From the Rotary Club of Huntsville
Like any large one-day community event, the actual ‘event’ is the culmination of many, many hours of planning and executing and the return of the Rotary Dockfest Bathtub Derby is no exception. In fact, the 2024 edition, coming up on Saturday, June 29, as part of the Town’s Canada Day celebrations, offered an even larger than normal number of challenges.
The COVID pandemic caused the cancellation of the 2020 and 2021 races, and the Rotary Club of Huntsville was unsure how the return of the event would be accepted. It got to the point where the club was considering selling off the boats and motors until club member Jamie Thompson stepped up and gave a passionate appeal that the bathtub races should return.
With a leader in place, the club members bought into the plans and started to investigate community support. That’s when the second key addition came into place. Jan Nyquist, owner of local companies NyDock and Pipefusion and a previous strong supporter of the event, stepped up, proclaiming that the 2024 Dockfest would not just return, it would be ‘bigger and better than ever.’ In the ensuing months, Jan has not only supported the Dockfest organization with sponsorship dollars, but he has committed his company, NyDock, to construct a couple of new course obstacles and also to have his employees support Rotarians on race day. One of the first things the committee worked on was the development of a new Dockfest logo. Playing on the theme of the Bathtub Races and Canada Day, the resulting creation speaks perfectly to the fun the event aims to provide.
The tubs and motors had been in storage for four years. Each piece had to be inspected and repaired where necessary. Ongoing efforts to contact previous tub racers and identify new businesses that wanted to join the fun were extremely successful—so successful that the tubs are sold out for this year. A common thread became very clear—Dockfest is a fun event, and people missed it!
After the repairs were done, the tubs had to be delivered to the race participants a few weeks before the event so they could decorate them accordingly. Decorations could include company logos and colours or some other zany design that might impress the judges during the pre-race parade down Main St.
Working with the Huntsville Festival of the Arts, music in the park and various family activities have been planned as well as a water stunt show during breaks in the races and after the final heat. More detail on both offerings will be given in future weeks.
All in all, the Dockfest/Bathtub Derby is a large undertaking but, in the eyes of the committee members, fully worth the effort. Please join us on Saturday, June 29, on Main Street for the 10 a.m. parade and on the docks of Downtown Huntsville for the races at 11 a.m., the start of a day of fun for the whole family.
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Thanks Jan for Your support…Apparently there is a excellent local Pipe & Drum group who will lead the bath tubbers to River Mill Park .
Sounds Exciting !
Many thanks to my partners Brad and Ginny Payne and all of the staff at Pipefusion (NyDock) for their hard work and dedication and the preparations they have made so far in this initiative for the past several months. We could not do what we are about to do on June 29th without their ingenuity, support and commitment for this event! The best is yet to come! Also, the contribution and participation of our MAJOR/VIP sponsors such as Lovegrove Construction, RBC (Connor Ryan) Wealth Management, North Country Contracting Muskoka, Sandhill Nursery and BDO, not to mention other sponsors and all of the Tub Racers has been amazing. Many others, too many to mention have stepped up to the plate as participants and supporters even MPP Graydon Smith! There is not enough room on this page to mention them all. Those who have not been mentioned are not forgotten and will be recognized! The hard work and resilience of the Huntsville Rotary Club is amazing! Huntsville is fortunate to have such a talented and hard working club and team of talented and dedicated members who work so hard to represent our interests every day; and do volunteer work in our community for the overall good of our town! Why do they do this? Because they want to! We welcome all of you in the community for an exciting day of “TUB RACING” full of many surprises on June 29th! We can’t wait to see you all there. It is going to be one incredible, amazing day!
Jan Nyquist
President and Founder
Pipefusion Services Inc. (NyDock)