Last year may have been a banner year for the Yukon River Quest, but this year's event blew everything out of the water.

The 2006 race started out with a bang a record 74 teams took off from the banks of the Yukon River last Wednesday and featured a little bit of everything dramatic rescues, surprise scratches and some amazing course records.

A total of 19 teams scratched before Dawson City, with 55 crossing the finish line. At least one tandem canoe took a spill at Five Finger Rapids, outside of Carmacks, and needed some assistance from the Canadian Rangers before they could carry on.

Earlier in the race, sisters Lisa and Karla McGee of Alberta headed to shore for a pee break, about one mile from Little Salmon, and ended up in a sweeper. They lost nearly everything inside the boat and were forced to scratch, but thanks to the help of fellow racers, as well as the safety boat, made it to Carmacks in one piece.

The rescues and scratches made sure organizers of this year's race were busier than ever. In fact, they had just barely finished setting up at the finish in Dawson Friday afternoon, more than two hours earlier than last year, when overall winners Brandon Nelson and David Kelly, Team KayakForCare, crossed the line in a record time of 40 hours, 37 minutes and five seconds.

That breaks the previous record, set in 2005, by more than two hours (42:51). Not bad for a pair who's first time in the tandem kayak together was just two days before the start of the race.

'I've kind of become spoiled, racing with Heather (Nelson, his wife who was a solo racer in the River Quest),' said Brandon, who was introduced to Kelly through Heather. 'I realize even more now than before what a professional Heather is.

'Racing with David, I just expected everything to be essentially just as smooth, that it wouldn't take any more effort. That was pretty much 100 per cent true. For the first time testing a machine together, it was very well-oiled.'

Both Brandon and Kelly, who hail from Bellingham, Washington and San Rafael, California respectively, had competed in previous races, as members of different teams or solo. So they had a good idea of what to expect as far as the challenging course in the marathon canoe and kayak event.

'Part of what I think is important, is you've got to be able to race within yourself as a team and also, you need to strategize against other teams,' said Kelly, following the race. 'We feel like we came in with a good strategy and executed well.

'We had low moments, but we were always able to adjust to the inevitable changes in our plan. It's not who has bad moments, it's how quickly can you get through it and get back to speed.'

While most teams struggled with the rainy and windy conditions on Lake Laberge Wednesday night, some withdrawing due to hypothermia, Brandon insisted it was perfect weather for he and Kelly.

'We were thinking this will help keep the energy up, keep us cool and it did. I said before the race, heat would be my worst enemy. I would take rain over heat any day.'

The race was all but over, in terms of the overall winner, coming out of the Carmacks checkpoint, as Brandon and Kelly had built a nearly two-hour lead over the next closest team, voyageur canoe crew Kisseynew.

Kelly said the duo knew they had the potential to set a record course time, but didn't want to get too ahead of themselves and forget about the teams behind them, because you can never underestimate mother nature or your opponents.

'I learned the first time I did the race, if you want to win, you have to always assume there's a team catching you,' agreed Brandon. 'We allowed ourselves a very healthy level of paranoia.

'You also want to send a message to your competitors. When they walk up to the board (at the checkpoint), we want their spirits to go down. We want to keep putting time on them.'

Kelly added part of the way they got through the entire race being in the lead was by turning the competitors into bad guys, no matter how much respect they felt for them.

'We talk about the pain we're putting on them. We find pleasure because we know people behind us are suffering more than us to keep up. We want them to question themselves.'

Their competitors may not have caught them, but they still set some blistering paces and records of their own.

Kisseynew finished second overall, with a time of 42 hours, 56 minutes and 13 seconds. That broke the old voyageur record by more than 12 hours (55:50). Solo kayaker Carter Johnson was third overall, with a record time in his category of 44:56:34, while Heather Nelson set a new record in the women's solo division with her time of 46:32:27 (sixth overall).

Also, Pauline Frost-Hanberg and Viki Cirkvencic finished the course in 49:18:56, which was a record time in the women's tandem canoe category.

'It was a really good experience,' said Martin Bernardin, captain of Kisseynew. 'Our team worked really well together. We figured we'd probably break the record, but didn't think it would be by that much.'

The high water levels this year certainly contributed to all the records, but Bernardin and his team also brought a much lighter and faster boat than their fellow voyageur teams. The white cedar canoe was the talk of the crowd.

'This one is definitely faster than all the other ones,' agreed Bernardin. 'But mainly, it was teamwork. It's hard enough to keep going consistently when there's just one of you, but multiply that by eight paddlers and try to keep everybody together.

'We had one guy that counted strokes the whole time.'

Kisseynew also had a lot of determination. Most members of the team drove 30 hours straight from Saskatchewan to get to Whitehorse, then camped for a few days prior to the start of the race, in order to test their endurance.

They also picked up local resident Ryan Martin who was the first Yukoner across the 2006 River Quest finish line to join the team, despite the fact he didn't have much experience.

'The poor guy came onto the team three weeks before the race,' laughed Bernardin. 'He asked us if we thought he could do it and I said, You're the only one who can answer that. It's going to be hard.'

'He was apprehensive at first, but it worked out really well.'

Asked if Kisseynew would be back to defend their record-breaking title, Bernardin said 'it will probably happen again.

'I think we can do even better. This is just the beginning.'

Both Kelly and Brandon said they will probably return for next year's race as well, although they aren't sure in what form or with who. Kelly said it would be nice to freshen things up and keep it interesting.

'This is a crown jewel event that keeps it attractive for us.' stated Kelly. 'In spite of the wilderness course, it's also about the people. That's what continues to drive me back. There isn't a lot of T.V. coverage, no huge prize money.

'It has the essence and feel of a grass roots event with the maturity of an event that's been around hundreds of years.'

Brandon also plans to continue his work with KayakForCare in honour of his mom, who was a hospice care giver. Two days after Christmas, his mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

At that time, Brandon was getting ready to do a 24 hour world record distance paddle, so he decided to combine it with raising money and awareness for hospice care and early cancer detection.

'My mom actually died on the day we were scheduled for the world record attempt,' he explained. 'It was ironic, because the weather that day on the course was like a hurricane, so we never could have done it. I was able to be by her side.'

The name of the boat which Brandon built for the 24 hour paddling attempt was CA125, also the name of an early detection test for ovarian cancer. Just before he left for the Yukon River Quest, he received an email from someone who learned about the test through the paddling project and actually found ovarian cancer early.

'To us, that's worth 1,000 world records,' stated Brandon.

So far, Brandon has been able to raise over $20,000 for hospice. He plans to continue to race as Team KayakForCare and keep the website under the same name running as well.

'It's a way for my mom to keep giving care even after her death. It's a way to combine our passion with hers.'