A quick history of the most fun you can have with your clothes on

In the beginning there was a bath.

A cast iron bath.

Despite their weight, it was in the rules that they had to be cast iron.

That was probably 25 years ago when I first came across what was then called The Grand Arun Bath Race.

It used to start on the west bank of the River Arun in Arundel, just south of the A27 road bridge. Behind the Arundel Fire Station, and before the housing development, there used to be a large flat and mostly concrete area which made a perfect paddock and place for unloading and working on racing baths.

There used to be over 100 entries including companies such as British Airways and the BBC, who would race (with the tide!) approximately 5 miles down to Littlehampton harbour, and come up the slipway by the lifeboat.

There were three categories, Formula 1, Classic, and Original.

The Formula 1 baths were long slim canoe shaped vessels designed purely for speed. The Classic entries were to be no bigger than 6 feet long by 8 feet wide, and the Original baths were the most basic of structures using the minimum of floatation. These would often be baths with just an inner tube around them, or lots of plastic bottles tied to them.

Prize giving, a few beers and a barbecue would then be enjoyed at The Britannia pub which no longer exists.

When the houses were built behind the fire station in 1990, the race start moved down to the Ship & Anchor pub at Ford which has a small jetty and slipway (south of the railway station). This cut a couple of miles off, but the route was still down to Littlehampton.

After a couple of years, and despite the race being in aid of the RNLI, the boat owners at Ford complained that they couldn’t use their slipway for those few hours, and the race became homeless.

There was a gap of several years before an effort was made to revive the race, and a very small one with only 3 competitors took place in Littlehampton harbour.

It started by the black shed on the west bank of the Arun near the Arun Yacht Club, and went upstream and across the river to the jetty by the Arun View pub. After waiting for the tide to turn, the baths returned whence they came.

This race was very short, and lacking enthusiastic volunteers to run it, it disappeared.

It was several years before it was to re-appear at The Black Rabbit pub in Arundel.