LIHUE — Hitting the wind line first proved to be a factor in Team Olukai’s win in the latest legs of the Hawaiian Sailing Canoe Association race. Following losses in the third and fourth leg of the HSCA series, Team
LIHUE — Hitting the wind line first proved to be a factor in Team Olukai’s win in the latest legs of the Hawaiian Sailing Canoe Association race.
Following losses in the third and fourth leg of the HSCA series, Team Olukai rebounded in the fifth and sixth legs to preserve its lead in the overall HSCA standings.
Marvin Otsuji, skipper of Team Olukai, said conditions for the fifth leg, the 50-mile Kaunakakai, Molokai to Kailua Beach, Oahu, proved to be a test of both sailing and paddling skills.
“Winds in the 15 to 20 mph trades shifted more than 180 degrees and made the course extremely challenging,” Otsuji said in an email.
Separated into two segments, the race up the Pailolo Channel, then into the Kaiewe Channel to Oahu, the lead position in the race was traded a number of times until the fleet finished at Laua Point on Molokai.
Otsuji said separation between the first four canoes was just seconds apart.
Olukai took advantage of the shifting winds, strong currents and their overall position in the fleet to take a commanding lead into the channel.
This gave Olukai first to hit the wind line, and was never challenged for the race.
“This tactical move proved to be the difference in the race,” Otsuji said. “The team negotiated the course first in exactly 5.5 hours.”
Joining Otsuji, Jason Dameron, Butch Keahiolalo, Noe Auger, Chris Pico and Jacob Akaka made up the team which redeemed its losses in the third and fourth legs, its only losses in the series.
The sixth leg, Kailua, Oahu, to Haleiwa Beach, Oahu, was dedicated to the memory pf Kaua McKinney, a Holulea captain, navigator, Punahou Hawaiian Studies teacher and father of two children.
Following a tight reach out of Kailua Bay, the race was between the Maui Jim canoe captained by Kauai’s Doony Jones and Team Olukai.
With just a few hundred feet separating the two canoes for more than two hours in seas of 1 to 3 feet in 5 to 20 mph winds, Team Olukai surfed the downwind swell to a half mile lead from the Kahuku Point.
“At one point in the race, Team Olukai was so well rigged and tuned, the canoe was steering itself into the lead,” Otsuji said. “The combination of strong paddlers and a good sailing course made the team unbeatable for this leg.”
Team Olukai touched in exactly five hours followed by Maui Jim, Nalu Koa, White Orchid Wedding, Kamalii o Ke Kai and Kamakakoa.
The next race, Haleiwa, Oahu to Kauai, is scheduled for Aug. 17, according to the HSCA calendar. This race will be followed by a Kauai Southern Coast race, ending on Kauai’s Westside, on Sept. 7.
The Hawaiian Sailing Canoe association’s mission is “to learn, revive, educate and practice those ancient Hawaiian skills and values as they relate to sailing canoes and the Hawaiian culture.” This is done through educational and sailing events for the public as well as a yearly racing series which connects the Hawaiian Islands.
The races start on the Big Island in April, and over the course of several months, work its up up the Hawaiian Island chain with stops on Maui, Molokai and Oahu, ending on Kauai in September.
• Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
