Voyaging canoe almost ready to set sail

The Mo‘okiha O Pi‘ilani from Jenna Ishii on Vimeo.

The Mo‘okiha O Pi‘ilani — ‘Her heart is beating’

 November 14, 2010 - By KEKOA ENOMOTO, Staff Writer

LĀHAINA - There will be a new kid on the block - a 62-foot, double-hulled canoe that, like a baby in gestation, will make its debut in about nine months.

Tha Lāhaina-based group Hui O Wa'a Kaulua is putting the finishing touches on the Mo'okiha O Pi'ilani, recognized as Maui's first and only transoceanic voyaging canoe. The vessel got a last coat of paint Tuesday at its 525 Front St. dry dock and is set to receive its final trimmings: decks, upright rails and rigging, according to Capt. Tim Gilliom, of the famed voyaging canoe Hōkūle'a.

"If there's one word for these canoes, it's efficient," Gilliom said Saturday. "Deep-sea voyaging canoes - I really believe in them or I wouldn't be there. You can feel the heart in ours already (because) she's so close to the water, and she's just been looking at it for her whole life and hasn't touched it.

"Her day's coming; she'll be a floating classroom, is our ultimate goal," said Gilliom, a fisherman and shipwright, who is as devoted to Mo'okiha O Pi'ilani as a doting parent.

He estimated the craft will make its maiden voyage in summer 2011, launching from a to-be-determined Maui site. The occasion will culminate work on the vessel over a dozen years by Gilliom, who toils on the canoe daily, often by himself or with two or three others.

He said his mother told him: "Not everybody is like you, crazily infatuated with this canoe. All you do is talk about the canoe; enough already."

The Maui native and lifelong waterman said he sailed on the Hokule'a voyages to Rapa Nui in 1999-2000, and to Micronesia, Okinawa and throughout Japan in 2007.

"I am a jack of all trades. I learned a lot from a lot of uncles, all the other canoe builders and captains - most from the other (voyaging) canoes: the Hokule'a, Hoku Alaka'i, Hawai'iloa and Makali'i - and the crews as well.

"I've done 21,000 miles - that's the total mileage under my belt; Nainoa helped me figure it out," he said, referring to legendary Hawaiian navigator Nainoa Thompson, of O‘ahu.

A Baldwin High School graduate, Gilliom is the brother of recording stars Amy Hanaiali'i and Eric Gilliom - but indicated he's the stage-frighted member of the entertainment family. Thus, when Hui O Wa'a Kaulua members give a presentation on Mo'okiha O Pi'ilani on Tuesday, Tim Gilliom will not be among the speakers.

Although sidestepping the limelight, he said the most fulfilling aspects of his 12-year involvement with Mo'okiha are "seeing all the kids; when they come down to work and help sand, they are wowed at how big it is and how beautiful. When I tell them it's going to be like a floating classroom, their eyes lights up.

"And just seeing her come from really the starting, to come alive now… and then the ultimate will be when I splash water on her in the ocean," he said.

Currently, Hui O Wa'a Kaulua is fundraising to buy $6,000 worth of five-eighths-inch rope to hold the two masts, and seeks volunteers to help with final details on Mo'okiha. Hui members work weekdays, then sail the smaller Mo'olele on weekends.

But one must help build to be able to sail.

"Crew selection starts in dry dock," Gilliom said.

He said the Mo'okiha O Pi'ilani has the same length and width as the Hokule'a, which will spend a year in dry dock and be widened by 3 to 4 feet in preparation for a 2013 globe-circling voyage. Gilliom said he's training 15 Maui crew members for that trip.

Meanwhile, the new-kid-on-the-block Mo'okiha "has so much mana, it's unreal… When people go on her, they start crying but they don't know why.

"When you actually go onto the canoe and see how wide it is and how long it is, you'll sit there and be in awe because she's a big, big Cadillac," said Gilliom.

"Come check it out. She's beautiful. Her heart is beating. I can hear it when I come in the morning."