Honaunau
Honaunau
Honaunau:
The Oahu Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association continues the tradition of Hawaiian Canoe racing by requiring that all clubs in this association race in Koa canoes for its regatta season. Honaunau is Honolulu Pearl’s Koa racing canoe.
Honaunau was built for Honaunau Canoe Club on the island of Hawaii in August 1952. She was made from a Koa log cut from Papa, South Kona. Anthony Maui Cambra commissioned the construction with Antone Grace being one of the carvers. She was blessed in the fall of 1956 as Honaunau.
Honaunau was purchased by Pinky Thompson, who brought her over from the Big Island where she became part of the Hui Nalu Canoe Club. While with Hui Nalu, she made several channel crossings in the prestigious Moloka’i to Oahu race.
Honaunau later came to HPCC via Gary Oakland, founder of HPCC. He purchased her from Hui Nalu and although the cost of this purchase is not known, today it would cost over $100,000 to build a Koa canoe. The manus and gunnels are painted red, white and blue, which are the HPCC colors. Nappy Napoleon and Sonny Bradley, both well known and respected in the paddling community, have paddled in the Honaunau.
We are always looking to gather more history about our canoes. Over the years many paddlers joined and paddled with the club and eventually moved on for different reasons. With each paddler a part of the club history left us.
If you have any information about the canoes that you may want to share, please write it as a comment on this page.
Mahalo!
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