From Race headquarters in WHITEHORSE, YUKON.

Registrations are now being accepted for the 13th annual Yukon River Quest which will be held June 29 to July 3, 2011.

The 740-kilometer (460-mile) wilderness adventure paddling race is held on the Yukon River from Whitehorse to Dawson City in Canada's Yukon Territory. Held during the last week of June, the YRQ is known as the “Race to the Midnight Sun”. Paddlers race round-the-clock, as the sky never gets dark. It is a true marathon with just two mandatory rest stops of 10 hours over the course of the entire event.

Registration for the 2011 race opened at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time on November 1. Online entry forms are now available via a link on the race website www.yukonriverquest.com. Registrations are processed through eventsonline.ca.

Deadline for entries is May 1, 2011, but teams are encouraged to register early due to the growing worldwide popularity of the event. There remains a limit of 100 canoe and kayak teams, which includes a limit of 23 solo kayak and 7 solo canoe teams. These solo teams should register immediately to reserve a spot. All boats must meet the specifications defined in the 2011 YRQ rules which are now posted on the website.

Entry fees were not increased this year. The fees remain $850 (CAD) for tandem canoes and kayaks, $475 for solo canoes and kayaks, and $250 per person for voyageur canoe teams of six or more paddlers. Team biographies will be posted on the race website after the captain registers a team and all paddler information is received.

The 2011 race purse is unchanged with a maximum of $36,500 (CAD) and is broken down in the race rules. To keep the race operating within its budget, the prize money will be adjusted down on a percentage basis if a full roster of 100 teams is not registered by the May 1 deadline.

There are overall cash prizes for each class – tandem canoe, tandem kayak, solos, and voyageur canoes – as well as prizes for the top three in each division. There also are $500 cash prizes for the top all-Yukon canoe and kayak teams, and the top First Nations team. Several special awards are also donated by Yukon sponsors. A complete prize breakdown can be found in the race rules on the website.

The start location for the Yukon River Quest will be at Rotary Peace Park, where the race will begin at 12 noon in the grass by the gazebo with the historic SS Klondike looming in the background. Paddlers will have about a 100-meter run to their boats. The start was moved off Main Street to this location last year and was a tremendous success.

The Yukon River Quest remains a popular paddling event, even in tough economic times. After registrations reached record levels in 2008, they dropped somewhat in 2009 but increased slightly to 78 teams in 2010. Despite rainy weather and a record number of scratches over the first day, 54 teams were able to finish the event. The voyageur team Texans defended their title in a time of 42 hours, 48 minutes, followed seconds later by California solo kayaker Carter Johnson, who set a new solo record in the event. The only other record broken last year was in solo canoe. Gaetan Plourde of Ontario finished 11^th overall with a time of 52:35. The rain and a windy Lake Laberge resulted in slower times for most teams. The course record still belongs to Canadian voyageur Team Kisseynew’s winning time of 39:32:43 in 2008.

Teams now must finish the YRQ in 55 hours to receive prize money, but many do the race for the personal satisfaction of staking their claim to a coveted finisher pin in historic Dawson City. Aside from two mandatory layovers at Carmacks (7 hours) and Kirkman Creek (3 hours), teams paddle non-stop to reach the “City of Gold”. Last year, paddlers from nine countries signed up for the event. It is supported by more than 125 volunteers.

The Yukon River Quest is the premier paddling event in Canada’s North and is widely recognized throughout the paddling world. It has been featured on NBC-TV, the BBC and CBC, in numerous paddling and adventure magazines and websites around the world, and in the National Film Board of Canada’s critically acclaimed “River of Life”. The 2010 race was also the subject of a lengthy page one sports feature in the Toronto Globe and Mail, which is available through a link on the race website.

For more information, view the pre-registration instructions, rules, and numerous paddler preparation links at www.yukonriverquest.com.

The race is organized by the Yukon River Marathon Paddling Association, based in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. Major logo-level sponsors in 2010 were the Whitehorse Star, Yukon Emergency Measures Organization – Whitehorse, Faro and Carmacks SAR, Kanoe People-Clipper Canoes, Air North, yukoninfo.com, Pepsi–Aquafina, Norcan – Klondike Motors, Klondike Visitors Association, Up North Adventures – Spirit of the North, Yukon Brewing, and Gold Trail Jewellers. Many small businesses also support the race by sponsoring paddler bibs – see details on the website.

The YRMPA welcomes new members. The YRMPA Annual General Meeting will be held at Sport Yukon at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 18, 2010. If anyone is interested in joining or becoming a volunteer for the event, please contact the race organization at info@yukonriverquest.com or call 867-333-5628.

There also will be a Yukon River Quest fund-raiser breakfast in Whitehorse on Dec. 11. Watch for details soon on the website.