Boat

A boat is both an item and a vehicle entity.

Obtaining
Boats can be retrieved by repeatedly them until they drop as an item. Tools and Weapons with damage above 4 can instantly destroy a boat in one swipe.

Controls
Press the button on the boat to mount it.

A boat can be exited by pressing the key, and, $$, by pressing down the right analog stick, tapping on the "Leave Boat" button, or pressing the  key. When exiting a boat, the player is placed in the direction the player is facing, or, if facing directly up or down, the player is placed in front of the boat. The exiting player is placed on land if that is possible from the dismounting position.

With a keyboard or gamepad, boats are controlled using the, (turns left),  (turns right), and  keys. Using the key increases the field of vision, but does not increase speed as if sprinting.

With touchscreen controls, two buttons for steering appear. The right button or key steers to the left, and the left button or key steers to the right. Pressing both buttons moves the boat forward.

Unlike with beds, there is no message above the hotbar for attempting to enter a fully occupied boat.

Behavior


Boats move according to the player's control or water currents. Boats have a speed of 8 meters/sec (28.8 km/h), same as minecart following an axis of travel. If on land, a boat may still be controlled but extremely slowly with a top speed of 2 m/s (7.2 km/h). A boat does not turn with mouse-look.

A player cannot both move (row) and use items at the same time. Note that it is still possible to initialise an item use (e.g. start eating) and row the boat while the item is still in the middle of the use animation. Although the boating animation overrides the item use animation, the item can still be successfully consumed. Does not work with items that are triggered by the release of the use button (e.g. bow, trident).

Boats can be used to travel safely through water. Collisions do not damage boats.

Boats effectively have just over (exactly 4 damage is not quite enough to destroy it), and regenerate $1/10$ per tick. This damage can be depleted by many of the things that affect most mobs, except that boats are immune to fall damage.

When on the ground, they have 0.455 the height of a block.

If a boat is pushed underwater, for instance, if moved under a bubble column or waterfall, it sinks. $$, a sunken boat must be broken and picked up to use it again.

Boats can support two riders, including mobs. Mobs can't exit a boat and are trapped until the boat gets destroyed, or until the player uses a fishing rod or lead to remove the mob. This can be utilized to safely drown mobs. If the mob is hostile, and in the same boat as its prey, the prey takes damage.

Riding a boat does not deplete hunger, making it an efficient way to travel.

Riding a boat over a lily pad causes the lily pad to drop, although the boat speed will stutter a bit.

Dolphins chase players in boats.

Boats move extremely fast while on ice (40 m/s (144 km/h)), especially blue ice (> 75 m/s (270 km/h)). A mixture of packed ice and blue ice makes for a good fast-travel track for all three dimensions.
 * To help with controlling the boat, crossings in the track may be replaced with a combination of boat-breaking cactus and hoppers . Spacing between the ice is acceptable due to the boat's size.

Being in a boat limits the player's mouse-look to the forward 210° arc.


 * Java Edition
 * When moving fast enough, a "water spray" visual effect represents the bow wake.
 * A sunken boat is sunk forever, unable to be retrieved until it is broken by the player.
 * For mobs to enter a boat, they must be on the side of the boat. A mob cannot control the boat.


 * Bedrock Edition
 * A sunken boat resumes floating when it emerges from the current or the waterfall that was keeping it down.
 * Boats emit smoke when destroyed.
 * Mobs can be 'picked up' by riding a boat near them, and a mob can drive the boat without the aid of the player.

Drops
When destroyed via attacking or other forms of damage such as fire, a boat drops its item form. A boat is not destroyed if it crashes against a block or lily pad, and is immune to fall damage, therefore not dropping anything.

Trading
Master-level fisherman villagers always offer to buy a boat for an emerald. The type of boat depends on the biome outfit type of the villager; plains villagers offer to buy oak boats, taiga and snowy villagers offer to buy spruce boats, savanna villagers offer to buy acacia boats, desert and jungle villager offer to buy jungle boats, and swamp villager offer to buy dark oak boats.

Fuel
When used as fuel in a furnace, a boat lasts 60 seconds, smelting up to 6 items.

Fall damage
In Java Edition, boats can completely nullify fall damage for itself and any players/mobs riding it, making it useful for transportation/travel through mountains or through the Nether. This does not work in Bedrock Edition, however: while the boat survives, its occupants still receive fall damage.

ID




Item data
$$, boats use the following data values:

Entity data
Boats have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the entity.

Trivia

 * A chest is short enough that a boat falls onto it rather than crashes into it.
 * Sand, red sand, concrete powder, gravel, anvils and dragon eggs drop as items when they fall onto a boat that is in water.
 * Boats travel at fast speeds when on ice, packed ice, and frosted ice. They travel even faster on blue ice.
 * The crafting recipes for boats are the only recipes that can be unlocked in the recipe book without having any items, by jumping into water.
 * If the player is standing on a floating boat and the boat is moved, the player's hunger bar decreases.