New halau too small for daily use
By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward Bureau
KAILUA — A $400,000 canoe halau that was recently completed by the city is picturesque, but it will sit virtually empty on Kailua Beach until the end of the long-distance racing season in October, when canoes are stripped of their rigging and stored in the shelter.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
The city is preparing to build three more halau and is planning seven others, but many paddlers say the structures are too small and design changes are called for to make them more accessible for year-round use.
Because a new halau was designed to store canoes without outriggers attached, canoes are still kept outside.
The halau, meant to protect expensive fiberglass and koa racing boats, will be used five months of the year at most, and only for storage, paddlers say, because a canoe with its outrigger is too large and cumbersome to get through the doors on a daily basis.
Stripping boats of their outriggers and rerigging them for daily practices and races is a cumbersome process, taking about 30 minutes to complete each step, and can be done by only a few paddlers.
"People are saying you should have made it bigger," said Vernon Kong, a paddler with Kailua Canoe Club.
However, city spokeswoman Carol Costa said the city ordinance that allows canoe facilities on the beach limits the structure to storage only. Paddlers are aware of that and approved the Kailua building, she said.
Duane Samson, a paddler and Kailua Neighborhood Board member, said he expects the halau to be full of the fiberglass canoes once the long-distance racing season ends, and some clubs may even store the racers during the season.
Paddlers, he said, knew they would have to store the canoes without their outriggers.
But Samson said boats that are used every day will most likely be left on the shore.
Samson also said he doubts that koa canoes will be stored in the building, which is gated but still susceptible to public mischief: "Somebody could throw some flammable liquid in there, then there goes your $30,000 canoe."
The size of the building will limit its use, said longtime paddler Robert Keaweehu, head coach of Hawaiian Outrigger Canoe Club. And now that the Kailua halau is complete and he has seen the interior of the structures, he's concerned about safety.
"The halau is good for storage, but it's hard to get the canoe inside," Keaweehu said. "Plus you got to lift it over your head and that's really dangerous. Everything over your head, to me, is unsafe."
A fiberglass canoe weighs about 500 pounds and requires eight people to carry, he said. The space inside the Kailua halau is so narrow that the people hauling a canoe can't pass between the racks that hold the boats.
Keaweehu said a true halau is big enough for canoes to remain rigged and for paddlers to gather.
Costa responded that a halau designed for gathering would take land away from park use. A lanai at the Kailua halau can be used for instruction, she said.
The other 10 halau planned will also be limited to storage, she said.
Halau designer, architect Arthur Kimbal Thompson, said he designed a "compact" shelter that was approved by paddlers. He said he has learned from the experience, but the design was limited by space and money constraints.
"I've heard more good feedback than negative," he said.
Joan Malama, vice president of the Kailua Canoe Club, said the building will be used to store equipment and replacement material when canoes are not inside. But she also noted that the building has little room to store the canoes and their parts.
"We did not take a hard enough look when we got the plans," Malama said. "We were so thrilled to have anything happen."
Now the organization wants to warn others.
"We're saying to the other canoe clubs: Ask for this, be aware of that, look at the plans, mark the plans," she said.
Scotty Reis-Moniz, head coach of the Waimanalo Canoe Club, said he has heard from Malama, and the members of his club are comfortable with the city plan for the Waimanalo halau, the next one the city will build.
The Waimanalo halau will have a different design and will be accessible for storage and programs.
The goal was to restore pride in the culture, Reis-Moniz said — and to do that, the community needed a place where people could meet and learn.
"The whole point is for it to be an entity that lives for 12 months, not only for three months for regatta season or three months for long-distance," he said.
Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com or 234-5266.
