With the new 1.9 boats, they no longer float to the surface when they run into a taller block of water. As such players can no longer create and use Water Elevators that use boats AND boats can no longer traverse up small river inclines used in man-made rivers.
I did some experimenting and found that these new 1.9 boats will only stay above water if its within a small layer at the very top of the water blocks, when pushed under this invisible "layer" that determines if it floats, the boat then sinks and promptly boots you out of the boat. While this does feel more realistic the problem is that Minecraft water is nowhere near the same as real water. Take the screenshots below as an example: Shown was a boating river race course I was designing that had the beginning stages forcing the player to boat upriver with non-steep water inclines of 1 block so they could go upriver to the top of this island then do a downriver segment later on.
In the screenshots I hopped into a boat to test, boated towards the first incline section of my course and instead of floating to the top of the river (a 1-block high "waterfall") it drove right through the rising river section then began to sink/boot me out.
I understand somewhat making realistic boats, but the inability to float up water blocks in these new boats kinda ruins most of their new upgrades' potential. Water/boat elevators and log flume rides aside the inability to rise up water blocks with this bug (if it is one) makes players very restricted on building things like boat racing tracks, which now cannot go upriver anymore.
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The boat sinks down to the bottom of the body of water it is in, any further attempts to hop in result in being immediately booted out of the boat. Someone's already reported the booted out/teleporting part, I'm reporting the buggy boat physics with water layers that makes them unusable for things they have and will be used for.

Still broken in 15w44a

Duplicate of MC-89944.

Incorrect links, probably only a duplicate

The current boat mechanic in 1.9 snapshots, makes no allowance for water flowing over a varying terrain height . A boat can no longer paddle up 1 block without sinking . Does anyone know what the final mechanic should be . It's hard to report bugs , if no one knows how the boat should function .

Sort of working as intended (to sink), but you can't ride boats upstream. flowing water needs to raise you up a NOTCH. 😃

Still an issue in 16w06a. This seems like it is an unintended change. I can understand that underwater boats would sink when submerged but riding up to a water stream, even 1/8 of a block high also causes you to sink? This limits player creativity. No more realistic rivers or streams (since you can't go up them anymore). No more canals. This is not a duplicate of MC-89944 since the boat in question is not underwater. The boat is on top of the water trying to row over flowing water. This should be reopened for an official decision from Mojang.
Edit: The boat can make it onto flowing water from land but not from a water source block to a flowing water source. This makes me think it may be an unintended change that was overlooked when introducing the boat sinking mechanic.

I'm also voting for the player's ability to canoe/paddle up a stream, it'd be excellent for natural landscapes-adventure maps as well as waterfunpark maps etc. 😸
Thanks for reopening }=)

Playing with the pre-release , the new boat mechanics feel broken . Boats glide down sloped water easily , I could not find a way to move up any level of water . If this is not fixed in vanilla , there is going to be a mod for boats to restore and enhance its functionality . I just can't understand the sinking part . A real rowboat , even filled with water or capsized still has buoyancy .
In what universe does this boat exist ?

ProfMobius .Your boat mechanics and physics are all wrong ! water weighs 28.316847 kg / 0.0283168 cubic meter
Archimedes' principle indicates that the upward buoyant force that is exerted on a body immersed in a fluid, whether fully or partially submerged, is equal to the weight of the fluid that the body displaces. Archimedes' principle is a law of physics fundamental to fluid mechanics.
All boat builders build their boats positively buoyant . They are designed to float if filled with water or capsized . What is the minecraft boat made from ? Lead !
Edit : It is possible to Engineer a Lead Boat , urg ... or Stone or other unsuitable materials . We just would not . It would make the builder look like a fool .
Version 1.9 Pre 2 out today . Boats are broken . Have not found a way to traverse up 1 block of water . Are you waiting for the modding community to fix what you can't ? Engineers play this game as well , we're scratching our heads , we just don't understand what your trying to do with the boat .

@unknown I wouldn't argument much with real life physics principles in MC 😸 cough non-gravity-blocks cough
but I still support the general "paddling upwards a stream" thing due to mapmaker reasons.
The bugpost is still open, so just some patience }=)
There are tons of more important bugs open atm.

Confirmed for 1.9-pre2

Lets build a minecraft boat , 6'(L) x 4'(w) x 2'(H) = 48 cubic feet , 48 cubic feet of water = approx 62 lbs x 48 = 2,976 lbs . The weight of the boat , its contents and passengers would have to exceed 2,976 lbs , to displace 48 cubic feet of water and sink . Since , when the boat sinks , it ejects its passengers and the boat is built to be positively buoyant . The boat can not sink . I can see it capsize or floating at the waterline . The boat travels down a gradient of water fine , It just can't travel up a gradient . I was told , this is the way it's supposed to be and the final release to be on Feb 25 . I Just want to know will you be releasing the final version with broken boats ?

Here we are on 1.9 pre4 , the issues with boats are still there . My personal opinion , boats are of little value in the game now ! There have been some strong , valid recommendations from the outside coding community and so far rejected . Grum , please look into fixing this before final release . People last chance to speak on this . We're calling the Minecraft boat Titanic .lol

Mr. Broes resolved this bug as "Works as Intended".
The only thing I can do is to voice my disappointment/sadness, as I'd have loved to see some water amusement parks or adventure map using it in 1.9.
I loved that ~5 years ago already
Maybe it is not fixable - at least at the moment - and this is one of those "WaI" that might resolve itself after rewriting/adding code at some point.
Sorry for meta-discussing, I know, we should go to Mojira-Reddit for that.
Just thought it might be important for those who join this bugpost from now on.
Let's talk on Mojira's Reddit about it, if you want };]

Please re-open and consider this a bug, or at least an undesirable design decision. Rivers like these or entries like this are un-navigable because of this change, and I don't expect players to change entire sections of river to work around this.

I just asked for re-opening on the Mojira Reddit or at least a brief explanation, as I heard a fair amount of complaints about that change ever since 1.9 release and I don't know how to argument to the community. And if an addition to the MC Suggestions Reddit could be a way to apply to change it, or if it's just not fixable code-wise and thus futile to suggest it.

i thought minecraft was about innovation coming up with new ideas not restriction it would be nice for you to actually hear these guys out you cant make a great game without input to what players want it just doesnt work like that

there isnt even a report button on here for errors or voting to reopen a bug that is flagged as works as intended
WE EXPECT MORE FROM YOU

@unknown 2 posts above yours: According to the Mojira mod it is tagged for review, so just chill a bit 😸
Maybe one could also expect from someone interested in this bug/feature to read at least the most recent comments.. };] <3

For the record, it's MC-89944 that's up for review.

FWIW, I ended up writing a Bukkit plugin to resolve this issue. It's not perfect, but hopefully useful for server owners affected by this.

ik your epic plugin "Titanic" which was previously called ToughBoats that works exceptionly well led me to this page

for your information MC-89944 is tagged as resolved as works as intended and i dont see any under review tag and i would like it reopened as well as this one
@grum https://i.gyazo.com/b549d68fd13af2d399e64146ede5cc9a.png

@unknown As you can see, I asked for reopening on Mojira Reddit 2 months ago, Mr. Broes resolved it as "works as intended" 4 months ago (see your screenshot).

@unknown review tags are hidden from public, there's no for the public to see those.

This was the most stupidest change. How can you talk about realistic physics when we're in a game made of blocks where I can teleport to kill a dragon? And you're changing the behavior of boats saying that if boats fill with water, they sink, as an act of making it more realistic? This is the perfect reason why I should downgrade my server to 1.8. Thanks a bunch Microsoft... you ruined Windows 10 and now you're ruining Minecraft. :/

@unknown Click this link here for a post on Mojira Reddit about it if you want to add your perspective (although it doesn't really add much to it, I don't know anybody so far who likes this change, and blaming MS for it won't help either, they don't see it).
That being said, MC-89944 ("New boats sink and are impossible to enter underwater") is tagged for review, maybe it is just currently not possible to fix it due to the state of the code.
Sometimes stuff can't be fixed, but that doesn't mean it will be forever the case.
Just some patience, we all hope it might be doable to have non-sinkable boats or that they can at least "climb" a few water layers up at some point }=)
and the boat???