Real Trawler Yachts
with Style and Substance
Credit: Neil Leblanc
BY GLEN CAIRNS
Commercial yards in Nova Scotia are
adapting to the evolving marine
marktplace by building serious long-range cruisers on heavy-duty workboat
hulls. Here is one of those stories.
Downeast style yachts have always
been popular with a certain segment of
the boating community, many of them
ex-sailors who appreciate the boat’s classic lines. Most people picture a
“downeast” style yacht as something
derived from a New England lobster
boat – a high lean bow and a sweeping
sheer to a low stern. The most elegant
evolution of this would probably be the
Hinckley “picnic boats”. A large number
of excellent cruising boats have been
based on this model, but they do have
limitations. The bow is usually narrow,
limiting accommodation forward and
the low freeboard aft can make for very
tall cabin structures.
Moving further downeast to the
Maritime provinces, the lobster yacht is
a more recent development. For many
boaters the conversion of an old lobster
boat to recreational use was just a matter
of economics. Many of these converted
workboats provided their owners with
great cruising at a very small cost. They
ranged from tidy conversions to some
rather awkward looking boats with the
proverbial chicken coop on the stern
deck. Adding a flying bridge and stabili-
Fishing 100 miles off Nova Scotia in
November and December is no picnic
(and no place for a “picnic boat”), so
these lobster boats have to be tough
and seaworthy.
ty was sometimes an issue. With the
coming of fibreglass fishing boats, the
wide variety of local boat styles have
evolved into two major and very different types of boat.
What is commonly called the
“Northumberland” style is found mostly along the north shore of Nova
Scotia, on Prince Edward Island and
along the gulf coast of New Brunswick.
The New Brunswick boats have a distinctive flared bow while those from
