With four races remaining on the Hawaiian Sailing Canoe Association calendar, Team Olukai hopes to win its 17th sailing series championship. Following a first-place finish in the fifth race and a second-place finish in the sixth race, which wrapped up
With four races remaining on the Hawaiian Sailing Canoe Association calendar, Team Olukai hopes to win its 17th sailing series championship.
Following a first-place finish in the fifth race and a second-place finish in the sixth race, which wrapped up June 8, Team Olukai leads the series. Another Kauai team, Team Maui Jim, is hot on their heels, said Marvin Otsuji, one of the Olukai paddlers.
In the first race where Olukai squeaked past Nalu Koa by 30 seconds (3:47 to Nalu Koa’s 3:47:30), Olukai dropped to Tui Tonga/Team Maui by 1 minute in the second race (3:44 to Team Maui’s 3:43). Team Olukai entered the water for the 27-mile race from Kahului to Kaanapali on Maui for the fifth race of the 2014 season.
Paddlers Otsuji, Butch Keahiolalo, Leroy Jumper, Noe Auger, Chris Pico, Scott Wagner and Lauren Bartlett pushed the sailing outrigger canoe into the brisk easterly trades and touched first on a paddle of 2 hours, 5 minutes.
“Team Olukai jumped out to an early lead, surfing in and out of 3- to 4-foot wind swell waves,” Otsuji said. “The very demanding course tested each team’s sailing and paddling skills.”
Otsuji said the experience and teamwork by the Olukai’s paddlers were too much to overcome and the Kauai team tasted gold.
Team Maui Jim, captained by Donnie Jones, finished second followed by a new ultra-light canoe designed by Nakoa Prejean and Kalai Miller in the Kona Brew canoe.
The sixth leg, covering a 26-mile channel crossing from Kaanapali, Maui to Kaunakakai, Molokai, proved more competitive and challenging for all teams.
“Less than 6 minutes separated the first to last place canoes,” Otsuji said. “Aukai O Maui, captained by Ray Glauser snuck across the Kanaukakai jetty 53 seconds ahead of Team Olukai, touching at 1:48:47.”
Olukai was captained by Keahiolalo and co-steered by Team Bradley’s Auger and Bartlett for that leg of the race.
Team Tui Tonga/Maui Jim followed at 1:40 followed by Kamakakoa/Kona Brew at 4:02, One/Hawaiian Beach Homes at 5:10, and Nalu Koa/Tien Hoa Elua, who, according to Otsuji, lost a crew member but finished 6 minutes and 2 seconds off the pace.
The next two legs of the HSCA season will be held on June 28 when the canoes sail from Kaunakakai to Kailua, Oahu and on June 29 when the crews sail from Kailua to Haleiwa, Oahu.
July 26 the teams make another channel crossing — from Haleiwa to Kalapaki Beach on Kauai followed by the final race, the Kendall Cup which sails from Kalapaki Beach, along the South Shore on Sept. 6.
Visit www.hsca.info for more information.
