Great Annual Bathtub Race (1970)

[Music] Nimo British Columbia has many distinguishing landmarks the Bastion a relic of earlier and more dangerous days is just one of [Applause] [Music] them the modern fairies from the mainland come and go in the busy Harvest [Music] and for 364 days a year the people of Nimo go about their business in a calm and orderly fashion there is nothing to make you suspect that underneath this plaset exterior lurks a strange Mania a preoccupation with bathtubs [Music] the people don't look strange and they don't act strange they seem content with their local amenities and such diversions as May occasionally come their [Music] way hey got any bathtubs bathtubs to go across the [Music] street now there are bathtubs and there are bathtubs although there may not seem to be too much difference to the inexperienced eye but people of all ages in Nimo know a good tub when they see one [Music] a good tub has two important characteristics it must be light and watertight not to keep the water in to keep the water out there are easier ways to get the Vancouver but for one glorious day every year Nimo is not interested in the easy way I found one over [Music] there early each summer people scour the city for tubs and the backyards of mono are converted into miniature shipyards each devoted to the production of one Splendid vessel [Music] [Music] [Music] the hot competition for suitable craft drives the price of old bathtubs to dizzy Heights thanks Big Spender now you may wonder what possesses these otherwise sane and normal folk to go more than 20 miles in such an outlandish craft as a bathtu the answer is simple once a year the sporting blood of the people of Nimo comes to a boil for the great annual bathtub race it started as a centennial celebration and it grew into a way of life the fever has now spread far and wide but it's nimo's event and they proudly claim the title The ctub capital of the [Music] world the rules of the race are really quite simple cross the straight of Georgia in a bathtub some use fiberglass castings while our true purists here insist upon the genuine article every means of flotation known to man is permitted but the maximum engine size is limited 2 six [Music] horsepower now building a bathtub that will survive this kind of a voyage calls for coordination of effort close study of the fine points of marine design and lots of skilled help well they won't need that but in spite of everything the craft slowly goes together the tub is mounted on a planing Hull the engine is installed it's checked and tuned none too soon either it's the day before the race and the city has entered the first stages of its annual Madness the harbor is filling up with a weird and wonderful collection of of craft all Milling about under the piratical eye of Mayor Frank nay the admiral of the bathtub race [Music] festivities meanwhile back at the shipyard it won't be long before another addition to the bathtub Navy will be ready to be commissioned there is but derision and Scorn to be heaped upon the creation of others necessary preliminaries for any serious competition the day before the race is given over to Sea trials and aail past seagoing bathtubs may look peculiar but some of them display a handy turn of speed under the critical observation from the experts on shore race day Now's the Time when all the painstaking design and elaborate Theory put into points will be put to the test it's a long way to Vancouver and a glorified bathtub is not the most comfortable vessel [Music] afloat poits has never been in the water before so no one knows if she will even float let alone survived the [Music] race hey she seems to float pretty well the harbor is a bedum with contestant making last minute trials as escort boats Circle for their position and points does what bathtubs were designed to do take in a little water the crack of the starting gun unleashes the whole crazy Armada surging towards the harbor Mo heading for the Open Sea a special Lookout is posted to pick out the first swamp tubber he's going to be presented with the special award the order of the golden plunger [Music] when the race was first run mayor nay and his bathtub Society staff anticipated a turnout of maybe 8 to 10 tubs this year upwards of 600 assorted vessels have joined in this Mad Dash for the mainland [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] now the tubs may look like a marine engineer's nightmare but they are [Applause] [Music] effective the winners Hammer over the 23m course in two spray drenched hours the great annual bathtub race is held in conjunction with Vancouver Sea Festival and thousands of vancouverites jam the beaches at the Finish Line the winner May surge across in 2 hours but not everybody wins while the victory celebrations begin in Vancouver a long trail of lonely water log Tubbs stretches back across the sea to this Gallant band winning is no longer a prime consideration now it's a matter of keeping the tub afloat and making it to the finish line [Music] [Applause] [Music] by the time our wet and weary hero straggles in the welcome has already begun to wear thin but to the dedicated tubber none of this really matters over 3/4 of the Brave company who started came to grief so it's really making it that [Music] counts hi Dad yeah I made it well only around 45th had to bail most of the way the motor and for all the tubers who made it some hard-earned recognition a small object but in Nyo it's highly prized the golden bathtub award now the prizes and Praises are distributed brief speeches made and lots of [Applause] kissing you're now on the upper deck ra courage and true B bathtub seamanship my compliments in your golden bathtub award today British com has proved that they lead the world in bathtub technology and around here people seem to prefer cornic culture where's my bathtub bottle where's my bottle where's my bathtu thank you mayor nay so that's the end of bathtub Mania for another year our proud and somewhat smug hero goes home by a more Orthodox means of transportation and his life returns to normal or doesn't just wait until next year [Music] [Applause] [Music]