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, a raised transom, a keel-mounted rudder on a fixed long keel.

[2] 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.

[6] Other local builders in Nova Scotia also built the design, with 77 wooden versions eventually completed.

[2] In 1960 Roué granted rights to produce the design in fibreglass to McVay Fiberglass Yachts of Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, which built them until 1972.

[2][7] As of 2018, Snyder's Shipyard in Dayspring, Nova Scotia is the only boatbuilder licensed to build Bluenose class sloops from W.J.

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 Maritime Bluenose Championships are now contested by boats from the local fleets and are held in Halifax and Chester in alternating years.

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.