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By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Allan Dowsett replaced damaged wood, repaired
cracks and refinished the historic canoe.

Awards dinner to
showcase historic
racing canoe

Betty Shimabukuro
Star-Bulletin

The Dowsett men have cared for canoes for three generations. It is their legacy.

Working Saturdays for a year, Allan Dowsett has been carrying on the family tradition, restoring a racing canoe with a history that reaches back nearly a century.

"I guess it's genetic," Dowsett says.

The craft was built in 1902 for Prince Kuhio and is believed to be the original six-man racing canoe. After a long career on the water, the canoe went into storage at the Bishop Museum in 1969.

Saturday, it takes a place of honor once again at a fund-raising dinner honoring Nainoa Thompson, navigator for the Hawaiian Voyaging Society, and Walter Dods, chairman and CEO of First Hawaiian Bank, for civic contributions.

"It'll be the first time the public has seen it in 30 years," Dowsett said.

The dinner will recreate a Hawaiian gala of the late 1800s, reflected in music, decor and menu. The canoe fits into the historical context, and also serves as a tribute to Thompson's sailing legacy.

Dowsett values the canoe for the beauty of its workmanship, its historic significance and its connection to his family.

In 1952, his grandfather, Herbert Dowsett, restored the craft, and he remembers having the chance to paddle in it as a child.

"This is the canoe from which all racing canoes came."

BERNICE PAUAHI BISHOP AWARDS Honoring: Nainoa Thompson and Walter Dods Dinnertime: 6:30 p.m.Saturday Place: Hilton Hawaiian Village Coral Ballroom Tickets: $150; corporate tables $1,500-$5,000 Call: 848-4157

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