After 18 months in dry dock and 15,500 volunteer hours of labor, a wholly rebuilt Hōkūle‘a, a Hawaiian voyaging canoe, was launched last week at Sand Island, Oahu, 37 years to the day after she was first launched. Following sea trials and outfitting, she will be ready to carry the next generation of voyagers across the Pacific.
Hokule’a Sets Sail Once More
I remember being at a Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers conference in Hawaii close to forty years ago, listening to Rudy Choy, a Hawaiian naval architect, known best for his sailing catamaran designs. As I recall Choy, who sadly died last year, was not a fan of Thor Heyerdahl. Heyerdahl had become famous for sailing downwind from Peru to Polynesia on the balsa raft, Kon-Tiki. Choy, and many others, believed that early Polynesian voyagers had traveled purposely across the Pacific, including sailing against the wind, rather than simply drifting, like flotsam, as suggested by Heyerdahl’s theories. Choy was one of the designers of a waʻa kaulua, a double-hulled voyaging canoe, that would prove Heyerdahl wrong. (Later, DNA studies would also confirm that the Polynesians sailed from west to east.) The voyaging canoe was the Hōkūleʻa, and since being launched on March 8, 1975, she has completed ten major voyages, all across the Pacific, including sailing to Tahiti, Micronesia, the United States and Japan.
After sailing for more than three decades, the Hōkūleʻa was put into drydock and completely rebuilt down to her original hulls. She is now several feet wider and a thousand pounds lighter. Following sea trials, she will sail to all the islands in the state before commencing a worldwide voyage in June of 2013.
Thanks to Susan Yamamoto in the Traditional Sail Professionals Linked-in Group for passing along the news.