NBT Tags for Boat in Minecraft (Java Edition 1.16/1.17/1.18/1.19/1.20)

This Minecraft tutorial explains the NBT tags (formerly called data tags) that you can use for a boat in Minecraft Java Edition (PC/Mac) 1.16, 1.17, 1.18, 1.19 and 1.20.

Background

In Minecraft Java Edition 1.16, 1.17, 1.18, 1.19 and 1.20, the entity value for a boat is boat. The boat entity has a unique set of data tags that can be used in Minecraft commands such as: /summon and /data.

boat is used as the entity value for all boats in Minecraft (oak, spruce, birch, jungle, acacia, dark oak):

What are NBT tags (formerly called Data Tags)?

NBT tags allow you to set certain properties of an entity (such as boat). The NBT tag is always surrounded in {} such as {Type:birch}. If there is more than one NBT tag used in a game command, the NBT tags are separated by a comma such as {Type:birch, Passengers:[{id:llama}]}.

List of NBT Tags

Here is a list of the NBT tags that you can use for boat in Minecraft Java Edition (PC/Mac) 1.16, 1.17, 1.18, 1.19 and 1.20:

NBT Tag	Value (Description)	Works With
Type	oak (The boat is made of oak wood) spruce (The boat is made of spruce wood) birch (The boat is made of birch wood) jungle (The boat is made of jungle wood) acacia (The boat is made of acacia wood) dark_oak (The boat is made of dark oak wood) Example {Type:dark_oak}	/summon /data
Pos	coordinate (The xyz coordinate value where the boat is currently positioned) Example {Pos:{x:-255.888617739718d,y:64.0d,z:186.8149890186918d}}
Fire	ticks (The number of game ticks until the boat is no longer on fire - there are 20 ticks in a second) Example {Fire:60}	/summon /data
PortalCooldown	ticks (The number of game ticks until the boat can go through a portal again - there are 20 ticks in a second) Example {PortalCooldown:120}	/summon /data
id	boat (The entity value used to represent a boat in the Passengers tag) Example {id:boat}	/summon
Passengers	The mob that is riding in the boat. Use the entity value for the passenger mob Example of llama as passenger Passengers:[{id:llama}]	/summon /data

NBT Tag Examples

To summon an acacia boat:

/summon boat ~ ~ ~ {Type:acacia}

To summon a dark oak boat that has a llama in it:

/summon boat ~ ~ ~ {Type:dark_oak, Passengers:[{id:llama}]}

Target Selectors

Before we finish discussing data tags, let's quickly explore how to use the @e target selector. The @e target selector allows you to target entities in your commands. If you use the type=boat value, you can target boats:

@e[type=boat]

Target Selector Examples

To change the nearest boat to a Jungle boat:

/data merge entity @e[type=boat,limit=1,sort=nearest] {Type:jungle}

To kill all boats:

/kill @e[type=boat]

Next, learn how to use the game commands in Minecraft.

Command Generators

If you need help, you can use these tools to automatically generate commands for you: