In the mid to late ‘90s I built a canoe based off of one of my grandfather’s opelu style hulls. It was and still is a popular well performing canoe.  I did all of the construction and building of the plug and mold,  by hand.  Needless to say there were slight imperfections in the hull finish.

By the early 2000s, some design concerns came to my attention via various local watermen who had considerable time invested in the use of the canoe.  The hope was that I could correct these.

The problem was the paddles either hitting an iako when reaching out or getting stuck under one at the end of the stroke.  Specifically, at seat 4 when reaching forward you would have to shorten your stroke or risk hitting the aft ʻiako and when in seats 3 and 1 your stroke again had to be shortened on the exit as the paddles would repeatedly get snagged under the ʻiako.

The request was to 1) move seat 4 back, 2) move seat 3 forward and 3) move the forward wae back. 

With the Opelu measuring 22 ft 6 in long, the math simply did not work.  So, after laying out the requested spread of seats and waes, it became clear that the boat needed to grow in order to accommodate the changes.

The Hōlua, a 24 ft long OC-4 Surfing Canoe was created utilizing a similar rocker profile as my Opelu, but with a more refined and graceful entry.  The hull sports a generous amount of displacement ensuring the canoeʻs recovery ability.  The seats and waes are now configured, solving the previous concerns.  AND an additional “Sport Seat” on top of the rear manu offers the steersman a vantage point to better see over the forward paddlers when engaged in either sailing or wave surfing.

Construction of the canoe plug was all generated through a CAD program and CNC finish work ensuring a flawless finish.  The lay-up of each canoe uses polyester based resins and gelcoats.  The schedule is: customers color choice(s), CSM skin, 1208 double bias glass, 4 MM coremat, CSM overlay and coordinated color and web for the interior.  The web creates a color enhancement that doubles as a modified non-skid.

Having shared the drawing of the new hull with others, the underlying comments I hear is the boat is sleek looking, pleasing to the eye and looks to be quick and highly maneuverable, valuable traits in both the sailing and surfing world.  The boat comes in at 195 pounds which seems to be the ideal weight for surfing yet still easily manageable for transportation.

-Jay Dowsett