i was about to till i realized it needed ropes.
im on a massive string shortage building other things right now, dont need a raft just yet.
Well I finished building mine.
From what i have tried, I can't put coffers on it using lift or the rightclickraft-leftclickcoffer method, I don't have any animals to test, but I'm sure they work. And I don't have a wagon to try and see if I can use that. Also it seems that only one person can be on the raft controlling it, I don't know whether they can be in a wagon on the raft though.
So now I don't see the point of one unless you ahve wagons/animals :(.