News: 12th Annual Yonkers Mayors Cup Saturday, September 7.

community leaders are welcome to attend

YPRC to exert “home tide” advantage.

Locals line up and paddle for prestige on Saturday, September 7, at the Yonkers’ Mayor’s Cup.

YONKERS, NY (AUGUST 26, 2019). Several of the top contenders for the 12th Annual Mayor’s Cup, a regional kayaking invitational hosted by the Yonkers Paddling and Rowing Club (YPRC) are local athletes—going head to head with some of the fastest paddlers in the New York City area, including those from Inwood Canoe Club, in upper Manhattan, and Sebago Canoe Club, in Brooklyn.

The Hudson River races take place from noon to 1:30 p.m. just north of Getty Square. The public can view the races from the beach at the Center for the Urban River at Beczak (CURB), YPRC’s deck, and Yonkers Waterfront Promenade.

Events are women’s and men’s 100-meter, 400-meter, and 800-meter. The winners of the 800-meter race will be declared the official Mayor’s Cup victors and will have their names added to the trophy that is kept at Yonkers City Hall in the Mayor’s office.

Non-members are welcome to compete in the Mayor’s Cup with their own boats: sign up with commodore@yprc.org by September 4. The day also includes morning excursion paddles, Mayor Mike Spano’s presentation at 1:45 PM, and a barbeque lunch at 2:00 p.m.

YPRC racers to watch:

• Chevaughn Dixon. He won the 2018 Mayor’s Cup and has come first in Yonkers’ 100-meter for the last three years. He also placed first in the 100-meter at Inwood Canoe Club earlier this summer. Dixon is co-director of Hudson River Riders, YPRC’s public paddling program.
• Davin Griffiths. He came in first in the 400-meter and second in 100-meter at the 2018 Yonkers Mayor’s Cup.  
• Nancy Kalafus. She took second place in the 100-meter at the 2018 Yonkers Mayor’ Cup. Kalafus was inducted into the Yonkers Sports Hall of Fame for her outstanding kayaking career which includes gold medals at national championships in 1968 and 1972. She was also member of the 1970 United States World Championship kayaking team. 
• Jean Kostelich. She won the 2018 Mayor’s Cup. In recent surf ski competitions, she came in first in the women’s / boat over 20” wide division of the 2019 Blackburn Challenge, a 20+ mile open water circumnavigation of Cape Ann, Massachusetts, third place in the 2019 Essex River Race 2019, and fourth place in the 2018 Chattajack.
• Bruno Silva. He took second in the 100-meter at Inwood Canoe Club earlier this summer, and last year, at Inwood, he won the 100-meter, 400-meter, and 800-meter races. At the 2017 Mayor’s Cup, he came in second in the 100 and 400-meter and third in the 800-meter. Silva, a junior at Saunders High School, was a national kayaking champion in his native Portugal.

Dixon and Griffiths, both age 27, Silva, age 16, and other young racers are an exciting result of YPRC’s renewed commitment over the last decade to teaching young people to paddle. The outreach, named Hudson River Riders, introduced Dixon to water sports when he was thirteen. Now, he has advanced kayaking and stand up paddleboard certifications, and runs the program. River Riders was also how young Bruno Silva—a premiere kayaker from Portugal—found YPRC when he moved to Yonkers as a teen. Hudson River Riders put over 1,000 people on the water this summer.  

YONKERS PADDLING & ROWING CLUB (YPRC)

Yonkers Paddling & Rowing Club serves as an anchor institution along the Yonkers riverfront nurturing paddling and environmental awareness. It is host of the annual Gerry Blackstone Manhattan Kayak Circumnavigation, honored by the American Canoe Association in 2018. Member programs include weekly paddles, rescue and paddling skills clinics, and a winter boat-building workshop. 

Hudson River Riders, YPRC’s free public paddling program, provides recreational access to and environmental awareness of the Hudson River through kayaking tours and instruction.

YPRC’s historic boathouse, just north of the Yonkers Pier, was built in 1938. It was home to Yonkers Canoe Club, which won national championships from 1937-1940 and 1955-1958. Members competed in six Olympic games and brought home two gold medals in 1948. 

YPRC has been recognized through the receipt of funding from Gerry Blackstone and grant support from the City of Yonkers, the State of New York, Westchester Community Foundation, Hudson River Estuary program, Hudson River Improvement Fund, Hudson River Foundation for Science and Environmental Research, Inc., Toyota, and Public Lands Every Day, a National Environmental Education Foundation Program.