Is there anyone in Canada who doesn’t know that the Bluenose schooner is on the back of the Canadian dime? If there is, B.C. author Keith McLaren tells them this fat three or four times in his new book. But that is my only quibble with this superb story of the sea.

In today’s wired world, we don’t have to leave home to watch the Super Bowl or the Olympics. It was a lot harder to get your entertainment fix 80 years ago, but that didn’t stop thousands from standing on the rocky shores of Nova Scotia and Massachusetts in driving wind and rain, straining to catch glimpses of their favourite schooner racing through a marked course. Skillful captains became heroes, winning boats were idolized, and the result became a matter of national prestige.

The International Fishermen’s Cup was initiated in 1920 in response to the dandification of the Americas Cup. It was intended as a race for working boats sailed by working men. The race eventually became much more than that, and acrimony plagued its two-decade history.

McLaren tells the story of the race and the Bluenose, but he does much more. A Race for Real Sailors paints a vivid picture of the dangerous life of a deep-water fisherman as his world is being taken over by safer but much less romantic trawlers. McLaren’s riveting race descriptions are interspersed with fascinating background facts – the actor Sterling Hayden was top rigging man on one of the Bluenose’s last competitors – and vivid contemporary language – the Bluenose streaks home in one race “like a kerosened cat through Hades.”

This is a book for anyone with an interest in the iconic Bluenose, Canadian history, the sea, or just a darned good story.