Rosborough Boats, the Nova Scotia Family That Invented the Trailerable Trawler

From wooden schooners to fiberglass pilothouses

James D. Rosborough, known as Doug, established Rosborough Boats near Halifax in 1955. He designed fully custom wooden sailing craft, schooners, brigantines, sloops and ketches, then contracted Nova Scotia yards to build them and moved in to supervise the crews himself. In the late 1970s, as materials and buyers changed, the company turned toward commercial fishing boats and economical cruising yachts.

The move into fiberglass came with the second generation. Doug's son James, who goes by Bob, worked up the company's first composite designs in the early 1980s, building prototypes at 18, 28 and 35 feet before deciding that a cruiser of about 25 feet for two people was the sweet spot. Deliveries of that boat began in 1987. Bob now leads the firm alongside his own son, Heaton, and their output has shifted to semi-custom professional boats, roughly 6 to 10 meters long, for the Canadian Coast Guard, fisheries enforcement, police forces, search and rescue teams and similar agencies on both sides of the border.

The RF-246 and its second life in New Hampshire

That 25-footer became the RF-246, our covered model, and it is the reason most Americans know the name. Soundings has suggested it may be the first pocket trawler of all. Its roots lie in the Novi boats that Maritime fishermen have used for generations, which gave it a wide, seakindly working hull topped by a tall wheelhouse. Over the years the family offered it in several deck and power configurations, and the model page lays those out along with the hull and cabin details.

By around 2012, with close to 500 hulls delivered over some 25 years and the family's attention turning to government work, Bob sold the tooling to Eastern Boats. Eastern, a Downeast-style builder in Milton, New Hampshire, dating to 1981, kept the design alive as the Rosborough 246, offering three named trim levels powered by a single Honda outboard, and markets it as the original trailerable trawler.

Buying a Rosborough, old or new

Continuity is the brand's strength for US buyers. A 1990s RF-246 can cost little more than a used pickup, while a new Eastern-built 246 comes factory direct with modern outboards and warranty. Used prices run from about $22,000 to $170,000, and some owners have taken them around the Great Loop. Because Eastern still builds on the same hull, it is a natural first call for parts and advice on older boats.

Older boats are simple but now decades old.

• Check deck and wheelhouse coring for moisture near fittings and glazing
• Check sliding door tracks, seals and window gaskets
• Inspect fuel tanks and lines on 1980s and 1990s boats
• Survey the engine installation and transom or bracket
• Confirm whether Rosborough or Eastern built the boat
• Inspect the trailer frame, brakes and bunks