I created an event and set a boat on water on a world map, named the event boat. then went and made a move event for event named boat and set it to auto run, when running the game, the boat does not move....why?

Make sure it has the Through On option. The program doesn't know you want it to be a boat....
I'm doing something similiar myself, and I had to set on the Move Route "Through On" at the beginning...

Here a better idea. Open rpg maker vx and go to your project. Then once opened and loaded up. Go to your world map you created and then click the tap EV which is event. Then right click and select set starting position and select boat and thats it. Because rpg maker vx has easy events and stuff with the rpg maker vx program.

Please don't necropost. This topic hasn't had a post in for nearly a month. ~Rob_Riv