Trevor Short hustles toward the finishing bell after landing at Swy-A-Lana Lagoon on Sunday, July 27 to win the 2025 World Championship Bathtub Race. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Ian Holmes

bathtub race

Back-to-back champ: Trevor Short reclaims Nanaimo bathtub race supremacy

Jul 27, 2025 | 3:23 PM

NANAIMO — A longtime tubber with a history of being a top finisher reclaimed his World Championship Bathtub Race title.

Trevor Short of Ladysmith zipped back into Nanaimo Harbour on his super-modified tub, ringing the bell with an unofficial time of 1:17:46 to win this year’s race in front of thousands of onlookers at Maffeo Sutton Park.

The 33-year-old Short in tub #002 named ‘Short Circuit’ is a three-time winner, and won last year’s race.

“It was good weather for me, we had a good start this year, there was a couple boats that flew past me at the start that were having a great race and then some of us just chose different lines and certain things favoured us,” Short told NanaimoNewsNOW.

Loyal Nanaimo Bathtub Society Commodore Greg Peacock congratulates an elated Trevor Short. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

above and beyond

Long-time Qualicum Beach volunteer awarded for lifetime of giving back

1h ago

shine bright

New downtown Nanaimo art installation creating a sensory experience

4h ago

One Goal Short

Clippers lose game of lead changes in Cowichan Valley

12h ago

Short was in first place for the back half of the 58 kilometre race on Sunday, July 27, which starts and finishes at Maffeo Sutton Park after encircling the Winchelsea Islands.

Reclaiming his tubber title was far from sure bet for Short, who pointed to a high-event practice run the day prior on Brannen Lake.

“I definitely didn’t expect it this year,” Short said. “We had some mishaps yesterday, but we worked through. I sheared off a prop (propeller) shaft in the lake, so I lost my race-winning prop from last year. I dropped about three-miles-an-hour swapping props today.”

Trevor Short re-enters Nanaimo Harbour, with thousands of people cheering on the repeat bathtub race champion. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

In addition to shaving about 20 minutes off his 2024 winning race which was staged during choppier seas, Short also won the 2018 bathtub race.

In second place was fellow super-modified entrant Jamie Garcia, who won the 2022 race.

Garcia, who has about 20 bathtub races to his name, finished this time around with a time of 1:20:30.

Garcia said he lost his escort boat after rounding Winchelsea Islands, which he said slowed him down as he changed routes.

“I’m not going to stop, so I might as well stay close to the shore and if something breaks I can drag it to the beach and I’m good,” Garcia said.

An escort boat from another team then began to track Garcia at Neck Point, who then hammered down the throttle to the finish line, just four seconds clear of the third-place finisher.

Much like Short, Garcia had a boat malfunction during a final Saturday tune-up ride on Brannen Lake.

Garcia launched out of his tub on the lake, with his boat then rolling, leading to extensive damage.

“We were up until midnight last night fiber-glassing and repairing everything that we broke on my boat…It’s been a weekend,” Garcia chuckled.

Brandon Leigh was chasing down Garcia in a tight contest for second place.

A battered Leigh was constantly nose-diving his tub in the exposed section of the course between Winchelsea Islands and Protection Island.

While running up the ramp to ring the bell, the wobbly-legged Leigh had a hard landing when he tripped.

“My legs are banged up, I’m bruised and burned, that’s what comes with it,” Leigh said following the grueling race.

Brandon Leigh face-plants as Garcia rings the bell. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

While weather conditions were fairly cooperative, with southeast winds of 10-15 knots, gusts were more than enough to make for a bumpy ride.

The top stock boat finisher was Kade Dwolinsky, while Marian Stewart was the first of five women to complete the race.

Joe Marcoux, born and raised in Naniamo, has been a regular bathtub race competitor since 2005.

The 58-year-olds’ race was essentially over before it started.

The super-modified racer made a mistake he’ll likely never make again.

He switched hands on his motor to give his arm a rest as the opening cannon blast to start the race fired.

“I pulled the plug out on my kill switch. It was kind of choppy where I was, a couple quick waves and I was swamped. As the cannon was going off my tub was flipping upside down.”

Frantic after accidentally shutting his motor off, Marcoux’s tub completely flipped, ending his race.

“I was swamped right away; I didn’t have a chance,” Marcoux said, who was towed to shore and his tub drained.

While he was disappointed, Joe Marcoux was able to laugh about his bathtub race blunder (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

Forty-two participants took part in this year’s race split evenly between stock and super-modified entrants.

Loyal Nanaimo Bathtub Society commodore Greg Peacock was thrilled with how the entire weekend went.

A large video board at the finish line debuted this year, showing portions of the race and GPS trackers pegging where each boat was, which coincided with a live YouTube stream.

“We want to thank all of the officials that allowed that to happen and worked with us to get the proper permits in place, it’s very exciting,” Peacock said.

Trevor Short is a perennial annual bathtub race threat. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

Subscribe to our daily news wrap. Local news delivered to your email inbox every evening. Stay up to date on everything Nanaimo and Oceanside.

info@nanaimonewsnow.com

Follow us on: Twitter (X) | Bluesky | Facebook