Team Olukai, with Marvin Otsuji skippering, held off Maui Jim to capture the 2014 Kendall Pacific sailing canoe race recently at the Waimea Pier. The victory gives Olukai its 18th championship in the Hawaii Sailing Canoe Association. “This is the
Team Olukai, with Marvin Otsuji skippering, held off Maui Jim to capture the 2014 Kendall Pacific sailing canoe race recently at the Waimea Pier.
The victory gives Olukai its 18th championship in the Hawaii Sailing Canoe Association.
“This is the 18th championship for the Olukai team,” Otsuji said in an email. “There have been more than a hundred members to assist with this accomplishment.”
Joining Otsuji on the 2014 crew are Butch Keahiolalo, Scott Wagner, Chris Pico, Leroy Jumper, Noe Sawyer, Brian Miyaki, AJ Irons, Tom Grubbe, Mike Fields, Toby Wilkison, Micah Tanoe, Lauren Spaulding and Mahea Lum.
The HSCA championship is determined from points earned through an eight-race series which started in Keokea on the Big Island, making its way up the Hawaiian Island chain before ending at the Waimea Pier with the Kendall Pacific race.
Team Olukai held a 5-point advantage in the series while lining up at Kalapaki Bay for the start of the Kendall Pacific race.
“The team felt the pressure to win,” Otsuji said. “The Kendall Pacific race was an extremely tactical and challenging one for the nine teams who raced 35 miles to Waimea in a near-record time of 3 hours and 11 minutes.”
