on the inner face of hull planks. These lugs have holes drilled in them so that other hull components such as ribs, thwarts or other structural components can be tied to them with natural fiber ropes. This allows a structure to be put together without any metal fastenings. The planks are further stitched together edge-to-edge by sewing or using dowels ("treenails") unto a dugout keel and the solid carved wood pieces that form the caps for the prow and stern. Characteristically, the shell of the boat is created first, prior to being lashed unto ribs. The seams between planks are also sealed with absorbent tapa bark and fiber that expands when wet or caulked with resin-based preparations.
Planks from one of the balangay burial boats (c.320–1250 CE) in the Butuan National Museum in the Philippines showing the holes on the edges where dowels were inserted
Nydam boat (Denmark), showing frames which are lashed to cleats (lugs) on the hull planking