UH, voyaging society form partnership
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Staff Writer
The University of Hawai'i and the Polynesian Voyaging Society today announced a partnership that will open a new range of ocean navigation courses to a broad spectrum of students and provide a new home for the Hokule'a and for Hawai'i's voyaging community.
By bringing together the high-tech resources of the $7.5 million Honolulu Community College's Marine Education and Training Center on Sand Island, and the traditions of ancient navigation, the center will open new doors of knowledge and understanding to a new generation of young people.
"This is a special partnership — the canoe represents the hands, heart, eyes and hopes of many people," said master navigator Nainoa Thompson. "Ninety-five percent of the success of a voyage is in the preparation and seeing that the canoes are seaworthy."
In the past few years the training center has been plagued by low enrollment, but HCC Chancellor Ramsey Pedersen expects this new partnership to turn that around.
"We're expecting it to be booming next year," he said. "And we're looking at bringing in the high schools for participation, too."
There will be endless opportunities to link courses from the Department of Education and the community colleges with the facilities at the center, said Pedersen.
Also envisioned as part of the center will be a series of lectures on navigation given by Hawai'i's new cadre of traditional navigators, as well as expansion of the center to build canoe houses for Hokule'a and Hawai'iloa.
One of the first joint projects will be the refurbishment of Hawai'iloa, starting with dismantling the canoe using the cranes at the center and drying out its water-logged hull.
To celebrate the partnership the public is invited to a free day at the Sand Island center from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. The day includes tours of Hokule'a, storytelling, video presentations, demonstrations in canoe restoration and the chance to win a sail aboard Hokule'a and much more.
Jean-Michel Cousteau will be on hand to do a presentation of sustainability. He also will be there to film the day as part of a film he plans on Hokule'a's coming voyage throughout the Hawaiian Islands and the remote Northwestern Islands of the Hawaiian chain.
