The Bluenose is a Canadian

sailboat A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails and is smaller than a sailing ship. Distinctions in what constitutes a sailing boat and ship vary by region and maritime culture. Types Although sailboat terminolo ...

, that was designed by

William James Roué William James Roué (April 27, 1879 – January 14, 1970) was a naval architect famous for his design of the ''Bluenose'' fishing schooner, which sailed to victory in the Halifax Herald International Fisherman's competition in 1921, 1922, 1923, 19 ...

as a one design racer and first built in 1946. Roué was also the designer of the

Bluenose ''Bluenose'' was a fishing and racing gaff rig schooner built in 1921 in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada. A celebrated racing ship and fishing vessel, ''Bluenose'' under the command of Angus Walters, became a provincial icon for Nova Scotia and ...

racing schooner, built in 1921. The term ''Bluenoser'' is a nickname for people from

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

Production

Roué produced a design, at the request of a group from the Armdale Yacht Club in Halifax, for a small one-design sloop that would be both fast and elegant and could be sailed easily by two or three people. The schooner Bluenose was still afloat, but had been sold to the West Indian Trading Company for use as a freighter. The new class was given the name Bluenose to help perpetuate the memory of the great champion. The first Bluenose class sloops were launched in the spring of 1946, just months after Bluenose was lost on a Haitian reef. The first twelve boats were constructed at the same time together by their first owners under the direction of master boatbuilder John H. Barkhouse, of Barkhouse Boatyard in Chester, Nova Scotia. Many of these original twelve boats are still actively sailed or even raced. B1 was allowed to fall into a state of disrepair, but has since been restored and is on display at the

Maritime Museum of the Atlantic The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic is a maritime museum located in downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The museum is a member institution of the Nova Scotia Museum and is the oldest and largest maritime museum in Canada with a collection o ...

. These first boats were carvel-built of pine planking on oak frames. Production was brisk in the early years, with as many as fifty boats built by 1949. Other local builders in Nova Scotia also built the design, with 77 wooden versions eventually completed.

McVay production

In 1960 Roué granted rights to produce the design in

fibreglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass clo ...

to McVay Fiberglass Yachts of

Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia Mahone Bay is a town on the northwest shore of Mahone Bay along the South Shore of Nova Scotia in Lunenburg County. A long-standing picturesque tourism destination, the town has recently enjoyed a growing reputation as a haven for entrepreneur ...

, which built them until 1972. George William McVay had founded his company after he left

Paceship Yachts Paceship Yachts Limited was a Canada, Canadian, and later United States, American, boat builder originally based in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. The company was founded in 1962 and specialized in the design and manufacture of fiberglass sailboats. ...

. Herring Cove Marine of Herring Cove, Nova Scotia was producing the boat in 2010, but seems to have gone out of business by 2018. A total of 180 examples were completed by the time production ended.

Snyder's production

As of 2018, Snyder's Shipyard in

Dayspring, Nova Scotia Dayspring is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located on the banks of the Lahave River in the Lunenburg Municipal District in Lunenburg County. It is home to the traditional wooden shipyard, Snyder's Shipyard, builders of ...

is the only boatbuilder licensed to build Bluenose class sloops from W.J. Roue’s design. At least one Bluenose class sloop was constructed of wood by Snyder's Shipyard in 2007.

Design

The Bluenose is a small recreational

keelboat A keelboat is a riverine cargo-capable working boat, or a small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yacht. The boats in the first category have shallow structural keels, and are nearly flat-bottomed and often used leeboards if forced in open w ...

, with early versions built from wood and later ones built predominantly of

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass clo ...

, with wood trim. The wooden boats are open-topped, while the fibreglass versions have a small cuddy-cabin aft of the mast. The design features a fractional sloop rig, a

raked stem The stem is the most forward part of a boat or ship's bow and is an extension of the keel itself. It is often found on wooden boats or ships, but not exclusively. Description The stem is the curved edge stretching from the keel below, up to ...

, a raised transom, a keel-mounted

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally air or water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adve ...

on a fixed long

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...

. Some were also built with a

centreboard A centreboard or centerboard (US) is a retractable hull appendage which pivots out of a slot in the hull of a sailboat, known as a ''centreboard trunk'' (UK) or ''centerboard case'' (US). The retractability allows the centreboard to be raised t ...

in place of the long keel. It displaces and carries of ballast. The boat has a draft of with the standard long keel fitted. The boat may be fitted with a small

outboard motor An outboard motor is a propulsion system for boats, consisting of a self-contained unit that includes engine, gearbox and propeller or jet drive, designed to be affixed to the outside of the transom. They are the most common motorised method ...

for docking and maneuvering.

Operational history

The two original builders eventually produced 77 wooden boats between them. Some of the boats migrated throughout the Maritime Provinces, to Ontario and to the New England states, but the core of the fleet remains in Nova Scotia, centred mainly in Halifax but with fleets raced in Chester and Lunenburg.

Bluenose Class Racing

Although the fleet is now more than 70 years old, many of the boats are in very good condition. It is not uncommon that twenty or more yachts from the Halifax and Chester areas compete in a single event. Individual clubs also run smaller one-design races and handicap racing in club fleets is popular, as the size of the fleet makes it possible to establish a reasonable handicap without unduly penalizing the best skippers and crews. The Chester Bluenose fleet is the largest one-design keelboat fleet in Atlantic Canada and has an active racing schedule from June through September. In July and August there are races on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Sunday afternoons. Some fleet members also join the PHRF races on Saturday afternoons. In addition to these regularly scheduled races, there is a distance race (the "Extreme Race"), the Bluenose Maritime Championships and Chester Race Week. In June and September the fleet has races on Thursday evenings and Saturday afternoons.

The Maritime Bluenose Championships

In August 1949, the

Halifax Herald ''The Chronicle Herald'' is a broadsheet newspaper published in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada owned by SaltWire Network of Halifax. The paper's newsroom staff were locked out of work from January 2016 until August 2017. ''Herald'' management cont ...

donated the International Bluenose Class Championship Trophy, as it had done for the International Fishermen’s Trophy twenty-eight years earlier. The winner that year was a crew from Marblehead, Massachusetts. A championship competition, open to all Bluenose sloops, is still held every year. However, the international format was abandoned after several boats swamped and sank during a particularly stormy weekend of racing. The Maritime Bluenose Championships are now contested by boats from the local fleets and are held in Halifax and Chester in alternating years. The format of the contest has changed only slightly over the years. It is held during the last weekend of August and, since 1986, has alternated location between Halifax and Chester. Five races are sailed, ideally with three on Saturday and two on Sunday. Occasionally, conditions are such that three races can not be completed on Saturday, in which case at most three are sailed on Sunday. If fewer than three races are completed in total, the trophy is not awarded. The course is an Olympic triangle or, in more recent years, a windward-leeward configuration race, with legs ranging from 1/2 – 2 miles in length, depending on the wind and sea conditions. The winner is determined using the Olympic scoring system. Each yacht must comply with class specification rules and carry a crew of exactly three (not two, and certainly not four).

References

External links

*{{Commons category-inline Keelboats 1940s sailboat type designs Sailing yachts Sailboat type designs by William James Roué Sailboat types built by McVay Fiberglass Yachts Sailboat types built by Snyder's Shipyard Sailboat types built by Barkhouse Boatyard