Travel · Transport · 1.21

How to Make a Boat

Five planks turn an ocean from a wall into a road. And once you discover ice highways, a boat becomes the fastest vehicle in the game.

The recipe

Five planks in a U. Any single wood type makes a boat of that wood.

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Grab the exact grid on Astroworld craftingor look up every boat type in the items database.

Why you want one

Fastest on water

Far quicker than swimming, and it never tires. Open water becomes a highway.

Seats two

You plus one passenger, a player or a mob. The classic way to move a villager home.

Land or water

Place it anywhere. On land it slides a little; on water it glides.

No durability

Break it with any tool and it drops back as an item, ready to place again.

Add a chest

→Boat with chest

Combine a boat with a chest for a floating store room, perfect for hauling loot home across an ocean.

The ice highway trick

Lay a channel of packed ice or blue ice and a boat slides along it at the highest speed in the game, blue ice being the slickest. Boxed-in ice tracks are the standard way players build cross-map transit.

Woods and rafts

Any wood

Bamboo raft

Every wood crafts the same boat in its own colour. Bamboo is the exception, it folds into a flat raft that behaves identically.

Quick answers

What is the recipe?

Five planks in a U: one in each bottom corner-to-corner row plus the two sides. Any single wood type works, and it makes one boat.

Why is the ice one so fast?

Boats have almost no friction on ice. On packed ice or blue ice they reach the highest travel speed in the game, which is why players build ice-boat highways.

Can a boat carry cargo?

Yes. Craft a boat with a chest for a boat with chest, a floating storage seat you can paddle across an ocean.

How do I get the boat back?

Hit it once with anything. It pops off as an item with no wear, so one boat lasts forever.

Can it carry a mob?

Yes, one passenger. Bump an animal or villager so it steps in, then paddle. The fastest way to relocate livestock.

What is a raft?

Bamboo makes a raft instead of a boat. It works exactly the same; it just looks like a flat bamboo platform.

Pack a chest and a compass before a long voyage, look up boats, rafts and packed ice in the items database, or open the crafting recipes for the exact grid.

The fastest way to travel on the surface

A boat on water beats sprinting on land

Rowing is faster than a sprint and costs no hunger at all, which is why long ocean crossings are done by boat rather than by swimming. On ice the gap becomes absurd: a boat on blue ice is the fastest travel in the game short of an ender pearl, and a lane of it across a base pays for itself within a day.

It carries a passenger, including one you did not intend

Two entities fit in a boat, and that second seat is how villagers get moved without leads, rails or a minecart. Any mob that fits will climb in, so a boat left on a beach near a village tends to be occupied by the time you come back for it.

Boats with chests are separate items

A chest boat is crafted from a boat plus a chest and holds a single chest of cargo while still rowing normally. It is worth making before a long trip rather than after, because you cannot add a chest to a boat that is already floating.