This article originally appeared in Best of the City 2017 magazine. To read the e-edition of that publication, click here.
What started as a centennial celebration continues for Canada’s sesquicentennial.
The Great International World Championship Bathtub Race marks a milestone in 2017, and one that recalls its not-at-all-humble beginnings in 1967.
The race was originally conceived by Nanaimo’s Centennial Committee, chaired by Frank Ney.
“If you go back to 1967, this was a fun thing, but it was intended to promote Nanaimo. With Frank Ney, that was his key,” said Greg Peacock, second vice-commodore with the society.
According to Frank Ney: A Canadian Legend by Paul Gogo, the city council at the time approved the first bathtub race with the understanding that it would just be a jaunt over to Gabriola Island, but then Ney and the committee started thinking bigger.
“There was of course absolutely no guarantee that a bathtub could make it all the way to Vancouver,” Gogo writes. “The idea was unfounded and completely silly. Somehow it struck a nerve that excited the spirit of the times.”
Bill McGuire, commodore of the Loyal Nanaimo Bathtub Society, participated in the first race with more of a comic entry than a vessel that could actually make it across the strait. His thinking was similar to that of other tubbers that first year.
“It was more of a – I won’t say a stunt, but it was more, ‘oh, they’ll just race over to Protection Island and then that’ll be it and then they’ll all end up in the [pub],’” he said. “Little did we know.”
A fleet of 232 tubbers set sail in 1967 in an event that did indeed put Nanaimo on the map, with more than 40 newspaper reporters coming to cover the event. Most of the tubs sank early on, but 41 of them managed to complete the 36 nautical miles to the finish line.
“In … old footage you’ll see what some of the bathtubs used to look like in the past,” Peacock said. “Some people would just take a piece of plywood and bend the nose of it up a little and glue a bathtub to it and hang an outboard off the back of it. And some of them made it to Vancouver.”
McGuire continued to participate the second year, which again drew a crowded fleet of competitors.
“My escort boat, he literally abandoned me in the harbour. He said, ‘hey, I’m not going to get my boat smashed up in here,’” McGuire said, pointing out that over the ensuing years, the society continued to tweak the race to make safety a priority.
“I think we erred on the side of safety as opposed to making it as spectacular as it was the first few years,” he said.
But although the spectacle of 200-plus tubs isn’t seen nowadays, the great race continues to be the signature event of summer in the Harbour City. The course route has changed, now starting and finishing in Nanaimo, but the tubs cover the same 36 nautical miles, and the super-modified vessels continue to establish new world record bathtub speed records.
This year there was a special commemorative bathtub run to Vancouver on July 1 and the great race is Sunday (July 23).
“I think everybody is surprised, myself included, that it’s gone on for 50 years,” McGuire said.
The 2017 Great International World Championship Bathtub Race is Sunday at 11 a.m. at Maffeo Sutton Park. For a program with information about all Nanaimo Marine Festival events, click here.
Check our website Thursday for a preview of the great race and other marine festival events.