Last year, the Yukon River Quest set a registration record with all 125 spots filling in 36 hours along with a substantial waitlist. This year it didn’t take long for the YRQ to fill when registration opened on Nov. 1 at 6 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.

It took only 9.5 hours for all the spots to fill, obliterating the previous record. Peter Coates the president of the River Quest said before the registration opened he was expecting another rush of entries.

“Last year registration went very fast,” said Coates. “We had 43 teams sign up in the first 20 minutes, 116 on the first day, and the race was full shortly after that. We do not expect it to be any less of a rush this year.”

Coates said leading into the registration opening that he was expecting that 36 hours to be halved, but wasn’t anticipating 9.5 hours.

“It’s ridiculous,” said Coates. “It made it hard to manage if anything were to go wrong. People were in a hurry and some of the data was incomplete.”

Although it was craziness, Coates isn’t complaining.

“It’s a fantastic problem to have,” said Coates. “We now have a waitlist of 21 boats.”

What did come as a surprise to Coates was the composition of teams that registered.

“It’s a slightly different mix than last year and that did come as a surprise,” said Coates.

Currently, the race features nine solo canoes a class that Coates said is usually pretty thin. The stand-up paddle boarders (SUP) came out in force with 15 registered.

“That’s a lot of crazy people,” said Coates chuckling. “Actually, SUPs are one of our safest classes. They expect to fall in from time to time so they are in their wetsuit and feel more a part of the elements.”

The SUP class began in 2016 and Coates said it is nice to see a strong contingent of paddlers register.

Introduced as a class last year, the C4 canoes had a strong registration with 12 boats entering their names into the mix. Coates said it has been a successful category since it was included in the YQR.

The voyageur canoes stayed consistent with 14 boats and 37 C2s joined.

Coates said the surprise came with the number of kayaks that registered. Currently, there are 13 K2s and 25 K1 boats.

Coates believes this drop is a reflection of when the registration opens, noting a majority of the kayakers are European.

“That’s where you get the kayaks from,” said Coates. “We may have accidentally reduced the amount of Europeans, they may not be up at the time when registration opens.”

In the U.K. registration would have opened at 2 a.m. PDT and 3 a.m. for mainland Europe.

For the 21 teams on the waitlist, Coates said they will be informed if they are in whenever there is movement to the 125 boats.

Coates said it is a fairly simple algorithm to determine which waitlisted boat gets an invitation to the race. If a team drops out, the first eligible boat will be chosen to enter.

Solo boats and voyageurs are the only classes with a capped number. There can be no more than 50 one-person boats and 15 voyageur canoes.

Teams that have yet to enter can still put their name down on the waitlist.

With the rush to register, Coates said the River Quest team is considering alternate ways for registration to occur.

“What’s happened with other races is they open the race straight to a waitlist and draw lots,” said Coates. “Right now it is biased to people with good computer skills.

We are considering how to mitigate the problem. Right now I can think of a lottery, increase the numbers, or increase the entry fee.”

All that said, Coates believes the race is in good shape.

“The race is healthy and we are working to keep it healthy and not resting on our laurels,” said Coates. “ One thing is we are making sure it is sustainable and keeping our footprint small. We want to minimize our footprint but not compromise safety.

“There is plenty to do and this is the only time of year to consider what’s happening in the future.”

The Yukon River Quest is an international race and will once again have good representation from a number of countries.

Each year, Coates said you get a boat from an usual place. Last year, a team from Papua New Guinea entered. This year, that team is from Bermuda, which Coates believes is a first.

Canada is once again well represented with boats coming from most provinces and territories. New Zealand also has a strong influence in the registered teams with six entered teams.

Coates is hopeful that the 9.5-hour record doesn’t get broken any time soon.

“I hope we don’t top that,” said Coates. “It’s just too silly.”