Comeback win V.I. Raiders score 13 points in second
half to upset Langley Rams.
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www.nanaimobulletin.com
TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2015
VOL. 27, NO. 23
Tubber defends championship
I
NATHAN BARLOW chalks up fourth win Sunday.
Protesters planning to block Colliery dam remediation efforts
BY GREG SAKAKI
BY TAMARA CUNNINGHAM
THE NEWS BULLETIN
THE NEWS BULLETIN
The course may have changed, but the champion remained the same. Nathan Barlow won the Great International World Championship Bathtub Race on Sunday in Nanaimo harbour. It was the fourth time Barlow has won the great race, but the first time that he got to ring the bell at the new finish line at Maffeo Sutton Park. “It’s nice to be the first one to do it,” he said. “It’s something new.” Barlow finished the course in his super-modified tub No. 240 in one hour, 15 minutes, 24 seconds, a little over a minute ahead of the second- and third-place finishers. Justin Lofstrom was third to the beach but was second to ring to the bell, just barely edging out Shawn Lamoureux. Lamoureux led until about halfway through the race, when Barlow passed him for good. “I couldn’t keep up with him on the way there, but he couldn’t keep up with me on the way back,” Barlow said. The race course was choppiest from Entrance Island to Maude Island. “Nothing ridiculous,” Barlow said. “Rough enough that you can beat yourself up real good, but not rough
He won the trip to Nanaimo by winning a bathtub race back home. “I’ve had an absolutely amazing time. Everyone’s really looked after me…” Booker said. “It’s an awesome place. You guys have got a really special place out here on the Island.” Dan Faux won the sportsmanship award, Jamie Skipper was the Last Place Finisher and Jamie Westphal took the Silver Plunger award for being the first tub to sink. For more coverage of the annual event, please visit www.nanaimobulletin.com.
Colliery dam protesters are preparing to block the lower Colliery dam remediation project. Dams Direct Action Group president Dave Cutts announced Friday that his group will not stand by and allow trees to be cut, nor a massive trench to be blasted through the park. Cutts, reading a press release from his activist group, said the city has been railroaded by the provincial government into a “costly, destructive and needless project.” His group is prepared to take a stand with measures that include blocking access and camping, and will be inviting activists from other parts of the province to get engaged. Burnaby Mountain, which saw protests last year, is the “perfect example” of the kind of action they will take, Cutts said. “We’re not there just to make a show,” he said. “We’re there to stop the mowing down of those trees. If they don’t take down those trees, they don’t dig a trench.” The protest announcement isn’t unexpected for Nanaimo Mayor Bill McKay, who said the City of Nanaimo will have to take whatever steps necessary to ensure work gets done to comply with the comptroller’s orders. City council unanimously agreed last week to remediate the lower Colliery dam with an auxiliary spillway, estimated to cost between $2.8 million and $4.8 million. The work is estimated by Golder Associates to see 27 trees removed, according to Toby Seward, the city’s acting general manager of community development and protective services, who says the goal is to landscape the area as much as possible after construction is complete. The city expects to be in a position to tender the project by Sept. 1, and must be near complete remediation of the lower dam by midNovember to meet a provincial order. For a timeline of events in the Colliery dam saga, please visit www.nanaimobulletin.com.
sports@nanaimobulletin.com
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GREG SAKAKI/THE NEWS BULLETIN
Cody Drzewiecki steers his tub toward the new finish line at Maffeo Sutton Park on Sunday at the Great International World Championship Bathtub Race.
enough to slow down.” T h e a l t e re d c o u r s e required a little closer attention for the veteran tubbers. “You kind of know in general where you’re aiming for, but you want to make sure,” said Barlow. “[At] Maude Island, Shawn was a little bit in front of me. So you didn’t have to think too much, you just let him do the navigating.” Deisy Garcia was the first female to finish and said she was stoked about the achievement. It was the first time the 14-yearold had entered the great race, and she joked that if
those were calm seas, she wondered what rough seas must be like. “I got hit by a few waves sideways, [but] my boat was great. I didn’t feel that much,” she said. David McHardy of Surrey won the modified division and John Booker of New Zealand was the stock winner. Nanaimo tubber Jaime Garcia provided a boat for Booker, and the New Zealander gave it its first sea trial a day before the great race. “Conditions were really nice for racing,” Booker said. “It was really smooth, it was a really sweet run.”
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