How to build a boat in Minecraft 1.19 update

Getting through bodies of water in Minecraft can be tricky, which is exactly why players should craft a boat.

Players won't need to worry about slowly swimming through water when they have a boat that can simply glide across its surface.

With just a few materials, players can make a variety of different boats based on the wood type used. However, it's important to note that there's a difference between the crafting recipe in the Java and Bedrock editions of the game.

Regardless, boats are incredibly cheap to create and are incredibly efficient when it comes to traveling over any body of water a player might encounter.

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Steps to build a boat in Java and Bedrock editions of Minecraft

Steve riding a boat with a chest in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

To create a boat in Minecraft: Java Edition, players will need five pieces of matching wooden plank blocks found in the Overworld. Bedrock Edition players will need these matching blocks as well as a wooden shovel.

Once these materials have been collected, players can enter their materials into a crafting table grid manually or use the recipe function on the left of the crafting table interface.

Players can follow the steps given below to construct a boat in the Java and Bedrock editions of Minecraft:

1. After collecting five wooden plank blocks of the same type (and a wooden shovel for Bedrock players), create or use an existing crafting table to open its crafting menu.
2. Players will be brought to the crafting table's UI, complete with a 3x3 grid. Here, players will want to place their crafting materials.
3. If players don't want to use the recipe function, they should place their five matching wooden plank blocks in a "U" shape, which should place a boat of the appropriate wood type in the crafting table's output slot. If players prefer to use the recipe function, they can look to the left of the crafting table UI and either manually search for a boat crafting recipe or search "boat" in the search bar.
4. For Minecraft: Bedrock Edition players, crafting a boat will still require placing the wooden plank blocks in a U shape. However, in the center of this U shape, players will also want to place their wooden shovel. This will create a wooden boat in Bedrock that can be removed from the crafting table's output slot.

Once players have removed the boat from the crafting table's output slot, they can place it in their inventory. Then, by setting it to their hotbar, players can walk to a body of water and equip the boat. By right-clicking (or pressing the "use block/item" button) over a body of water with the boat in their hands, players will be able to place their boat.

Afterwards, all players need to do is right-click to enter the boat and begin riding on the water. If players want to reposition or pick up their boat, they should break the boat block with a left-click or the mine button.