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The rules restrict the engine to 9.9 hp (7.3 kW), and the weight to a minimum of 350 lb (159 kg) including driver. There are three classes of bathtub boats: Stock, Modified, and Super-Modified. Stock motors must be an unmodified stock engine, but can be Engine tuning by adjusting the Ignition timing. Modified motors can only modify the lower leg and propeller. Super Modified can modify the entire engine as long as factory parts are used.
Frank Ney, Nanaimo's mayor at the time, was one of the largest supporters and promoters of the annual race from its establishment until his death in 1992, and was an avid participant. He would regularly dress as a pirate and tour the town and surrounding communities.
Until the 1990s, the race was held as a part of Vancouver's annual Sea Festival, aka Sea Fest, when tubbers raced from Nanaimo to Vancouver's Kitsilano Beach. With the demise of the Vancouver Marine Festival in the mid-1990s, the race now involves a course beginning and ending in Nanaimo Harbour.
The current course takes the tubbers into the open waters of Georgia Strait and is currently 58 kilometres in length. The race is held the last weekend of July every year.
Other cities, like Auckland North Shore with its Englefield Bathtub Derby, and Bremerton, Washington with the US-Canadian Friendship race now hold bathtub races, but the Nanaimo event continues to be the most widely known.
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