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A boat is both an item and a vehicle entity.

Obtaining

Boats can be retrieved by repetitively attacking them.

Crafting

Ingredients Crafting recipe Description
Matching Wood Planks

[Java and Legacy Console editions only]
Matching Wood Planks +
Wooden Shovel

Shovel represents an oar. ‌[Pocket Edition only]

Controls

Press the use item button on the boat to mount it.

A boat can be exited by pressing the sneak key,‌[Java Edition only] pressing down the right analog stick,‌[Legacy Console Edition only] tapping on the "Leave Boat" button,‌[Pocket Edition only] or pressing the jump key.[Windows 10 Edition only] 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. If possible from the dismounting position, the exiting player will be placed on land.

In the Java Edition, boats are controlled using the forward, left (turns left), right (turns right), and backwards keys. Using the sprint key will increase the field of vision, but will not increase speed as if sprinting.

In Pocket Edition, two buttons for steering appear, and in Windows 10, the left and right keys are used. The right button or key steers to the left, and the left button or key steers to the right. Pressing both buttons move the boat forward.

Behavior

Boats

Boats in the Pocket edition.

Boats move according to the player's control or water currents. Boats have the same speed as minecarts. If on land, a boat may still be controlled but extremely slowly. A boat does not turn with mouse-look. A player cannot both move (row) and use items at the same time.

Boats can be used to safely travel through water, and will not be damaged from collisions or from falling. If a boat runs into a lily pad, the block will be broken.

A player will not sustain damage when falling from heights whilst riding a boat.

Boats effectively have just over 4♥♥ (exactly 4 damage isn't quite enough to destroy it), and regenerate 110 per tick. When on the ground, they have 0.455 the height of a block.

If a boat is pushed under water, for instance if moved under a waterfall, or if moved up or down into a current, it will sink.

Boats can support two riders, including mobs. Only the player/mob that boarded first can control the boat. Mobs can't exit a boat and are trapped till the boat gets destroyed.

Riding a boat will not deplete hunger.

Java / Console Editions

Boats move extremely fast while on ice. When moving fast enough, there will be "water spray" visual effect representing the bow wake. Being in a boat limits the player's mouse-look to the forward 180 degree arc. A boat will break snow layers that it runs into. Players receive no fall damage if falling in a boat.

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 walk directly on top of it. A mob cannot control the boat.

Pocket Edition

A sunken boat will float again when it emerges from the current or the waterfall that is 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 attacked, a boat drops its item form.

When crashed, however, it drops 3 wood planks corresponding to the wood type of the boat, and 2 sticks.

Fuel

A boat can be used as fuel in furnaces, smelting 2‌[Java and Legacy Console editions only] or 6‌[Pocket Edition only] items per boat.

Data values

Entity data

See also: Chunk format

Boats have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the entity. Their entity ID is boat.

  • Entity data
    • Tags common to all boats
    • Tags common to all entities

Boat Type

Main article: Boat/DV
[edit]

ID

Main article: Data values

Boat/ID

History

alpha
1.0.6 Added boats.
beta
1.6.6Crashing into soul sand on a boat will kill the player, but keep the boat intact.
1.8It is possible to score a critical hit against a boat.
release
1.3.112w15aBoats can be shot out from dispensers.
12w21aBoats will no longer take damage when colliding with lily pads. Instead, the lily pads themselves will break.
12w23aBoats can accelerate to faster than previous speeds, and are now easier to control.
12w27aBoats will now drop their item instead of wood planks and sticks if broken by a player.
1.6.1?New boat physics with lower inertia, but left, back and right controls were removed.
Boats will now take damage and break when colliding with many lily pads in a short time.
1.7.213w36aCan /summon mobs riding boats, though at this point mobs cannot control boats.
13w43aNo longer inflict fall damage when running aground.
Slightly improved boats being broken by lily pads.
Left, back and right controls added again.
1.814w06aMobs riding boats can control them, so that they can chase or flee enemies, move toward food, move about randomly, or whatever they would do on land. The exceptions are the ghast and bat, which cannot control boats.
1.8.21.8.2-pre2Boats can survive crashes at higher speeds.
1.915w41a Boats overhauled. They are now larger, feature models of wooden oars on both sides, and can hold two passengers. They also are not destroyed by collisions while in the water, and do not suffer as much from client-server desync.
Mobs can now board boats, though they can no longer control them.
A new set of controls was introduced: it included holding down the right and left keys to move forward, and using the right key to move the right oar, turning the boat to the left (and vice-versa). Mouse movement no longer turned boats, and the forward and back keys no longer had any effect. All this was changed in 16w04a.
Players could no longer use items or attack from boats unless they were at a complete stop. This was changed in 15w42a.
Crafting recipe was changed to require a wooden shovel as shown below. This was later reverted in 16w04a.
Added variants of all wood types, though only the oak boat can be crafted.
NBT tag Type (string) is added for the Boat entity, taking values oak, spruce, birch, jungle, acacia and dark_oak.
15w42aBirch, spruce, acacia and jungle boats can now be crafted using the same recipe as oak, except with the corresponding planks.
The new boats are now comparable in speed to the old boats (slightly faster than sprinting), though with less momentum.
Players can now use items and attack immediately after they stop rowing.
15w43cBoat texture is remapped, so that they now have a separate texture per oar and per side of the boat.
15w45aThe dark oak boat can now be crafted.
15w51aBoats now drop their corresponding planks when broken.
16w04aBoats are faster and will now move forward and backward using the forward and backward keys respectively, and will steer left and right using the left and right keys respectively. The rowing mechanism introduced in 15w41a, holding the right and left keys, is removed and no longer moves the boat forward. The controls are now more similar to boats before the overhaul.
Boats now sink when underwater, or within flowing water of any depth.
Crafting is restored to the original recipe, no longer requiring a wooden shovel as it had since 15w41a (though matching wood planks is still required).
Riding a boat no longer subjects water-sensitive mobs to being damaged by water, and no longer protects sunlight-sensitive mobs from being damaged by sunlight.
Dismounting now attempts to place the player on land.
16w06aRiding entities such as boats are now run by the client rather than by the server.
1.1116w32aChanged entity ID from Boat to boat.
16w33aBoats can now be used to fuel furnaces.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.11.0September 19, 2014Tommaso Checchi tweeted a picture of a player riding a boat, stating that the most important thing is to "get the paddling right".
January 26, 2015Tommaso Checchi tweets a screenshot of multiple riders in a single boat.
February 20, 2015Tommaso Checchi tweets a screenshot of multiple boats with only mobs in them.
build 1 Added boats. Each wood type has its own respective variant, though they share the same sprite as items.
Boats can support two riders, including mobs.
Boats are larger in size.
Are more resistant to crashing against land.
build 12Projectiles can now be shot from boats.
0.12.1build 1Added all boat variants to the creative inventory.
New inventory icons for boats. The sprite now includes paddles and represents their respective wood color.
0.13.0build 1Boats are now slightly faster than sprinting, and will no longer deplete hunger.
Players can now use items and attack immediately after they stop rowing.
build 3Boats will now stack on top of each other.
pocket upcoming
1.2build 7Boats now move faster on ice.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1CU1 1.0 Patch 1 Added boats.
TU12Increased maximum number of boats in a world to 40.
Boats will now break when it hits land hard.
TU14 1.04 Are not broken by lily pads anymore, instead they run straight through the lily pad now, breaking and sometimes dropping it.
When they crash they can sometimes drop themselves.
Are less glitchy and more responsive now.
Increased maximum speed.
When exiting, players will be moved from the boat.
When broken by a player, they drop a boat now.
TU46CU36 1.38 Patch 15 Boats overhauled to match Java Editions 1.9 boats.

Issues

Issues relating to "Boat" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia

  • A chest is short enough that a boat will fall onto it rather than crashing into it.
  • Sand, 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. If this is used in the nether, the boat can be used for fast travelling

Gallery

See also

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