[Rune Son of Bjarne]

I do not see any reason to why Gollum should not have a boat, I agree that there is some odd things about the arangement. . .but hey, Beorn or even Elrond's living arangements was a bit odd.

If it really was just a log why would Tolkien write "boat" ?
I know that is not a very inventive argument, but one I would like answered non the less.

Also we know that orcs avoided Gollums cave and I doubt that it could be spottet when it was on his island, so there seem to have been little risk in having such a boat.

Gollum has the ring for 500 years, I assume that his personality has undergone some changes during this period of time and yet some people think that they know all his personality based on those relatively few years from when he looses the ring til he dies.

Also he seems to have the background for boat building.