What sucks for a newb is that he can't easily get out of the newb area. With a boat, he can sail until he finds a nice spot (one with trees). However, there's a catch 22, because he needs trees to make a boat, and there are none near RoB. So, how to get around this? Give every new character a boat.
Obviously, this boat should be somehow worse than the rowboats we build, so the current rowboats aren't rendered obsolete. I think that making it a single-person boat that can't carry any items would be sufficient. It could be some kind of a hide and branches canoe, I guess. When the introduction quests system gets implemented, maybe the boat should be granted upon completing all the intro quests, so people can learn about conservation of natural resources before they're set loose.
Next map we'll probably have proper seas and stuff. If that happens, RoB should be placed on a tiny island very close to mainland (so it's obvious which direction you need to sail). Place an uncuttable apple tree and an uncarvable boulder on this island, and the newbs will have everything they need to get the precious first couple of of hundreds of LPs while they're solving the intro quests. It should be impossible to make any claims on the RoB island, of course.