Honolulu will say farewell Sunday to beloved newspaper columnist Bob Krauss, who died last week following complications of triple bypass heart surgery.

Two of his favorite sailing vessels will play key roles in the funeral for Krauss, whose career at The Honolulu Advertiser lasted 55 years.

Services will begin at 4 p.m. aboard the Falls of Clyde, the 19th-century-ship-turned-floating-museum that Krauss saved from a watery grave in the early 1960s. At sunset, some of the columnist's ashes will be taken out to sea aboard Hokule'a, the voyaging canoe Krauss crewed on in 1985.

It will not be a mournful event, but instead a celebration of a life well lived. Krauss was 82 when he died Sept. 10 and a full-time staffer at The Advertiser with no plans of retiring.

"We're celebrating a life rather than commiserating a death," said his daughter, Ginger Krauss. "Of course we will be sad, but I don't want it to be a mournful time. He contributed a lot, and we wanted to focus on what he did do."

Sea shanties will be performed by Aaron Mahi, George Kuo and Martin Pahinui. A bagpiper from the Celtic Pipes and Drums of Hawai'i will play "Aloha Oe" and "Amazing Grace."

Eulogies will be given by Bill Brown, president and chief executive officer of Bishop Museum, master navigator Nainoa Thompson, Advertiser President and Publisher Mike Fisch and Larry Phillips, chief of the Caledonian Society.

Seating aboard the Falls of Clyde will be reserved for 150 family, friends and colleagues. But the Hawai'i Maritime Center, which owns the ship and is hosting the service, has invited the public to Pier 7 and will provide a public address system so the audience can hear the speakers, said Blair Collis, vice president for public operations for the Bishop Museum.

There was never any doubt among the Krauss family that the Falls of Clyde, even with its limited seating, would serve as a funeral venue.

Krauss spearheaded the drive to save the ship, which was going to be sunk as a breakwater off Vancouver Island in 1963. From columns to donations of his own money, Krauss helped bring the ship to Hawai'i and saw it turned into a waterfront museum.

As a final tribute, some of his ashes will be placed in a commemorative box in the captain's berth on the Falls of Clyde. The rest will be buried in a koa box in the fern forest of his home in Volcano on the Big Island.

"He loved that ship," Collis said. "I think for him, it kind of embodied what he was all about. The ship had history, but what it was to him was a great source of incredible stories."

Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com.