The last question always seems to be the hardest one on tests.

But after months of homework, Team Bradley/Coffees of Hawai'i passed the biggest test in outrigger canoe paddling yesterday.

Team Bradley passed one final canoe in the final mile to win the Na Wahine O Ke Kai for the second consecutive year.

The 41-mile race across the Kaiwi Channel is considered the world championship of outrigger canoe paddling for women's teams. Sixty-nine teams participated yesterday.

Team Bradley completed the course from Hale O Lono Harbor, Moloka'i, to Duke Kahanamoku Beach, Waikiki, in 5 hours, 41 minutes, 37 seconds.

"It was pass or fail at the end there," Team Bradley steerswoman Denise Darval-Chang said. "And we found it in us to pass."

Hui Lanakila surrendered the lead late in the race, and finished in second place for the second consecutive year. Hui Lanakila's time was 5:41:53, and the 16-second difference was the closest in the 28-year history of the Na Wahine O Ke Kai.

"Closer than I would have liked," Team Bradley coach John Puakea said. "But I was never worried about the conditioning. I knew that would help us in a close race."

Members of the winning crew were Lauren Bartlett, Darval-Chang, Theresa Felgate, Kelly Fey, Darcie Gray, Margie Kawaiaea, Cherisse Keli'i, Mahealani Lum, Dane Ward and Shelley Wilding-Oates.

An unfavorable tide and moderate swells made for a relatively slow race. The winning time was more than 19 minutes off the course record.

Team Bradley led for most of the race, but then took a north course as it approached East O'ahu. Hui Lanakila stayed more to the south.

When the canoes met near Diamond Head, Team Bradley was stunned to see Hui Lanakila ahead by about two canoe-lengths

"We're behind, what are we gonna do?" Keli'i said was the feeling of Team Bradley. "I guess we were running scared after that."

Bartlett added: "I think our adrenaline started taking over. We saw that we were behind and knew we had to give it everything we had left."

After 30 minutes of power paddling, Team Bradley passed Hui Lanakila in the stretch run in relatively calm waters off Waikiki.

"It's like childbirth — you don't think about the pain," Team Bradley's Kawaiaea said. "You reach for whatever is inside of you and use it."

Team Bradley features a unique mix of paddlers from Maui (Bartlett, Felgate, Kawaiaea and Ward), O'ahu (Darval-Chang, Fey and Lum), Kaua'i (Gray), the Big Island (Keli'i) and Australia (Wilding-Oates).

The team prepares for long-distance races by training individually on one-person canoes.

"There's a camaraderie on this team that people might not know about," Keli'i said. "But I think it showed today. We had to work hard as a team to pull this off, and we did."

Eight of the 10 paddlers were also on last year's winning team. The new members were Darval-Chang and Lum.

Darval-Chang was part of Na Wahine O Ke Kai championship crews with Hui Nalu in 1982 and '83. Lum is a first-time winner.

"It's amazing to think that it was 1983 the last time," Darval-Chang said. "But that's why I consider it such an honor to be with this crew. I know how hard it is to win this race."

Team Bradley, which is named after canoe-builder Sonny Bradley, received $5,000 from race sponsor Anheuser-Busch. It is the first time in the history of the Na Wahine O Ke Kai that the winning team received a cash prize.

"They can do what ever they want with it," coach Puakea said. "They can throw a big party if they want. They earned it."

Hui Lanakila was left with the bittersweet feeling of close, but not close enough.

"It's like that apple dangling in front of us was right there for the taking," Hui Lanakila paddler Jane McKee said. "We just ran out of race, that's all. Everything was perfect up to the end."

Members of the Hui Lanakila crew were Jennifer Asano, Mikala Bradley, Jessie Eames, Seraphina Eames, Gail Grabowsky, Arlene Holzman, Jamie Kinard, McKee, Katie Slocumb and Sarah Van DeVanter.

Jessie Eames, who is one of Hui Lanakila's strongest paddlers, was feeling sick in several ways yesterday.

"I missed three days (of practice) last week because I was sick," Eames said. "It's frustrating because I feel like that might have been the difference in that 16 seconds. But this is still the closest we've been to (Team Bradley), so there's some satisfaction in that."

Waikiki Beach Boys finished third — the best showing in the club's history — in 5:47:17.

"For about the first three hours of the race, we were right with Hui Lanakila," paddler Sue Brown said. "Then we had a bad 20-minute stretch and fell behind. We would have liked to have done better, but we're happy with third."

Venus Va'a from Tahiti was fourth in 5:57:46, and Outrigger was fifth in 5:58:52. Outrigger is the only club that has finished in the top five of every Na Wahine O Ke Kai race.

Hawaiian Kanaktion/Kahiau won the masters 40-and-older division for the third consecutive year, and was an impressive sixth overall with a time of 6:05:56.

Hawaiian Kanaktion/Kahiau had a mix of paddlers from O'ahu, Kaua'i, Maui, the Big Island and California.

"The core is from Kaua'i — five of us," team coordinator Laola Lake-Aea said. "But we're starting to get used to each other as a team, so I think that's why we did so well today."

One of the paddlers in the crew was JoJo Toeppner of California. She is the only paddler who has participated in every Na Wahine O Ke Kai race.

Kailua-Wa'akapaemua won the masters 50-and-older division and was 20th overall in 6:26:46. Masters crews could use 12 paddlers; open crews could use 10.

Another Outrigger crew was the first to finish in a koa canoe with a time of 6:47:25.

The men's Moloka'i Hoe is scheduled for Oct. 8.

Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com.