Minecraft wiki entry for Ice, associated text: Like other entities, boats travel extremely quickly on ice-blue ice, where it can reach an average speed of 33-45 m/s, much faster than the 8 m/s speed on water. More beneficially, unlike water, ice can be placed in the Nether, allowing players to construct boat highways made of ice/blue ice in the dimension, to make use of the 1:8 distance travel ratio, and travel on blue ice at an equivalent speed up to 263-360 m/s (3700mph) between locations in the Overworld.