If you want to destroy your ship make sure to stand next to the post in the middle of the boat to collect all the items instantly. There is a risk to loose the nails though if the water is too deep.

Originally posted by paperhero:

I ram my ship ashore and can get off with no problems. If I start unloading cargo from the hold it starts moving back out to sea. Bad ship, so I smash it to pieces. Their must be an easier way, anyone?

Also when you smash your ship with your ax, do you stand inside your ship or outside? It seems safer inside because sometimes when I do it from the outside it again starts moving out to sea.

Finally I would like to ask how long is it safe to leave your ship parked? can you leave it for say maybe 2 hours game time?

It doesn't move, but if you leave it near/on a shore, high waves might slam it against the ground underneath. And since boats are physical objects, that'll move the boat towards the slope, until it is either far away enough, or just destroyed.

I prefer leaving my boat in deep waters, near rocks/small sub-islands. This way I can easily spawn-protect my boat with a single workbench, and make it invincible to high waves.

I have two ships in my world parked separately far away from each other, they won't disappear as long as parking near the workbench area I think. I always place a workbench near my ship to repair and to prevent the ship from disappearing but I never try to leave it without a workbench so IDK if it will disappear or not.
And all my ships never move out to the ocean, once I parked it stays right there even when the big waves hit it.

if its at your base build a dock to park in. if away from base bring wood to trap boat and repair if needed.

It's just silly game physics at play, the boat is sliding down the bank from the tidal changes. And boats will move if you start jumpin on and off while unloading etc because of the inertia of the player running and landing on the boat. If you leave the boat so the tide can't make it hit land it will stay put unless your running all over it then you'll have to grab the rudder and jump off again to re-activate anchor

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2515365986

That ain't moving. When I pull in to port I stand inside and smack it and put it on the drydock. My longboat is somewhere off in the ocean somewhere but I have another bigger one for that one too. Saw it on someone elses screenshots around here so TY to whoever that was.

Edit: Oh and to get it to drop onto the dry dock you have to hold down shift.

A ship will only move if there's someone on it or it's getting pushed by a player or a creature. Sometimes wave action can cause it to move if it's in shallow water but it won't float off to sea by this.

Best to stand in it and whack the mast IMO.

I had a Karve parked for over 200 in game days on the dedi server I played on...it never moved other than up an down with the waves. It was protected by an earthen pier on two sides so creatures couldn't get to it. A troll did get to it once and did it some damage but he was killed for his actions and the Karve repaired.

Originally posted by Megahurts:

A ship will only move if there's someone on it or it's getting pushed by player, a creature or wave action if it's in shallow water.

I believe what the OP means is they go as fast as possible onto land, but even when you jump off it the "anchor" doesn't actually kick in until it is in the shallows and will move backwards until it is. I can say with 100% confidence i've noticed this myself too.

I read it as he was jumping back on to empty the cargo hold and it started moving...as it might do but should never float away once he jumps off again. It may indeed 'slide' back into the water if beached.

As for beaching it at speed...it may take a second for the sail to furl if you're charging in at speed, and if you're doing that it may well take longer for it to stop due to collision physics with land...but that's just unsafe seamanship :)

Your best bet is to just make a small dock. If you don't want to spend time making one just jump off whenever you are close to land.

Without a dock you will have to swim and use the ladder to get back on. Either way, the ship will stay put in the exact location you jump off of it from.

Making a dock will save you a lot of time in the long run. Just line it up to the dock and jump off and on to load/unload cargo. Plus you have the extra benefit of being able to just take off when you want to sail again, vs pushing it back out to sea or rebuilding it, then swimming to it.