By Dominic Abassi

Bathtub Race a Right of Passage in Nanaimo

Jul 22, 2016 | 2:15 PM

Turning a bathtub into a boat worthy of racing in the ocean.

It’s a concept that may seem crazy, but in Nanaimo, over the last 49 years, it has become a tradition and an event that has put the harbour city on the global map.

Sunday, July 24, at 11am racers will set out from Maffeo Sutton Park for the 50th running of the World Championship Bathtub Race.

Former mayor and past commodore John Ruttan says the made-in-Nanaimo event has spawned similar races in South East Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong Harbour and the UK.

“I don’t think anyone today ever expected that Frank Ney’s kind of a tongue-in-cheek thing that started back in 1967 would ever last. And here we are with our 50th annual race. It’s really become a right of passage for young people that get involved in bathtub racing,” said Ruttan.

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Families seem to be passing on the tradition of bathtub racing, says Ruttan.

“It’s passed on to sons and daughters. We have a number of young people whose parents raced in tubs that are going to be out there on the water. It’s something we didn’t anticipate that you get a strong family bond in this bathtub racing, but that’s what’s happening.”

For the second year in a row, tubbers will start and finish in Maffeo Sutton. That move has been key to centralizing the festivities. The race used to start in the downtown harbour but finish at Departure Bay Beach.

Ruttan says the record time, he believes, is around an hour and ten minutes, but they’re not expecting any records to be broken this year. He says when the race used to run from Nanaimo across the Strait to Vancouver, you could get lucky if the wind was behind you the whole way.

Now that the course runs near Winchelsea Island and Nanoose Bay and doubles back on itself, it’s a challenge one way for sure.

“If the wind is assisting on the way out, it won’t be on the way back. When you’re doing a 180 degree turn and heading back, you’re either going to have good weather going with you and bad weather going back, or the other way around.”

Ruttan thinks that’s why the new course has become so popular, because of the challenge it poses to the tubbers.

Nanaimo’s Nathan Barlow is the back-to-back defending champion. He won for the second straight year, his fourth overall title, with a time of 1:15:24 last year.

Ruttan says another celebration is planned for next year, since this is the 50th race, but the 49th year for the Festival. So next year, he says, they’ll celebrate 51 races over 50 years.

For full details on all of the events and the race, go to bathtubbing.com.