Maveren shipbuilding and seacraft

Origins

The Maveren originated on the eastern side of the Chadun and Findere continents . Their sea-elf progenitors were a community who, unlike some Sea elves, spent most of their time above water, practicing weather magic and water magic in conjunction with sailing vessels they built themselves. These sea elves might be the first people on this side of the world to improve windward sailing with lateen sail rigs. (A single lateen sail isn't inherently better for windward sailing for a square sail; it was the entire rig that made the dfference.)
The Maveren expanded upon this shipbuilding expertise, and built their own ships with which they eventually moved through the Ottiskil Straits into the western seas. Shipbuilding is still a revered traditional craft amongst the Maveren, of a similar prominence to skaldic poetry. An old-fashioned Maver would scorn being a merchant or artisan, but shipbuilding isn't a craft in their view, it's the essential Maveren art. To the Maveren, shipbuilding is indivisible from sailing and weather magic, at which they're also very good.

Maveren shipbuilding and ship types

In the good old days, around the time Malfa was founded (ca. 350 years ago), Maveren shipwrights worked in hidden locations, so that no other people could see how their ships were made. The jago, the traditional Maveren ship, is a light, shallow, single-masted, cutter-built vessel, with a schooner-like sail rig that was then unique in at least this part of the world. The jago was shockingly, horrifyingly fast and manoeuvrable to the Maveren's targets opponents; a big part of the jagos' effectiveness was the terror they inspired when they appeared over the horizon. For this reason, in order to preserve the mystique, shipbuilding was a secret craft for the Maveren, like smithing in some cultures, or making silk.
This was part of the reason behind The Malfa War, which was fought between those Maveren who had settled permanently at Malfa, and those who were still permanent rovers across the seas. The overseas Maveren objected to the simple fact that, by staying in Malfa, the Maveren there were making their ships consistently observable, so that other people could see and copy them. To the overseas Maveren, this was at least a deeply stupid move, if not a betrayal of their way of life.
The Maveren of Malfa pointed out that the jago, being built for speed and agility, is not stable enough to be naturally well suited to the tempestuous, filled-with-sharp-rocks Hallic Seas. Even if someone else copied the physical design of the jago, they still wouldn't have the other necessary ingredients: superior skills in sailing, and assistance from weather magic. Then there was a war about it.
Eventually, as Malfa's prominence grew, the jago's rig did have an influence on other ship types, such as the cogs and carracks used by other peoples and nations. At the same time, Malfa's increased stability and prosperity meant it had to fight larger wars to defend itself. In response, the Maveren have designed some other, larger ship types—most famously the farrel, a two-masted, schooner-rigged vessel. A few farrels have been built with three masts, but that's as large as the Maveren go.

In the long run, the Maveren's superiority in seacraft has never been seriously challenged, at least in this part of the world. It hasn't really translated into political dominance of the region, largely because the Maveren are relatively few in number, their concerns are insular, and they don't share many common goals even with each other.

Current Maveren shipwrights

The Maveren still build their own ships, and they still do it in "secret," though the general location of the shipyard isn't enormously difficult to figure out if you hang out in the right places in Malfa. Actually going to the shipyard if you're not a Maver, or even figuring out its precise location, is highly inadvisable unless you enjoy being stabbed.
The shipyard used by Malfa Maveren is called just the Sea House, and is located on an island somewhere. Even non-Malfa Maveren don't know where it is exactly.
Since Maveren ships are built only by Maveren, who are relatively few in number and are often doing other things, it takes a while to build a ship, even with magical assistance. New ships aren't launched very often at all. On the other hand, many Maveren ships remain in service for a long, long time—long enough that, like the Ship of Theseus, every individual part of them has been replaced, through art or magic. The "death" of a ship is a big deal.

The social duty of shipbuilding

When Maveren turn fourteen, they are expected and required to "go to sea," in order to start proving themselves by engaging in traditional Maveren activities. In the common imagination, this means fighting, raiding, pillaging, and generally doing violence. The Maveren encourage this perception. In fact, many-to-most young Maveren spend a lot of their teenage years making themselves useful in the Sea House. When they do go to sea (which they do), they mostly act as entry-level orderlies or dogsbodies, keeping watch and relaying orders. Even the Maveren don't immediately commit themselves to violence at age fourteen, unless it comes up, in which case they do.
Some adult Maveren go on to become full-time shipwrights, for at least part of their lives. It's not unheard of amongst long-lived part-sea-elf Maveren to spend a human lifetime as a shipwright, often after retiring from the sea. Most other Maveren are expected to spend some time at the Sea House now and then, at least a little over the course of years. It's not a requirement, but if they don't, they'd better have a good reason for being otherwise occupied.