Boat

A boat is an item that first appeared in the "Seecret Friday Update 5" to Alpha mode. Currently, boats can only be found in Beta mode.

A boat can be crafted from 5 wooden planks in the pattern below:

Once crafted, a boat may be placed anywhere in water or on land by right-clicking, but cannot be recovered once placed. You can also place a boat in lava, but if you try to ride it you will instantly die and the boat will break.

Riding boats
Like minecarts, a boat may be right-clicked to enter or exit. Since Boats do not operate on tracks, they move accordingly to the player's control or a water current. The boat also moves significantly faster than a player on water but is slower than a Minecart. If on land, a boat may still be controlled but extremely slowly.

Boats are controlled by the player's movement keys: they will accelerate slowly in the same direction the player would move if they were not in the boat. Boats also turn to always face in the direction of movement. Therefore, pressing the forward and right keys, for example, will result in moving in a curve as the boat swings to the right, changing your “push” direction.

Boats change direction when they come in contact with a player, another boat, or a mob.

If you attempt to go through a spot with only 1 block of air between the water and ceiling, the boat (and you) will successfully pass through, but you will take suffocation damage.

If you enter sneak mode while on a boat, the boat will not break on impact while traveling at high speed. It's also recommended to bring a few spares if you are planning any kind of lengthy boat journey.

Boat physics
Boats behave much like off-track minecarts; they can be pushed around slowly on solid blocks, are easily pushed around by water currents, and always face the direction they last moved.

Boats are fragile; they accumulate damage by being hit or crashing into blocks. After taking enough damage, the boat will break, dropping 3 Wooden Planks and 2 Sticks. Since they do not drop boat resources, boats cannot be picked up and reused like minecarts.

If you crash a boat into another boat, the boat being ridden will be destroyed while the other one will just bump away. Boats do not break when crashing into Soul Sand, so it is recommended to make docks and harbors out of soul sand.

Doors can be used to control the movement of boats, such as blocking them into docks or preventing them from following a current until the door is opened. This technique is often used to build boat dispensers.

Boats cannot be swamped by going underwater: they will rise upward whenever they are in water. As a result, a vertical column of water can serve as an elevator for boats, as part of a flume ride, long-distance transport, or boat dispenser. View the Tutorials page for more information on elevators and ladders made with water and Boats.

Canal
Canals, consisting of a series of trenches dug on land filled with flowing water, are a possible method of transportation across large distances using boats. A canal transportation system is more time-consuming to construct, but more energy-efficient than a rail transportation system. Double doors, ladders, pressure plates, and reeds can be used as consecutive locks on the canal to control the direction of the flow of water in a canal to construct a flowing fully horizontal waterway. Locks can also be used for boat lifts between different elevation of water. (For real life examples, see Wikipedia's canal, lock (water transport), and boat lift.)

Examples

 * A video of boat riding
 * A video of a simple boat elevator for transportation

Boot