Minecraft wiki entry for Water-powered_boat_transportation, associated text: The concept involves a zig-zag water flow, changing diagonal direction at each step, while ensuring that all surface water is flowing, and the necessary deeper water at the step is used to buoy the boat up into the flowing water. As with the level-ground water management techniques described above, each section of water flow must push the boat across an empty space into the next flow, and the next flow must pull the boat out from the previous flow.