Minecraft - Circular Canal Transport System
An alternative AUTOMATIC transport system completely made of renewable materials, in case you don't have enough irons to make railways. It is powered solely by current so that you won't need to move you boat by yourself .
When you need a turning point to turn your boat , dig a canal which turned against previous one will likely destroy your boat since:
It may not align to pressure plates properly in a stuck-proofed 4 wide canal, your boat will be destroyed if it can't align to plates perpendicularly.
You are just travelling too fast. Your boat is destroyed by direct impact.
I found that it is much safer when you use WaterLift to redirect the flow of your boat upward,then turn your boat with a turned canal. Dropping into a turned canal works well too, make sure you have wall to block your boat so it won't stuck.
Tips:
Having a TreeFarm is a must for this transport system. Minecraft Wiki have some brilliant TreeFarm examples.
The 6-length canal (counting only water)is enough to maintain cruise speed of your boat. However shooting arrows in the middle of the canal can slow or even trip the boat and crash it by improper align to plates. The 3-length canal solve this problem and maintain your cruise speed so constantly that you may feel like riding a minecart. However it is much costly.
Comparing to railway system:
Pros:
All materials are renewable - Water, woods (boat, wooden pressure plate, door and sign (optional)), sugar cane. In theory you can travel an unlimited amount of distance, comparing to railway which limited to the amount of iron.
When going upwards hill, Boat lifts instead of climb, which is a faster way than rail especially you have to lift pretty high.
Boats can form Circular Line more easily than railway since the current of canal will always direct them into one direction unless they stuck.
Cons:
Boat travel slowly than boosted minecart because it accelerates much slower than minecart.
Boats are extremely vulnerable, it will break at the pressure plates almost certainly when it doesn't align to them properly.
Boats will break when crash into another boat. Since a loaded boat will travel faster than an empty one, you will likely to crash in a dense canal system.
The direction of canals can't be changed unlike railway which can be changed with redstones.
Digging canal is much time-consuming than placing railway. Constructing "WaterLift" is particular time-consuming.
It use more space than railway.
Feel free to comment and give opinions. Have a nice minecraft day!