Valheim Boats Guide 2026: Fastest Boat, Speeds and Cargo

You want to know which boat is the fastest in Valheim, whether the Longship really beats the Karve, and whether 1.0 brought a new boat. Valheim 1.0 came out on 9 September 2026 and still has four boats: the Raft, the Karve, the Longship and the Drakkar. Below are their speeds, cargo and health from the Valheim Wiki's ship pages, what Iron Gate's patch notes changed, and how to handle wind, ore runs and serpents.

Quick answer: The Longship is the fastest boat in Valheim. Under full sail in the strongest wind it reaches about 9.54 m/s (roughly 34 km/h), against 8.79 m/s for the Drakkar, 7.39 m/s for the Karve and 3.02 m/s for the Raft, according to the Valheim Wiki. So yes, the Longship is faster than the Karve, by about 29 percent under sail, while both paddle at the same 3.16 m/s. The Drakkar from the Ashlands update is a little slower than the Longship, but it has 32 cargo slots, 3,000 HP and is the only boat that crosses the Ashlands' boiling sea without damage. Valheim 1.0 added no new boat.

Which Boat Is the Fastest in Valheim?

The Valheim Wiki computes these speeds from the game's ship physics for calm water and a straight course. Waves and steering make real speeds a bit lower.

Top speeds are for 100 percent wind strength coming from behind at an angle (cross-tailwind). The wiki's Boats page says each boat is faster than the one before it, with one exception: "the Drakkar, which is slower than the Longship."

Wind strength makes a big difference. Wind runs from 5 to 100 percent strength, and at 5 percent a Longship under full sail drops to about 5.0 m/s. With the wind from the side or behind, the sail still beats paddling even then: the Longship (5.02 m/s), the Drakkar (4.62 m/s) and the Karve (3.89 m/s) all sail faster than they paddle. The Raft gains next to nothing (1.59 against 1.58 m/s), and in a weak head-crosswind the Raft and the Karve are quicker paddling.

Is the Longship Faster Than the Karve?

Yes. In the same wind the Longship sails about 29 percent faster than the Karve: 9.54 against 7.39 m/s at full sail in strong wind. Paddling is the same for both at 3.16 m/s, so the difference only shows once the sail is up.

The Karve still has its uses. It needs bronze instead of iron, it is small (10.1 m long, with a turning radius of 20 m at top speed), and it is handy in rivers and narrow channels. Its weak points are cargo and health: 4 slots and 500 HP, against 18 slots and 1,000 HP for the Longship. The wiki also warns that a Karve can capsize in heavy storm waves, especially under full sail in strong wind.

All Four Boats Compared

All four are built with the hammer while a workbench is in range.

Recipes are as listed on the wiki on 3 November 2026. The Drakkar recipe already changed once during the Ashlands public test: patch 0.218.14 cut it from 60 to 50 Finewood. Any number of players can hold fast on the Raft, Karve and Longship, and on the Drakkar you can hold fast at the mast and the bow.

Is There a New Boat in Valheim 1.0?

No. Iron Gate's 1.0 patch notes list a new biome, more than 40 weapons, new armour sets, creatures and tools, but no new ship. The patches since then, up to 1.0.21 on 28 October 2026, do not touch boats either.

The newest boat is still the Drakkar. It arrived with the Ashlands update (patch 0.218.15, 14 May 2024), whose notes say: "The waters in and around the Ashlands are boiling hot, and only the sturdiest of ships can sail them."

What has changed around sailing by 1.0:

• The Deep North is reached by sea. The wiki says the landmass is separated from the other biomes by ocean and that there is no boiling sea in the way, but you must beat Fader to progress there. Sheets of floating ice along its shores are "a potential danger to any ship attempting to dock." You can break them for 3 to 5 Ice.
• New metals stay off wooden portals. Bloodgold, the Deep North metal, and Petrified Tissue, the material it is smelted from, are both on the wooden portal's no-teleport list.
• One last boat trip. Sacrificial Blood, the item that starts the game's ending, cannot go through any portal, not even a Stone Portal or a world where all items may be teleported.
• Moder's power does more. The rebalanced Forsaken powers in patch 0.221.4 (September 2025) give Moder "Always tailwind, 300 increased carry weight, 10% increased movement speed, 50% frost resistance." Per the wiki it lasts 5 minutes with a 20 minute cooldown, and players within 10 metres get it too.

What Is the Best Boat in Valheim?

It depends on the job:

• Fastest crossing: the Longship.
• Most cargo and toughest hull: the Drakkar, with 32 slots and 3,000 HP. It is also the only safe choice in the Ashlands' boiling water.
• Tight rivers and cheap scouting: the Karve.
• First crossings: the Raft, for short hops only. The wiki calls it "too slow and too fragile for a solo player to survive a Serpent attack" and recommends a Karve with at least a Finewood Bow instead.

How Sailing Works

Take the rudder and press W or S to move through the sail settings: reverse (paddling), stop, forward (paddling), half sail and full sail. A and D steer, and the boat only turns while it moves.

The wind symbol on the minimap shows the wind relative to your boat. It turns white when the wind helps you and grey when it blows from ahead. Within about 37 degrees of a direct headwind the sail gives no push, so you paddle or tack in a zigzag.

The common advice that a straight tailwind is fastest is not quite right. Per the wiki, wind from the side up to straight behind gives nearly the same speed, and the best angle (wind from behind at an angle) is only a few percent faster. A head-crosswind, coming in diagonally from the front, costs about a third of your speed.

The wind changes direction and strength on its own. In the Meadows a thunderstorm brings wind at 80 to 100 percent strength, while clear skies bring 10 to 60 percent. Storms are fast, but they also bring serpents and big waves.

To stop, lower the sail to the stop setting and the boat slowly loses speed. If you sail alone, jumping off the boat stops it at once. As long as someone stays on deck with the sail up, the boat keeps going with nobody at the rudder.

Hauling Ore and Metal

The wooden portal blocks copper, tin, iron, silver, black metal, flametal, Bloodgold and their ores, along with a few other items such as Dragon Eggs and Mechanical Springs. That leaves you three ways to move metal:

1. By boat. The Longship (18 slots) or the Drakkar (32 slots) is the ore hauler.
2. By Stone Portal. Available once you reach the Ashlands and built near a Stonecutter from 10 Greydwarf Eyes, 30 Grausten and 2 Molten Cores, it lets ores and metals through. The portal you step into has to allow them, so a Stone Portal linked to a wooden one only works in one direction for metal.
3. By world setting. The Portal Settings world modifier can allow all items through portals, Sacrificial Blood aside.

For a boat run:

1. Sail the Longship or Drakkar to the mining spot and beach it somewhere sheltered.
2. Put the ore in the boat's storage, not in your own bag: an encumbered player cannot use the rudder. The wiki notes that cargo weight does not seem to change a boat's handling or speed.
3. Sail home and unload next to the smelters.

If the boat is destroyed, it leaves a floating crate with your cargo, but the pelts and nails it was built from sink and are lost in deep water. Avoid storms with a full hold.

Sea Serpents and Other Threats

Serpents spawn rarely in the middle of the ocean, at night (they leave at dawn) or during rain and thunderstorms. A Serpent has 400 HP and bites for 70 slash damage. It is weak to frost and immune to fire.

• Flee: the wiki says a Karve with the wind straight behind it can outrun a Serpent in a thunderstorm, and the Serpent eventually gives up. A Longship is faster still.
• Fight: a Serpent drops 8 to 9 Serpent Scales, 6 to 7 Serpent Meat and a trophy one time in three. The meat floats, but the other drops sink if it dies in deep water. An Abyssal Harpoon (8 Finewood, 30 Chitin, 3 Leather Scraps, workbench level 2) lets you drag it into shallow water or onto land first. It will try to flee back to sea, so finish it quickly.

Near the coast, Necks, Greydwarfs, Draugr, Leeches, Lox and Deathsquitos can attack your boat, and Deathsquitos can chase you far out to sea. Blobs jump aboard and release poison. Greydwarfs and Boars also wreck beached Rafts, so leave yours on the side of an island that is out of sight.

Boat Tips

• Repair before long trips. Repair the hull with the hammer while a workbench is in range. It costs no resources, only stamina.
• Come in slowly. Ramming rocks or the shore damages your own boat, and the damage grows with speed between 1.5 and 7 m/s. Paddle into docks, and keep in mind that the Drakkar paddles slower than the Longship (2.50 against 3.16 m/s).
• Watch the waves. Karves and Longships can capsize in heavy storm waves and take 20 damage per second while upside down. Sail into the waves at less than full sail. The Raft never capsizes.
• Lift your fleet. You cannot build on a boat, but you can build underneath one to lift it out of the water.
• Log out carefully. A crewed boat with its sail up keeps moving, so lower the sail before anyone logs off aboard.
• Share the dock. On a group world, keep the Longship and Drakkar at a shared harbour with a portal. With Valheim server hosting the world keeps running without a host PC, so anyone in the group can take a boat out.

FAQ

What boat is the fastest in Valheim? The Longship. It reaches about 9.54 m/s under full sail in strong wind, ahead of the Drakkar (8.79 m/s), the Karve (7.39 m/s) and the Raft (3.02 m/s), per the Valheim Wiki.

Is the Longship faster than the Karve in Valheim? Yes, by about 29 percent under sail in the same wind. Both paddle at 3.16 m/s, so you only notice the gap with the sail up.

Is there a new boat in Valheim 1.0? No. Iron Gate's 1.0 patch notes add no ship. The newest boat is the Drakkar, added with the Ashlands update in May 2024.

What is the best boat in Valheim? The Longship for speed, the Drakkar for cargo, health and the Ashlands, and the Karve for cheap trips through rivers and narrow water.

Why can't I sail forward? The wind is coming from ahead. Within about 37 degrees of a headwind the sail does nothing, so paddle or tack at an angle.

How do you transport metal in Valheim? By boat or cart, through a Stone Portal once you reach the Ashlands, or with the world modifier that allows all items through portals. Sacrificial Blood can never go through a portal.

Sources

All opened on 3 November 2026:

• Iron Gate on Steam: Valheim 1.0 Has Arrived (9 September 2026)
• Iron Gate on Steam: Patch 0.218.15, Ashlands (14 May 2024)
• Iron Gate on Steam: Patch 0.218.14, Public Test (7 May 2024)
• Iron Gate on Steam: Patch 0.221.4, Call To Arms (9 September 2025)
• Iron Gate: Patch 1.0.21 (28 October 2026)
• Valheim Wiki: Boats, Raft, Karve, Longship, Drakkar
• Valheim Wiki: Wind, Forsaken powers, Deep North
• Valheim Wiki: Portal, Stone Portal, World Modifiers, Bloodgold, Sacrificial Blood
• Valheim Wiki: Serpent, Abyssal Harpoon, Building
• Valheim Wiki: Ancient Bark, Yggdrasil Wood, Ceramic Plate

Related: Valheim portals guide, Valheim progression guide, Valheim bosses in order, Valheim dedicated server