Seaworthy once more
Hawaiian-style canoe gets traditional makeover
by Carolyn Lucas
West Hawaii Today
Wednesday, March 14, 2007 9:05 AM HST
In 1952, master canoe builder Charles Mokuohai delivered a 42-foot koa canoe to Honolulu's Healani Canoe Club. The canoe's namesake, Papaloa, reflected the long plain extending from the slopes of Kealakekua from which the log derived.
Mokuohai frequently harvested koa from this land, owned by the Greenwell estate. In the mid-1950s, he constructed a 17-foot koa canoe and gave it Amy Greenwell to show his thanks.
A part owner of the Kealakekua Ranch, Amy Greenwell had a great appreciation for the natural environment and Hawaiian culture. She kept the canoe at her residence in Captain Cook.This vintage canoe, called Papaloa I'i, is now on display at the *** Ana Cafe in the Kealakekua Ranch Center. It underwent an extensive restoration last year.
"The Papaloa I'i is special because it's a Charlie Mokuohai canoe that was done very well in the old style. It is a hand-hewn koa canoe built according to Hawaiian tradition," said John Olson, a local waterman and attorney who rigged the canoe. "The canoe's hull is shaped like a calabash, as are present koa canoes. Its stern, prow and gunwales are designed for the waters of Hawaii and are particularly well-suited to fishing, for which general purpose the design was intended."
Upon her death in 1974, Amy Greenwell left her canoe, which was then unnamed, to Nick Greenwell, her nephew and co-owner of Kealakekua Ranch Center.
He later hauled it to the family's Papaloa mountain house. For more than 20 years, it remained there in a shed. Though protected from the elements, the canoe aged.
"It was the ugly duckling of canoes," Nick Greenwell said. "It was worn and gray."
Upon seeing the canoe for the first time, Olson wanted to see it in the water and urged for its restoration.
Nick Greenwell agreed that canoe was an important object of the past, which needed to be preserved and shared.
"It's a treasure and it would be selfish to share it with nobody," he said.
Last year, Nick Greenwell asked master wood worker and canoe builder Jerry Benson to restore the weathered canoe.
Since beginning his craft in the 1960s, Benson has built more than 100 Hawaiian-style canoes. World-renowned artist Herb Kane was Benson's mentor and business partner.
The restoration began in March and took a month to complete. Throughout the effort, many volunteers helped including descendants of Greenwell and Mokuohai.
With skill and dedication, Benson contended daily against time's inevitable -wear. Inside his Honaunau workshop, he straightened out the bumps and repaired the cracks.
"Jerry carefully sanded the hull until the rich natural orange and rose colors of the koa wood reappeared," Olson said. "Instead of painting the canoe with varnish, Jerry, Nick and Aka Kiawe rubbed many coats of nautical oil into the wood, until it assumed the glow you see now."
Benson fashioned the ama, float, and iako, boom, out of hau, a buoyant and lightweight wood. He also constructed three paddles. Fisherman Mitchell Terazono braided the line used for the display.
Benson described Mokuohai's work as something real, true and symmetrical.
Last May, Kahu Billy Paris christened the canoe during a blessing ceremony at Keei beach. After consulting with several local people that helped in the restoration, Nick Greenwell selected the name Papaloa I'i.
The namesake honored the canoe's place of origin and small size.
Mokuohai's great-great-granddaughter Pua Kauhaihao helped paddle Papaloa I'i on its inaugural voyage the day after the blessing.
Kirby Greenwell, the daughter of Nick Greenwell, and Robert Olson, the son of John Olson, were also in the boat.
For more information about the canoe, call the Kealakekua Ranch Center at 323-3188.
or call "Lava Laure" Laure McElwee, Realtor (S) 808-217-0429
www.LavaLaure.com