Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 31, Number 7, 1 July 2014 — Maui's own voyaging canoe to launeh July 11 in Lahaina [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Maui's own voyaging canoe to launeh July 11 in Lahaina

By Katherine Kama'ema'e Smith On Friday, July 1 1 from noon to 4 p.m., the Maui community will gather to bless and launeh Mo'okiha o Pi'ilani, Maui's own transoceanic voyaging eanoe. The 62-foot, dou-ble-hull and twin-mast wa'a is 22 feet wide at the 'iako (crossbeams joining the two hulls), and weighs just over 10 tons. Launeh festivities include an 'awa ceremony, traditional eanoe consecration and blessing, and eommemorative speeches by kūpuna, Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa, Gov. Neil Abercrombie and Maui OHA Trustee Hulu Lindsey. Kumu Keli'i Tau'a and Kahu Naone Lyons will direct the cultural protocols. The launeh at the newly renovated Māla Boat Ramp in Lahaina coincides with the Akua moon ( 14th night of the full moon) on July 1 1, and high tide at 3:53 p.m. Canoe clubs from throughout Hawai'i will assemble to tow Mo'okiha o Pi'ilani into 'Au'au Channel and provide escort for her first sea trial - sailing

1.2 nauheal miles south to a mooring just beyond the reef in front of Kamehameha Iki Park, 525 Front St. in Lahaina. Ho'olaule'a begins at Kamehameha Iki at 5 p.m. June 28 begins eanoe and crew kapu. A 20-foot ti fence will be put around the eanoe, and only

crew members may enter. On July 6, the wa'a kaulua will be hauled 1.4 miles up Front Street to Māla Wharf. The procession begins at midnight. Onee the eanoe is at Māla, the kapu will eonhnue, crew members will sleep on the wa'a and prepare hnal lashing of masts,

spars, booms and sails. Mo'okiha o Pi'ilani joins Mo'olele, a 42-foot double-hull and single-mast eanoe built in the mid-1970s. The new wa'a kaulua's name also begins with "mo'o," followed by "Kiha" for Kihawahine, a mo'o goddess of Maui. Pi'ilani was high chief of Maui who ruled in the late 1500s. The

eanoe embodies the spiritual traditions of Maui and the mana of all the many volunteers who have invested their time, energy and aloha to see her set sail. "The eanoe belongs to everyone - she belongs to Maui," says Kimokeo Kapahulehua, president of Hui o Wa'a, Maui's Voyaging Society. "From the first person who had a vision for this eanoe, to the last to one to sand her mast - all contributed to this moment when we see the eanoe ready to go in the oeean." Over the course of the last year, almost 1,000

Maui students have participated in Hui o Wa 'a educational programs on voyaging, wayfinding, sustainability and Hawaiian eanoe culture. Many community groups volunteered their time to sand and finish masts, masts, spars and booms, and cleats. Other volunteers helpedlash

the eanoe together, whieh consumed more than 9 miles of rope. Hui o Wa'a Kaulua is very grateful for all the generous donations to this project. The Maui Native Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce, Alexander & Baldwin, Matson, Patricia Grace Steele Trust, Aloha Makana Foundation, 01d Lahaina Lū'au Ine., Lahaina Aee Hardware, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Trust Company of America, Lāna'i Resorts LLC, ATC Makena Management Services Corp., Punahoa, The O.L. Moore Foundation, Maui Oceanfront Marathon, Tri-Isles Conservation, Hula Grill, Ameritus Charitable Foundation, Committee Films, Lahaina Shores and a host of others. Suppliers and Maui businesses donated time, in-kind goods and services or discounted the materials required for eanoe building. Capt. Timi Gilliom, who has helped build several Polynesian Voyaging Society canoes, and eanoe builder Charlie Noland have been working steadily toward this launeh for the last four years. It ean be said that the eanoe building is never over. Every captain has a list of things that could be made better or revised. "I said the eanoe will go when she is ready, and now she is ready," said Gilliom. The wa'a will have traditional crab-claw-shaped sails, whieh will ride on tracks for safe and easy hoisting. The steering sweep handle ends in a ball, engraved with "MAU" in memory of Mau Piailug, the Micronesian navigator who taught Nainoa Thompson and other Hawaiians how to sail by the stars. Kalā Baybayan, daughter of navigator and 'Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawai'i navigator in residence Chad Baybayan, is an apprentice navigatorforMo'okiha o Pi'ilani. She sailed as an apprentice navigator on Hikianalia to Tahiti, escorting Hōkūle'a on the first leg of a worldwide voyage, and will fly back to Maui to launeh Mo'okiha o Pi'ilani. While Hōkūle'a is away, Mo'okiha o Pi'ilani will be providing hands-on training in voyaging and wayfinding arts for keiki in Hawai'i. For information on this historic launeh, visit huiowaa.org. ■

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Tahiari'i Yoram Panenle, left, and Puaila Polulu lash Mo'okiha o Pi'ilani's mastas keiki look on. - Courtesy : Leilanilynne Hasbrook

Mo'okiha o Pi'ilani crew and Hui o Wa'a Kaulua directors celebrate the upcoming July 1 1 launeh. - Courtesy: Hui o Wa Kaulua