Buying Our Pocket Trawler

After years of researching and whittling down the multitude of choices for probably our final boat. A couple of years ago I came across a Yachtworld  article about "Pocket Trawlers" 5 for value and versatility. I was fascinated by the thought of trailerable boats that were seaworthy enough to safely take you to the Bahamas and back. I started looking at C-Dorys and Rosboroughs online. I kept coming back to the Rosborough because of the fact that they have 2 side doors for easy docking and locking.

 

So I joined the Rosborough Yahoo group in July of 2014. The previous groups that I had subscribed to were a Mainship Group, Camano and Schucker. All very seaworthy boats but none trailerable.  

 

Since then we have been to numerous boat shows and seen several Ranger Tugs and Cutwaters. Both beautiful and capable boats, unfortunately both are still a bit out of our price range. Still had never seen a Rosborough in person. We were planning a Gulf Shores, Alabama vacation in September of 2015 so I decided to ask on the group if there were any owners down along the Gulf who would like to show off their boat. No body from the Gulf coast answered, but I got 3 invitations within a one day drive. We decided to take up the offer from a kind gentleman who keeps his boat just off lake Erie on the Detroit river. We made a Lake Erie weekend of it and on August 8, 2015 we got to see our first Rossi.

Our host was very kind and informative, he showed us how the boat behaved in different conditions. Let me drive it and showed us how much storage is available . Getting my wife on the boat finally got her to see the potential of the somewhat utilitarian looking vessel.

 

If we were ever to buy one we would need the proper truck to tow it. Things seemed to be lining up well all of a sudden. My 2002 F150 was starting to disintegrate so knowing what we needed for the future, we purchased a 2012 F250 Super Duty. I love my new truck, although it can certainly feel like a truck with it's beefy suspension and E rated tires, I have read that you can lower the pressure quite a bit from the recommended when not towing. Not sure how that affects wear.

 

 

On August 14, 2015 I saw a 1999 RF-246 listed on the group site and requested more info. The seller sent me some pictures that I shared with my wife. The owner had removed the convertible dinette and replaced it with a twin mattress, I remembered having seen that in some owners modification files and liked it. The boat came with 2 2012 60HP Yamaha 4 stroke outboards as well as a 2012 Shorelander trailer, some nice Gamin electronics and the cockpit hard cover. Overall practically everything I wanted at a fair price. After deciding we could actually swing the purchase we worked out the details with the seller and planned for our 1600 mile round trip in 3 days.

 

On Friday the 4th of September we took off from just outside of Columbus, Ohio heading for Middlebury, Vermont. We arrived at the Middlebury Inn about 12 hours later, the last 150 miles or so driving mostly small state and county roads in the dark.  The next day we met up with the seller and he went over the boat with us, we then went to the local credit union to get the bills of  sale notarized before the banks closed. He then showed us around this lovely little town and showed us the Inn

that was used in the Newhart show for the exterior shots .

 We then went back to his house and he hooked up "Cloud Nine" and we followed him to the Ft. Ticonderoga ramp on Lake Champlain. We did a short sea trial and became the proud new owners of the 1999 Rosborough RF-246 Cloud Nine. He said that the previous owners had named the boat, I told him that we liked the name and had no intention of changing it.

 From there we headed towards Syracuse, about 200 miles towing an 8000 pound plus boat and trailer taking the scenic route through the Adirondacks for the first time. The white knuckles calmed down after awhile and we spent the night in a Hotel outside of Syracuse. The next day we headed home and hoped to put Cloud Nine back in the water in Senecaville Lake outside of Cambridge, Ohio. But after 500 miles we didn't have the energy to deal with Labor day weekend  ramp traffic, so we continued home. Three days and 1600 miles later we were back home with our new to us trailerable trawler.

On Labor Day my best friend came over and we hauled "Cloud Nine" back out to Senecaville Lake to put her back in the water for the last few weeks of the season.

 

   Only got spend a couple of days and one night on board for this season. I got to try out the inner spring mattress bed that the previous owner installed and it was quite comfortable. The only issue I have with it, is how difficult it makes getting to the storage underneath it.

We purchased a 6 inch memory foam mattress that I might try there to see how it compares comfort wise and access wise.

Nothing like a good breakfast to start your day out right, the propane stove is awesome for when we aren't at the dock. We are now anxiously waiting for spring. We are hoping to get a slip on the Ohio river for the 2016 season.