Many hands worked to restore the legendary koa outrigger canoe named the A‘a before it was relaunched Saturday on O‘ahu.
In 1901, Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole commissioned Henry Weeks and Antone Grace to build the A, as it’s also known. They completed it the following year. Crewed by Native Hawaiians from Kailua-Kona, the wa‘a went on to dominate the seemingly unbeatable O‘ahu canoe clubs between 1906 and 1910.
“The A‘a marked the beginning of organized canoe racing in Hawaiʻi,” said Tay Perry, the master canoe builder who oversaw repairs of the Aʻa. “It’s also a link to our past. It stands alone as the oldest canoe built for racing.”
Perry’s father, George Perry, founded the Lanikai Canoe Club in 1953 with Herbert Dowsett. The A‘a was part of the club’s first fleet of boats to practice, race and teach new paddlers the sport.
After Prince Kūhiō’s death in 1922, the A‘a changed hands to stewards of the outrigger canoe scene on Oʻahu, including the Outrigger Canoe Club in Waikīkī, the Bishop Museum, the Dowsett ʻOhana in Lanikai and the Four Seasons at Ko‘olina.
“They don’t exist for display,” Billy Richards said. “They exist for the ocean.”
Richards, a Polynesian Voyaging Society navigator, was specifically referring to waʻa made of koa. The A‘a recently anchored a Bishop Museum exhibit about the role koa canoes played in keeping Native Hawaiian traditions alive as outside influences began to change life in the islands.
“The A‘a is the first custom-built outrigger racing canoe,” said Sarah Kuaiwa, Bishop Museum’s curator for Hawaiʻi and Pacific cultural resources. The wa‘a, carved from a single koa tree, weighs about 500 pounds.
“Very few canoes of its size from the early-20th century are still seaworthy,” and have remained unchanged, Kuaiwi said. “The Dowsett and Perry ʻohana who have helped restore the A‘a over the past 75 years have made sure to preserve as much of the original elements of the A‘a as possible.”
“It was last paddled in 2012 at Sand Island,” Kuaiwi said.
Tom Lenchanko, of the Hawaiian Civic Club of Wahiawa, and the caretakers of the Kukaniloko Birthstones where aliʻi were born, said in 2023 that light always finds the aliʻi and they glow. Wherever the A‘a paddled Saturday morning in Ke‘ehi Lagoon, it seemed the sunlight followed it to reflect the koa wood’s golden color.
“Outrigger paddling is an international sport with roots in Hawaiʻi,” Kuaiwi said. “While paddling was popularized during King Kalākaua’s reign between 1874 and 1891, the A‘a helped to modernize the sport, encouraging dedicated paddlers to consider custom-building canoes for faster times in the water.”
A light rain began to fall as the A‘a completed its inaugural paddle following its latest restoration. A rainbow began at the water’s edge where the A‘a was landing and rose over the gathered crowd of several hundred paddlers, supporters and ʻohana.
“We hope to make returning the A‘a to the water a part of the consistent care of the canoe,” Kuaiwi said. “The Bishop Museum retains many other canoes from Hawaiʻi and the Pacific in its collection and we will continue to share the stories of these historic canoes with the public in meaningful ways.”
The Bishop Museum and the Hawai‘i State Museum of Natural and Cultural History dubbed Saturday’s event at Ke‘ehi Lagoon celebrating the A‘a’s return to the sea, “Hoʻi i ke Kai: Launch of the Aʻa.”
