The Hui Nalu Canoe Club, top photo, took the canoe Noio for a shakedown cruise in preparation for the May 4 Molokai Triangle Race.Photos by Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin

---

And it's completely addicting.

A decade after outrigger canoe sailing was resurrected as a competitive sport, more people are becoming hooked every year. Now the Hawaiian Sailing Canoe Association is looking for a few good women.

They want strong, fearless women to give some competition to three wahine crews who already have proven themselves in this rugged interisland sport.

The Hui Nalu canoe club fielded a wahine team for last year's entire sailing canoe schedule. They gamely took on the men's crews, not winning any events but not finishing last by a long shot. And for the last two events of the season they got to race against another wahine crew.

"It was so much more fun than just competing against the men," said Emily Godinet, a canoe paddler for 20 years and a canoe sailor for three.

The women can fly across the water when the wind is whipping and the waves are pushing, but when they vanish the women must go stroke for stroke against the men, and the men's paddling advantage becomes depressingly obvious.

The Hui Nalu wahine get most of their competition from a crew of Kauai women canoe sailors, and they are excited to learn that a women's crew from the Big Island will compete in several races this season.

"We're really stoked because the whole idea is to build the sport for women," said Godinet.

Canoe sailing has grown tremendously since it was revived a decade ago when three Kauai crews and six Oahu teams competed in Na Holo Kai, an 85-mile race from Waianae to Nawiliwili Harbor to celebrate the Year of the Hawaiian.

The Hawaiian Sailing Canoe Association was formed, and these days up to 20 canoes from all islands compete in a series of six races. And more women are taking up the challenge, with encouragement from the men.

Godinet got started three years ago with help from Hui Nalu and the Hawaiian Sailing Canoe Association.

First there was a three-day wahine canoe sailing workshop on Kauai to give the women a taste of the sport. Then Godinet and her husband Geno, also a paddler, started hanging out at events that introduced novices to the joys of canoe sailing. When some of Geno's friends let the couple sail a canoe in and out of the channel at Kualoa, they were hooked.

"It's becoming a family sport. Our daughters are sailing, too," said Geno of the couple's children, 11, 12 and 14 years old.

Added Emily, "All us wahine paddlers have wanted to do this for years, and now we can."

The learning process has been tough, and Godinet and her crew have taken it seriously.

"You don't just go out and knock heads with the best of them in the first season," Godinet said. "It takes time to build knowledge."

She has gone to all the captains of the fastest canoes and grilled them about masts, rigging and strategy. "The support for us wahine is immense," she said. "People aren't afraid to share, and they don't look at us as competitors."

The women's immediate dream is to have their own division this season, and their long-term wish is for every canoe club to have a sailing canoe.

Hui Nalu's Teddie Anderson, left, and Robin Mailolo
tie down the mast on the Noio.

"The wahine are competitive, they have that charge 'em attitude," said Mike Kincaid, who helped found the canoe sailing association. "Now that people are getting more aware of it, they have the skills, they just need the boat."

The lack of a canoe is a huge barrier. The sleek racing outriggers cost up to $18,000. Hui Nalu lets the wahine use its sailing canoe, but the women still hold numerous fund-raisers to pay for rigging and gear.

Xcel and Da Kine have contributed wet suits and other necessary gear, but the women desperately need sponsors. "We can't do it without fund-raisers, sponsors and the support of the club," said Godinet.

They also can't do it without heaps of intestinal fortitude. The canoe and its outriggers, mast and boom are held together by rope, and the crew's lives depend on how well they have rigged the canoe. "The Kauai girls had to drop out last year and be towed back to Haleiwa because one of their knots failed," said Godinet. "It's that critical."

The five paddlers have to stroke the entire race without any crew changes, while the steersman guides the 45-foot rudderless canoe through treacherous waves and manipulates the sail to capture the elusive wind.

Catching waves is the ultimate free ride, but because the canoe is moving so fast, it hits waves hard enough to sink the bow of the canoe up to the third paddler and swamp the boat in seconds.

For safety's sake, the association allows crews to use bilge pumps instead of bailers, because there is no way three paddlers can bail quickly enough to keep the canoe from swamping.

And then there is the endless drudge work of sanding and varnishing the canoe, repairing the ama (outriggers), waterproofing canvas and repairing ropes.

The Hui Nalu crew took the canoe Noio for a shakedown cruise last Sunday to wash off the dust from a long winter's rest, test a new mast and adjust the rigging before the May 4 Molokai Triangle Race.

"We're like Girl Scouts, we like to be prepared," said Godinet. They spent eight hours rigging the canoe for a one-hour sail, then spent four hours undoing the rigging.

But oh that splendid hour of sailing.

Wind gusting to 30 miles an hour blew them from Maunalua Bay to Waikiki so quickly that some of them quit paddling and scampered to the safety ama so their weight would lift the main ama out of the water to reduce drag.

"I have sailed all my life, but to me there is nothing like canoe sailing, because you can go so fast."Godinet said. "It's exciting to do something people have done for thousands of years. The feeling of nostalgia and cultural continuity is uncomparable."

There are more-tangible benefits as well. During a fun race last weekend from Upolu Point on the Big Island to Hana and Kahului, Maui, male crews also caught 30 mph winds to blaze across the Alenuihaha Channel. Along the way they caught aku and a 20- and a 30-pound mahimahi, which fed all 40 competitors as they camped along the route.

Between competitions, the canoe sailors take other pleasure cruises and camp-outs to the north coast of Molokai and along Oahu's Windward side to enjoy the freedom of canoe sailing.

"It brings out the best in people," said Kincaid.

Hawaiian Sailing Canoe Association schedule

The Hawaiian Sailing Canoe Association has a full slate of races coming up:

May 4: Molokai Triangle Race, from Wailua to Lahaina to Kaunakakai.
May 26: Hoomanao, 75 miles from Kaanapali, Maui, to Waikiki.
July 27: Na Holo Kai, from Haleiwa, Oahu, to Kalapaki Beach in Nawiliwili Harbor, Kauai.
September: Moi Keha Cup, from Hapuna to Mahukona and back to Hapuna, on the Big Island.
October: Oceanfest, Kailua, Oahu, to Waikiki.
November: Lea Kaulana Cup, from Wailea, Maui, to Kahoolawe and back to Wailea.
For information, call Matt Buckman at 841-7300.