Boat

A boat is a drivable vehicle entity used primarily for fast transport of players and passenger mobs over bodies of water. Bamboo rafts look different, but function almost identically to other boats.

Obtaining[]

Boats can be crafted with any Overworld planks; crimson and warped planks cannot be used to make boats.^[1]

Boats can be retrieved by repeatedly hitting them until they drop as an item.

Tools and weapons that deal more than 4 damage will instantly destroy a boat in one hit.‌^{[Java Edition only]}

Crafting[]

Usage[]

Boats can be used for the transportation of players and mobs, sold for emeralds, or burnt as fuel.

Crafting[]

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 villagers offer to buy jungle boats, and swamp villagers offer to buy dark oak boats.

Fuel[]

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

Transportation[]

Entering[]

A player enters a boat by using it, if the boat is not fully occupied (boats can hold two entities). Unlike beds, there is no message above the hotbar for attempting to enter a fully occupied boat.^[2]

Exiting[]

A boat can be exited by sneaking or, in Bedrock Edition, pressing down the right analog stick on a controller, tapping the "Leave Boat" button when using touch controls, or jumping. 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 possible from the dismounting position.

Motion[]

Boats do not turn with mouse-look.

With a keyboard or gamepad, boats are controlled using the forward, left (turns left), right (turns right), and backward keys. Using the sprint 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 or keys moves the boat forward.

In Java Edition, boats can be ridden against a current, but cannot be ridden upstream to a higher elevation. A boat lift, usually made from tripwire, pistons, and optionally a slime block, can be used to move a boat up. Bubble columns created with soul sand can also be used to push boats upward. These mechanisms can also be used in Bedrock Edition but are usually unnecessary because boats can be ridden upward in descending water, as well as follow upward stair-step currents.

Behavior[]

Speed[]

Boats move according to the player's control or water currents, with speed affected by the surface traversed. Boats move extremely quickly on ice,^[3] allowing for the construction of fast transportation systems in any dimension.

Floatation[]

A boat floats atop still or flowing water. In Java Edition, a boat sinks if it enters a waterfall.^[4] In Bedrock Edition, a boat does not sink when submerged but floats up. This feature lets a player contrive stepped uphill water flows to propel a boat uphill using only flowing water.

When a boat moves over a bubble column, it begins to shake. If the bubbles are caused by a magma block, all passengers are expelled and the boat sinks.

In Java Edition, a sunken boat cannot be re-floated until a bubble column pushes it up or it is broken by the player. In Bedrock Edition, a boat resumes floating when it emerges from the currents keeping it down, or when the bubble column is blocked or removed.

Dolphins chase players riding a boat in motion, occasionally bumping the boat, causing it to shake briefly.

Destruction[]

As boats are entities, they have health. Boats effectively have just over 4 (exactly 4 damage is not quite enough to destroy a boat), and regenerate ¹⁄₁₀ per game tick.

Boats can be destroyed by explosions, fire and lava (but not magma blocks), cactus, and by being punched by mobs, such as Drowned. Boats made invulnerable with commands cannot be broken by any of these, but they still cannot be used to travel on lava because they sink.

When a boat is destroyed under normal conditions, it drops itself in item form. In certain conditions, such as when falling for exactly 12, 13, 49, 51, 111, 114, 198, 202, 310, or 315 blocks,^[5] it drops two sticks and three planks upon being destroyed.

Passengers[]

Boats can support two riders, including mobs. Except for endermen in Bedrock Edition, a mob cannot exit a boat and is trapped until the boat gets destroyed, or until the player uses a fishing rod or lead to remove the mob. This can be used to transport mobs, although hostile mobs still attack while in boats. Mobs riding a boat don't despawn‌^{[Java Edition only]} and don't count toward the mob cap.^[6]

A player cannot both move (row) and use items at the same time. It is still possible to initialize item use (e.g. start eating) and row the boat while the item is still in the middle of the use animation. Although the rowing animation overrides the item use animation, the item can still be successfully consumed. This does not work with items that are triggered by the release of the use button (such as bows and tridents).‌^{[Java Edition only]}

Being in a boat limits the player's mouse-look to the forward 210° arc in Java Edition and 180° in Bedrock Edition.

Underwater boat cannot be ridden. When the boat is underwater, all passengers in it are expelled.

Damage prevention[]

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

Boats can completely nullify fall damage for themselves and any players/mobs inside, making them useful for travel through mountains or through the Nether.^[7][8] However in Java Edition, due to a bug, boats can break when falling from certain heights, and the riders take fall damage.^[5]

Collision[]

A boat has a solid collision box, which means players and other entities can't go through it even with high speed. Falling blocks are also blocked by boats.

In Java Edition, a boat falling on top of an entity stops on top of the entity. in Bedrock Edition, a falling boat can go through other entities.

Riding a boat over a lily pad causes the lily pad to drop, although the boat's speed stutters a bit.

Mobs[]

Most mobs can ride boats. Mobs cannot exit the boat unless the boat is destroyed, sinks, or moves over a bubble column. However, in Bedrock Edition, endermen are able to teleport out of boats.

Mobs can be picked up into the boat when they collide with the side of the boat. A mob cannot control the boat. In Java Edition, a boat being ridden by a player cannot pick up a mob. In Bedrock Edition, mobs can be picked up by a boat being ridden by a player.

Mobs wider than the width of a boat cannot be picked up by a boat. Wardens, and withers cannot be picked up by a boat. In Java Edition, baby sniffers cannot be picked up either.

Lead[]

Leads can be attached to boats, though the lead can break when stretched too far due to boats moving much slower on land.

Sounds[]

Java Edition:
Boats use the Friendly Creatures sound category for entity-dependent sound events.

Bedrock Edition:

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Entity data[]

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

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Achievements[]

Advancements[]

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
	Whatever Floats Your Goat!	Get in a Boat and float with a Goat	Husbandry	Enter a boat or a raft with a goat.	husbandry/ride_a_boat_with_a_goat

History[]

Java Edition Alpha
v1.0.6					Added boats.
					Initially, boats broke upon being placed outside water, and on impact with land.
v1.0.6_01					Boats now only break on impact with land at high speeds.
					Boats no longer break upon being placed outside water.
					Boat turning has been made smoother.
Java Edition Beta
1.8		Pre-release			It is now possible to score a critical hit against a boat.
Java Edition
1.3.1		12w15a			Boats can now be shot out from dispensers.
		1.3			The texture of the oak boat item has been changed.
		12w21a			Boats no longer take damage when colliding with lily pads. Instead, the lily pads themselves break.
		12w23a			Boats can now accelerate to faster than previous speeds, and are now easier to control.
		12w27a			Boats now drop their item instead of 3 oak wood planks and 2 sticks if broken by a player.
					Instead, it needs to fall certain heights to drop 3 oak wood planks and 2 sticks.
1.6.1		13w16b			New boat physics with lower inertia, but left, back and right controls have been removed.
					Boats now take damage and break when colliding with many lily pads in a short time.
1.7.2		13w36a			Players can now /summon mobs riding boats, though mobs cannot control boats.
		13w43a			Boats no longer inflict fall damage when running aground.
					Boats being broken by lily pads has been slightly improved.
					Left, back and right controls added again.
1.8		14w06a			Mobs riding boats can now 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, both of which cannot control boats.
1.8.2		pre2			Boats can now survive crashes at higher speeds.
1.9		15w41a			Boats have been overhauled to match the boats from Pocket Edition Alpha 0.11.0. They now have oars for paddling and are more durable and now allows passengers to board.
					Mobs can now board boats, though they can no longer control them.
					A new set of controls have been introduced: it includes 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 turns boats, and the forward and back keys no longer have any effect.
					Players can no longer use items or attack from boats unless they were at a complete stop.
					The crafting recipe for boats has been changed to require a wooden shovel as shown below. Recipe Ingredients Crafting recipe Oak Planks + Wooden Shovel
					The NBT tag Type (string) have now added for the boat entity, taking values oak, spruce, birch, jungle, acacia and dark_oak.
					Boats no longer break snow layers they run into.
		15w42a			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.
		15w43c			The texture of boats has been remapped, so that they now have a separate texture per oar and per side of the boat.
		15w51a			Boats now drop their corresponding planks when broken.
		16w04a			Boats are now faster and now move forward and backward using the forward and backward keys respectively, and 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.
					The crafting recipe of boats has been restored to the original recipe, no longer requiring a wooden shovel as it has 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 in a boat now attempts to place the player on land.
		16w05a			Boats now travel extremely fast on ice, packed ice and frosted ice.[3]
		16w06a			Riding entities such as boats are now run by the client rather than by the server.
1.11		16w32a			The entity ID has been changed from Boat to boat.
					The player's hunger bar is now visible when riding in a boat.
		16w33a			Boats can now be used to fuel furnaces.
		16w39c			Boats placed by dispensers now face the same way as the dispenser, instead of toward the dispenser.[9]
1.12		17w17a			A boat paddles sound has been added.
1.13		17w47a			The oak boat ID has been changed from boat to oak_boat.
					Prior to The Flattening, these items' numeral IDs were 333, 444, 445, 446, 447 and 448.
		18w15a			Added blue ice, which allows boats to travel even faster on it.
1.14		18w43a			The textures of all boats have been changed.
		18w50a			The textures of all boats have been changed to match the new planks.
		19w11a			Fisherman villagers now buy boats.
1.15		19w37a			Boats as fuel now smelt 6 items in a furnace instead of 1.
1.16		20w18a			Mobs in boats no longer despawn.
1.19		22w11a			Added mangrove boats.
		22w12a			Boats can now be used to craft boats with chests.
					The textures of all boat items (except mangrove) have been changed.[10]
		22w14a			Due to the addition of the mangrove tree and mangrove swamp, mangrove boats are now obtainable and renewable.
		22w15a			The textures of all boat item textures have been changed.
October 15, 2022					Bamboo rafts were announced at Minecraft Live 2022.
1.20 (Experimental)		22w42a			Added bamboo rafts behind the Update 1.20 experimental datapack.
		22w45a			The item texture of the bamboo raft has been changed.
		23w07a			Added cherry boats behind the Update 1.20 experimental datapack.
1.20		23w12a			Bamboo rafts and cherry boats are now available without using the "Update 1.20" experimental datapack.
1.20.2		?			Riding height for mobs without a sitting position have been adjusted so their feet are at the bottom of the boat.
Pocket Edition Alpha
September 19, 2014					Tommaso Checchi tweeted a picture of a player riding a boat, stating that the most important thing is to "get the paddling right."
					The model used by boats is currently a minecart.
January 26, 2015					Tommaso Checchi tweets a screenshot of multiple riders in a single boat.
					The model used by boats is now a minecart which has been squished vertically, and tinted brown.
February 20, 2015					Tommaso Checchi tweets a screenshot of multiple boats with only mobs in them.
					Boats now have a proper model with paddles.
v0.11.0		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 than in Java Edition.
					Boats are more resistant to crashing against land than in Java Edition.
		build 12			Projectiles can now be shot from boats.
v0.12.1		build 1			Added all boat variants to the Creative inventory.
					New inventory icons for boats have been added. The sprite now includes paddles and represents their respective wood color.
v0.13.0		build 1			Boats are now slightly faster than sprinting, and no longer deplete hunger.
					Players can now use items and attack immediately after they stop rowing.
		build 3			Boats now stack on top of each other.
Bedrock Edition
1.2.0		beta 1.2.0.22			Boats now move faster on ice.
1.5.0		beta 1.5.0.0			The steering of boats has been changed when using keyboard and mouse - W now moves the boat forward and S reverses it.
		beta 1.5.0.4			Boats can now sink or float on bubble columns.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The textures of all boats have been changed.
1.11.0		beta 1.11.0.4			Boats can now be bought from fisherman villagers.
1.16.0		beta 1.16.0.57			Trading has been changed, master-level fisherman villagers now offer to buy boats based on their villager biome outfit.
					Due to trading changes, birch boats can no longer be sold to fisherman villagers.
1.16.100		beta 1.16.100.51			Custom named boats now save their name after placing and breaking.
		beta 1.16.100.56			The item ID boat has been split up into <type>_boat.
1.18.10		beta 1.18.10.27			The item sprites of all boats have been changed. The paddles now represent their respective wood color (except spruce) and the inside rims of the boats are darker.
					An updated item sprite for dark oak boat has been added to the game files, but it's currently unused.[11]
1.18.30		beta 1.18.20.25			An updated item sprite for spruce boat has been added to the game files, but it's currently unused.[12]
		beta 1.18.20.27			Spruce and dark oak boats now correctly use their updated item sprites.
1.19.0		beta 1.19.0.20			Added mangrove boats.
		beta 1.19.0.26			Changed all boat item textures.
Next Major Update (Experimental)		beta 1.19.50.21			Added bamboo rafts behind the "Next Major Update" experimental toggle.
		beta 1.19.60.20			The item texture of the bamboo raft has been changed to match Java Edition.
		beta 1.19.80.20			Added cherry boats behind the "Next Major Update" experimental toggle.
1.20.0		beta 1.20.0.21			Bamboo rafts and cherry boats are now available without using the "Next Major Update" experimental toggle.
1.20.10		beta 1.20.10.20			The wooden shovel in the crafting recipe has been removed for all boat types except the bamboo raft.
		beta 1.20.10.21			The bamboo raft recipe no longer needs a wooden shovel.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added boats.
TU12					The maximum number of boats in a world has been increased to 40.
					Boats now break when they hit land hard.
TU14		1.04			Boats are no longer broken by lily pads anymore, instead they run straight through the lily pad now, breaking and sometimes dropping it.
					When boats crash, they can now sometimes drop themselves as items.
					Boats are now less glitchy and more responsive now.
					The maximum speed of boats has been increased.
					When exiting, players now move from the boat.
					When broken by a player, they drop a boat now.
TU46	CU36	1.38	Patch 15		Boats have been overhauled to match Pocket Edition Alpha 0.11.0 boats.
TU57	CU49	1.56	Patch 27	1.0.7	The crafting recipe of boats has been changed to require a wooden shovel.
		1.90			The textures of all boats have been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added boats.

Issues[]

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

Trivia[]

• Sand, red sand, concrete powder, gravel, anvils, and dragon eggs drop as items when they fall onto a boat that is in water.
• A chest is short enough that a boat falls onto it rather than crashes into it.
• In Legacy Console Edition, holding the movement stick to the side in a boat on blue ice causes the player to spin quickly. If a passenger is in the boat while this occurs, when the player exits the boat after it reaches maximum velocity (attained after about three seconds), for most mobs, the mob's head may spin uncontrollably. For some mobs, however, nothing happens (such as slimes and ghasts). The mob may also get its head stuck at an angle. Thorough testing was done on Minecraft: Wii U Edition, although the glitch was originally discovered on the Xbox 360 Edition.

Gallery[]

• 

  Oak

• 

  Spruce

• 

  Birch

• 

  Jungle

• 

  Acacia

• 

  Dark oak

• 

  Mangrove

• 

  Cherry

• 

  Bamboo raft

• 

  Oak

• 

  Spruce

• 

  Birch

• 

  Jungle

• 

  Acacia

• 

  Dark oak

• 

  Mangrove

• 

  Cherry

• 

  Bamboo raft

Screenshots[]

• 

  All types of boats next to each other.

• 

  The old boat floating.

• 

  A bunch of pre-1.9 boats stacked up.

• 

  First image of boats in BE development.

• 

  Second image of boats in BE development.

• 

  Image of the completed Bedrock Edition boats.

• 

  A trail of boats after a game crash while riding a boat.

• 

  A dock with many boats.

• 

  A third-person perspective of a boat in Java Edition Alpha v1.0.6.

Development Images[]

• 

  Jappa texturing a boat.

• 

  Nekofresa making the bamboo raft in Blockbench.

• 

  Boat item textures.

• 

  Boat item textures.

• 

  Boat item textures.

• 

  Boat item textures.

Concept Art[]

• 

  Bamboo raft concept art.

• 

  Ditto.

Artwork[]

• 

  Official artwork of Sunny riding a mangrove boat.

• 

  Official artwork of Alex in a boat at sea with an Allay.

• 
• 

  Pixel art of Zuri on a bamboo raft with a baby panda.

• 

  Cutout of Zuri and Efe on bamboo rafts, featured in the Trails & Tales Event.

• 
• 

  An oak boat as it appears in an advertisement for Crocs.^[13]

See also[]

• Transportation

References[]

External Links[]

• Taking Inventory: Boat – Minecraft.net on October 4, 2019