Birch Boat is a drivable wooden vehicle crafted from five Birch Planks — three planks across the bottom row of the crafting grid and two planks at the ends of the row above. One birch log crafts into four Birch Planks, so the Birch Boat stays renewable wherever birch trees grow. The Birch Boat is a flammable, non-stackable item that Minecraft added in Java Edition snapshot 15w41a for release 1.9 and in Bedrock Edition 0.11.0 build 1. A launched Birch Boat holds up to two entities, and a mob that boards the boat cannot exit on its own — trapped mobs stay seated until the boat breaks.

On open water the Birch Boat tops out at 8 blocks per second; ice raises the top speed to 40 blocks per second and blue ice to 72.72 blocks per second, while land slows the boat to 2 blocks per second. Riding a Birch Boat does not deplete hunger, and the hull completely nullifies fall damage for the boat and every rider, which makes cliffside and mountain travel safe. A Birch Boat also works as furnace fuel, burning 60 seconds and smelting up to 6 items. One chest plus the boat on the crafting grid produces the Birch Boat with Chest, a cargo variant that seats only one entity and carries items in the chest. To reclaim a boat, hit the Birch Boat until it drops as an item — any weapon dealing more than 4 damage breaks the hull in a single hit.