Our Honolulu
British revive Hawaiian canoe's spirit, with help
By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist
The proud tradition of Wa'alele, the first Hawaiian outrigger canoe to cross the English Channel, is alive half way across the world against impossible odds.
For 23 years the graceful outrigger has sat, lonely and weatherbeaten, at the entrance of the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum in Middlesbrough, England, a gift of the Ohana O Wa'alele canoe club after paddling the canoe across the channel.
Her lashings rotted away. Kids broke her seats. Somebody bored holes in her bottom so rainwater could leak out.
How fleeting is fame. Wa'alele made headlines in June 1978 when a senior crew of paddlers from Kailua made it across the channel in 4 hours, 11 minutes.
They were honored by the Lord Mayor of Middlesbrough in his ermine robe in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the discovery of Hawai'i by Capt. James Cook. Canoe racing patriarch Toots Minvielle was named an honorary baron at a feast in an ancient castle.
(Incidentally, The Advertiser sponsored this historic event and your faithful columnist was on hand to report the details to breathless readers.)
Then paddler Phil Foti resumed his medical practice in Kailua. Steersman Merlyn "Frenchy" Lyons took up skiing in Big Sky, Mont. In chilly Middlesbrough, Wa'alele was a fish out of water. Along came John Ferry, intrepid marathon kayak paddler, the kind of stout heart who won at Waterloo. The exotic Hawaiian canoe challenged his adventurous spirit. Why not bring this fading, fragile Pacific flower back to life?
"I don't think he had ever sat in a Hawaiian outrigger canoe," said Lyons. "It's my understanding that he and his friends talked the museum into turning the Wa'alele into a living exhibit that they would restore and paddle."
However intrepid, the Englishmen didn't know diddly squat about how to do that. So they called Lyons. Six months of long-distance canoe-paddling instruction began.
"I sent them a video on paddling by Nappy Napoleon," said Lyons. He explained that the long-handled paddles given to the museum to the Ohana in 1978 were long out of date.
"Phil sent them two laminated paddles, and I sent them a blank," Lyons recalled. "They reviewed the 8 mm movies of our crossing. They're tremendous athletes, about nine or 10 of them, including one woman. Telling them how how to rig the canoe was hardest. I have a file of 60 hours of Internet exchange."
The impossible dream of taking Wa'alele across the channel again came true last June when the unlikely crew set out for Calais and made it. The next day they started back. That's like two Moloka'i Canoe Races in a row.
"We landed south of Dover in 6 hours, 15 minutes although seven members of our crew were novices and had not paddled anything before August last year," Ferry reported.
Watch out, Outrigger Canoe Club. The British want to paddle the Moloka'i race next year.
