Boat was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. By 2010, Boat was the captain of the golf team at Shawnee Mission East High School, he led it to a 6A State Championship. He was also the runner up for the individual title after shooting a 76. During that high school season he recorded seven top 10's and finished third in the Hutchinson Invitational, which is the one of the largest high school invitationals in the country. He was First Team All-State and Second Team All-Metro.
Boat won the Woody Austin Invitational (77-68), and finished runner-up in the Missouri Junior Amateur (71-69) as well as making the cut in both the Kansas Junior Amateur and Kansas Amateur.
In 2008, he was selected for the Mid-America Junior Cup and was the recipient of the Harry C. Devine Award for outstanding sportsmanship, leadership, and performance in the KC junior tour regular season.
In 2012, Boat was named to the All-Pacwest Second Team based off his 8th place finish at the conference championships. Boat recorded a 74.5 scoring average for the two three-round competitions HPU participated in, which was the lowest on the team. On the academic side, Ian was named an Academic All-American, named the Scholar Athlete for Men's Golf, and made Dean's List for the Spring 2012 semester.
Boat played in seven matches in 2012-13 with an average score of 76.4. His low round of the year came against Chaminade in a dual-match at Olomana Golf Links.
