For Tara McDonald, this year's World Championship Bathtub Race was anything but ordinary. (Joel Pelletier)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

hair-raising moment

Top stories of 2023: Annual bathtub race provided all-time whale-tale

Dec 24, 2023 | 9:10 AM

NANAIMO — While pristine conditions meant a largely uneventful race for most participants, a rookie tubber nearly soiled her wet suit while racing off the Neck Point area.

Tara McDonald’s debut in the World Championship Bathtub Race was an unforgettable one, as her super modified Harris Auto Group tub came within feet of a large surfacing humpback whale.

She was cruising toward the Winchelsea Islands on the first lag of the race, when she realized a whale was in the vicinity.

It surfaced beside her tub, then went beneath the surface.

“I knew he was going to come up right in front of me and he came up like maybe 50 feet from me and then I just screamed and just kept driving and prayed he didn’t put his tale in the air,” McDonald said at the finish line.

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It was a terrifying sequence, she said, not knowing if she’d be accidentally knocked over by the enormous mammal.

In fact, McDonald was so close the the humpack that she could see numerous barnacles latched onto it.

Family members and supporters were on the trailing escort boat.

He son Riley said it was a little scary, but “very cool” to get an up-close look at the whale.

“I just came out of the bathroom and I heard everyone screaming and I popped my head out and I was like ‘holy molly, there’s a whale.’ I thought she ran it over,” Riley McDonald told NanaimoNewsNOW.

McDonald finished the race, a strong accomplishment for a first-time tubber in a field of 36 participants in which eight did not finish.

Tara McDonald and her son Riley shortly after experiencing the thrill and fright of a lifetime. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

The Sunday, July 23 World Championship Bathtub Race was won by long-time participant and first-time winner Brandon Skipper.

The Nanaimo resident clocked a record time, finishing the 58 kilometre race in just one hour and 45 seconds.

With the bathtub race complete, the Nanaimo Marine Festival came to a close Sunday afternoon, capping three consecutive weekends of marine based activities on the Harbour City’s waterfront.

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