Barney Goes Tin Bath Racing Blue Peter Bite

This is Blue Peter, but mini.

Expect epic adventures, makes, fakes, badges, pets,

presenters and your post.

We've only got five minutes, so get ready for your Blue Peter adventure.

Today, I've travelled to the Isle of Man

to take part in an incredible sport.

It's going to take nerves of steel, real skill and extreme endurance.

And, er, and a tin bath.

This is the World Tin Bath Championships,

and it attracts competitors from all over the globe.

I'm catching up with founder Dave to find out more.

Now, my grandma and grandad actually had one of these tin baths in

their front room,

and I used to have a bath in it in front of the fire in their house.

That's how old these things are. Do they have to be tin for this race?

Yes, they've got to be tin.

That's why it's the World Tin Bath Championship,

as opposed to World Bath Championship.

Yeah, that makes sense.

And what does the bath have to be before it can float on water?

How do you make it float?

To make it float, you need two one-gallon cans on

a piece of two by one, three, four foot wide.

And that puts your float on it.

Tie it to the bath, get a paddle, and away you go.

Can I put a motor on it? Can I put an electric motor on it?

-No electric motors, no outside agents.

-Rockets?

-No rockets.

-No, we've had that.

-OK. So just a tin bath.

-Standard household tin bath.

-I need a bath.

I thought I could smell something.

I think I'll do the comedy, thank you very much.

Right, no, an actual bath, please, Dave.

This may seem like fun, but competitors take this event

pretty seriously, and making your bath look good is all part of it.

So I've given mine a bit of a Blue Peter makeover.

My little tin bath beauty, isn't she gorgeous?

Now, I know it's Blue Peter and I did want to paint it blue,

but we didn't have any blue paint. So it's yellow.

I've thought of everything.

I've got a camera, you can see what I'm doing in the tin bath.

I've got a bailout bowl.

This is important because water is going to come into

the bath, so I can bail the water out so I don't sink.

If that gets into trouble, I've got another bowl,

so I can bailout the bailout bowl.

I've thought of everything.

I've done some incredible things on Blue Peter,

but today, I'm taking it to the next level.

You can keep your power shower, and I don't need no soap.

It's just me and my bathing machine.

Let's do this.

So the idea of this race is quite simple.

I've got to get into my tin bath,

which is very difficult to steer as a boat, and I've got to head out

from here to the very end, you see where the bridge is in the distance?

I've got to go under that, around that little sort of bunting line

and then come back down here to the finish line.

Now, it's actually... Apparently, the most amount of sinkages, the

people who go under the water, that happens here, right at the start.

It's very difficult to get your balance.

So as long as I get my balance right, I should be able to set off.

'But that's easier said than done. As I soon discover.'

All right, we are in. We're in. Oh, we were in.

We're not in.

'I'm sinking. Yeah, I'm actually sinking.

'Not a good start.

'OK, this is getting a bit embarrassing now.'

-ANNOUNCER:

-Blue Peter is not having a lot of success here.

Now, the boat that I was in originally is no good,

so Dave, the guy we met earlier on,

the organiser who started this 50 years ago, he's given me the

original tin bath that he raced in, that started this whole thing.

So I'm driving an icon. It's older than Blue Peter.

I can't wait to get in it and give it a go.

'New boat, fresh start, and I think I'm getting the hang of it.'

As soon as you start paddling,

it actually becomes a bit more difficult to keep stable.

I think the key here is, keep moving.

And I think I've got steering down, I think. Just about.

Yeah, I think we're going to be OK.

I think we're going to be fine on this one.

'With the race only moments away,

'I eventually join my fellow competitors at the start line.'

-ANNOUNCER:

-Are you ready?

-Yes.

-On your marks,

set, go!

'And we're off.

'Now, considering I've done absolutely

'no training for this, it seems to be going OK.'

I'm past the yellow buoy. I'm past the yellow buoy. This is great news.

This is great news.

I'm also not dead last, there's this guy in the very sparkly shirt.

OK, no, no, now I'm last, I'm last. That's OK.

'I may be last, but I'm still afloat, unlike some others.'

Man down, two men down. And Barney is still going strong.

'Don't be too confident, Barney.' No, no, no. No!

No!

'And my fellow competitors aren't helping either.'

Whoa! That's cheating.

That's definitely cheating.

'All this constant paddling is starting to take its toll.'

This is so hard. I'm trying my hardest.

I've lost all my strength because I'm using quite

a lot of my energy to keep this thing floating and staying upright.

'I'm almost halfway, but now for the tricky bit.

'I need to turn under the bridge.'

This is the hardest bit, this is where we can capsize.

'Am I going to do it? Keep paddling.'

No! No. 'Oh, no.

'Oh, disaster.'

That's so hard, I was so close!

'I've had so much fun. And I may not be the World Tin Bath

champion, but I gave it my very best shot.'

Yeah, I need a bath.

A real one.

'Join in every Thursday at CBBC.'