Designing Hawai`iloa
Ho`olala o Hawai`iloa

Going with the Grain

How to maximize speed, carrying capacity, buoyancy and tracking ability, while keeping to a traditional design? This is the complex set of variables which faced the Hawai`iloa team.

The work started on the drafting table but the design largely flowed from the kua la`au (logs) themselves. Modern catamaran architects Rudy and Barry Choy helped determine displacement (how low she would sit in the water). A computerized three-dimensional drawing also was made. But the `ano (shape) and `i`o (grain) of the logs themselves had the most profound influence on the final form of Hawai`iloa.

E kaupe aku no i ka hoe a ko mai.
Put forward the paddle and draw it back.
Go on with the task that is started and finish it.
(`Olelo No`eau #319; Pukui 1983)
Wanted: Two Massive Trees
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Revised on August 29, 1996 by mcb