By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

AILINGLAPLAP ATOLL, Marshall Islands — Twelve of the fastest sailing canoes in the Pacific raced over a lagoon half as big as O'ahu last week in a re-creation of the most famous legend in the Marshall Islands. It is the legend of Jebro and the origin of the Marshallese sailing canoe.

The legend tells that Jebro and his nine brothers were launching a race in their paddling outriggers to decide who would be the chief when their mother asked the eldest brother to take her along in his canoe. He refused, afraid to lose the race because of the heavy bundle at her feet. One by one, her other sons also refused.

Only Jebro, the youngest, obeyed his mother. She climbed into the canoe, opened the bundle and took out a sail. Jebro won the race far ahead of his brothers in their paddling canoes and became a famous chief.

Crew members prepare their canoe for a "once-in-a-lifetime" event: a race across the same course navigated by the legendary chief Jebro. Bob Krauss • The Honolulu Advertiser

On remote Ailinglaplap, where food is scarce and there are two motor vehicles, boats from other atolls brought pigs, chickens, 400 bags of rice, 300 bags of flour, 125 cases of instant ramen and hundreds of woven mats. The people of Ailinglaplap contributed money, food, soap, toothpaste and shampoo for the visiting sailors.

Jembar Jabjulan, a retired teacher and chairman of the food committee on the island of Jeh, where the race ended, said the people worked three days and two nights to spread gravel on the celebration site and to build four thatched pavilions for the feast to which people contributed pigs, chickens, breadfruit, sea turtles and cooked pandanus.

"We could make 10 tons of copra while we do this," said Jabjulan. Two bags of copra will buy a bag of rice.

The iroij (chiefs) from two ruling Marshallese clans who once fought fierce battles, the Kabuas and the Loeaks, teamed up to direct the people in a yearlong effort to stage the race. The chiefs contributed $20,000 in prize money: $10,000 to the winning canoe, $6,000 for second place and $4,000 for third.

There was one other stipulation. If an Ailinglaplap canoe won the race, the canoes entered from other atolls would become the property of Ailinglaplap. In such an event, the prize money would go to the second, third and fourth place winners. This race was not child's play.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime event," said Iroij Angua Loeak, highest-ranking chief of his line. "I doubt that we'll be able to do it again."

Iroij Michael Kabua, a cultural preservationist and an authority on Marshallese legends, was more optimistic. He'd like to stage the race every four or five years to revive interest in sailing canoes.

Canoes in the race ranged from 26 to 30 feet. They are an expression of renewed interest in canoes over outboard motors here during the past 10 to 15 years. The racing canoes carry crews of three: one man steering, one handling sail and a third as ballast on the outrigger that lifts out of the water in gusts of wind.

Marshallese canoes are extremely fast because of their hulls, shaped like airplane wings, that lift in the water. In good conditions, these canoes can go up to 25 knots.

The lagoon of Ailinglaplap Atoll, site of the race, is about 45 miles across at the longest point, a body of water half as big as O'ahu.

On the first leg, the canoes launched at high tide from the beach on an island called Woja where Jebro lived. They sailed on a tight reach over choppy water against a brisk, 25-knot wind for the island of Aerok, 25 miles away, the canoes bucking, spray flying, outriggers lifting wildly.

A canoe from Ailug Atoll won the first lap with a time of 1 hour, 53 minutes, averaging 12 to 13 knots. Canoes were welcomed on the beach with drinking coconuts and a feast that night.

The next morning, we waded into outboards that took us to a government boat offshore for the last lap to Jeh, another 25 miles directly into the wind. The canoes tacked a zigzag course all the way, moving the foot of the mast on each tack from the bow to the stern instead of crossing into the wind, keeping the outrigger to windward.

Bruce Premo, an engineer at the Star Wars base on Kwajalein, sailed over in his J-boat, a fast 30-foot yacht, and raced the lead canoe from the halfway point.

He said the canoe sailed a little faster than his J-boat but his sophisticated yachting gear permitted him to tack more quickly than the canoe. Even so, the canoe finished ahead of him.

In the government boat, Nixon Elisha, program director for the national radio station, stood in the wheel house at the radio to broadcast the race .

The Ailug canoe led all the way, an Ailinglaplap canoe close on its heels. But Ailug faltered on the last tack and Ailinglaplap slipped over the finish line first in a hairbreadth finish.

Two women on the beach plunged into the water, swam to the canoes and climbed on board, where they proceeded to dance. More women splashed in to douse the sailors in a riotous celebration as a crowd of about 500 screamed and pounded on biscuit tins.

Then it was time to crown the new Jebro. Women led Joraur Watak, captain of the Ailinglaplap canoe, deep into the gloom of a shabby, coconut palm jungle to Jebro's Pool where his mother had bathed him in ancient times.

Watak waded in but removed only his shirt due to missionary influence. A woman rubbed him with coconut oil while another tied a hibiscus skirt around his waist and placed a new lauhala hat on his head.

Back on the beach, women competed to pose with Watak for family photos before the feast and a performance of the sacred Jebwa war-stick dance.

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073.