Return of Them boats are actually really good. So good that people decided to make boat bases, which made them realize that boats have some flaws when it comes to living in them fulltime.
The sad thing with living in a boat is they're tiny. Sure, you can cluster a bunch together, but then its not portable. And when its not portable, you may as well return to the land. And if you really still want a portable base, your best bet is a compact boat base... which is just yuck. wayy too cluttered.
I think a good addition to boats could be a rope / chain that connects boats together. Its been suggested before, and I honestly see no problem with it.
"then your boat is too big and you'll crash into everything" In my opinion, this is fine. Poor management always has been the biggest threat in the game. If you make your boat base too big, that's on you.
Some things that I want to clarify about this rope / chain is how it should (in my opinion) effect masts, anchors, and drift.
If a boat is directly connected to another boat that is anchored, it will have the effects of also being anchored. However if you connect another boat to the boat without an anchor, that one wont have the effects of being anchored. I don't think they should drift very far, though, because they are still connected to another boat.
As for speed, I think each boat added should only decrease the speed by .25%. It honestly doesn't make much sense logically, but otherwise it'd be annoying.
this way, having 4 boats, as seen in the picture above, would mean you need 2 masts, and you'd still have extra speed. I also think that steering wheels should affect masts on other boats, just cause it'd be convenient.
Resources. Most resources can be brought to your base, like grass, twigs, berries, wood, etc. The problem here is that none of those things grow on wood flooring, and I dont want to travel 5 out of the 7 seas just to get some sticks. To solve this issue I suggest a "Turf Boat". I like to imagine its crafting would be a tad expensive, although I don't really care about crafting recipes so I wont specify. (I also think it'd be neat if garden rigs could be used on them) (and if "On tentacles" spawned tentacles on the boats, although I don't really know how that'd be useful) (and also if lureplants spawned eyeplants) (also you can put carpet and marble tiles for decoration) (maybe rock flooring is harder for cookie cutters to penetrate)
""then your boat is too big and you'll crash into everything" In my opinion, this is fine. Poor management always has been the biggest threat in the game. If you make your boat base too big, that's on you."
Alright, alright. I actually don't really think a chunk of your base should get destroyed because you bumped into a rock and were unprepared. That's why I think there should be hull reinforcements. I think they should reduce the chance of a leak spawning, and have a little effect on the amount of damage taken to the boat on initial impact. Maybe it should slow you down a bit? not too much though, it could get bothersome. Lets say we have 5 boats in our boat base. already, we have a halved speed. lets say we decide to put hull reinforcement on all 5 boats. If each hull reinforcement takes 10% of our speed, we now need 3 masts to go a medium pace, and oars do practically nothing.
Also, I think these should be a tad expensive as well, so you have to make proper decisions about which boats you should protect and which boats you don't need to protect
This isn't really an addition to boats, I just think there should also be actual bridges, instead of a wooden circle you jump across.
tl;dr
attach boat to other boat, plant on boat, protect boat. also actual bridge