Macfarlane Regatta Trophy
Winning Club
A new Perpetual Trophy to be awarded annually to the high point winner in the Walter J. Macfarlane Memorial Regatta Winner was presented to the Club as sponsor of the Regatta by Muriel Macfarlane Flanders at a small reception held in her honor on Sunday, July 2, 1972.
The Directors of the OCC had earlier commissioned sculptor David Tompkins of Los Angeles and Club member Jerry Ober to design the trophy. Working from photographs supplied by OCC member Tommy Holmes, the designers produced a trophy of laminated koa wood shaped to form a huge wave on which a finely sculpted solid silver racing canoe is superimposed.
The name of the club winning each year’s regatta since the regatta’s inception in 1943 is engraved on a silver plaque attached to the trophy.
The trophy is fondly referred to as the “Wave Trophy.”
Walter Macfarlane Memorial Trophy
Senior Men
This trophy was donated by the Matson Navigation Company for the inaugural July 4 canoe races in memory of Walter J. Macfarlane, the recently deceased president of the Outrigger Canoe Club in 1943. It was awarded to the first place senior men six. The first winning crew belonged to the Outrigger Canoe Club and included Robert Bush, Tom Arnott, John Beaumont, Jim Fernie, Thad Ekstrand and was steered by Duke Kahanamoku.
The trophy is awarded annually to the winner of the Senior Men’s race. A silver bowl is attached to a koa base which bears the names of past winners.
Traditionally after the regatta the winning crew drinks a toast of champagne from the cup and invites the second place crew to join them.
The trophy contains the names of all winning crew members of the race.
The senior men’s race has ranged from 1.5 miles to 4.5 miles over the years.
Muriel Macfarlane Flanders Cup
Senior Women
Although women competed in the Macfarlane Regatta since its inception in 1943, they did not have a perpetual trophy until 1984 when Muriel Macfarlane Flanders donated a sterling silver bowl for the winner of the Senior Women’s Race.
The trophy was named for Mrs. Flanders and is a fitting tribute. The trophy for the winner of the senior men’s race is named for her brother, Walter J. Macfarlane, and now the trophy for the winner of the senior women’s race is named for her.
The pedestal for the trophy was made by McD Philpotts, Muriel’s grandson, and the base was made by Domie Gose.
The winning women’s crew is invited to share a champagne toast from the bowl with the second place crew after the race.
The trophy contains the names of all winning crew members of the race.
Boys and Girls 12 Trophy
For the 50th annual Macfarlane Regatta in 1992, Mrs. Muriel Flanders, Walter Macfarlane’s sister, donated a trophy to recognize the youngest competitors in the race: the winning Boys and Girls 12 and under crews.
The trophy was crafted by Tommy Leong, Keoni Kino and Tay Perry. The trophy has two hand carved detachable koa manu sitting atop a monkeypod base.
The names of the winning clubs are inscribed on plaques on the base.
Muriel Macfarlane Flanders Memorial Trophy
Boys 18
In 1980, Walter Guild, the grandnephew of Walter Macfarlane, dedicated a magnificent koa racing canoe model he made as a trophy honoring his grandmother Muriel Flanders, Walter Mac’s sister.
The hand-carved koa outrigger canoe sitting on the koa base is named Alaka`i.
The trophy is awarded to the winning Boys 18 crew. The names of each winning crew member are engraved on bronze plaques which are attached to the base.
This trophy is one of only four in the regatta listing the names of the winning crews, the others being the Girls 18s and the Senior Men and Women.
Girls 18 Trophy
In 1990, the Canoe Racing Committee observed there was no trophy for the Girls 18s to complement the one for the Boys 18s. Kawika Grant donated a Silver Champagne Bucket and the Committee donated the base of the trophy to fill this gap.
This trophy is one of only four in the regatta listing the names of the winning crews, the others being the Boys 18s and the Senior Men and Women.
Names of winning crew members are engraved on plates on the base of the trophy.
Bob Fischer Memorial Trophy
Novice B Women
A silver cup donated by the Hawaiian Brewing Company for the original 1943 Women’s 6 event, was returned to perpetual competition in 1991 in memory of Bob Fischer, a strong supporter and coach of women’s paddling.
Fischer coached and steered the winning women’s crew in 1943. He was actively involved in canoe racing in Hawaii for more than 50 years, as a coach, paddler and race official, and was a founder and officer of the Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association and Oahu Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association.
The trophy is awarded to the winning Novice B crew to celebrate Bob’s commitment to the women’s paddling program.
Albert “Toots” Minvielle Memorial Trophy
Novice B Men
This silver trophy was the Royal Hawaiian Hostess Trophy for the winning Enlisted Six-Man crew in the 1943 Macfarlane Regatta. Outrigger won the race with a crew of Robert “Buckaloose” Bush, Jim Fernie, Edward “Mickey” Beggs, David “Dayday” Duncan, Gordon “Buster” Tribble and Duke Kahanamoku. The military races ended after World War II and the cup was retired.
The trophy was reactivated in 1992 by adding a koa base and was awarded to the winning Novice B Men’s crew.
The trophy honors the founder of the Moloka`i Hoe race “Toots” Minvielle.
It is awarded to the winning Men’s Novice B crew.
Primo Beer Cup
Masters Men 40
This trophy was originally introduced by the Hawaiian Brewing Company as the Primo Beer Cup in 1947 and was to be awarded to the first club to win the two-canoe relay race three times.
Outrigger won the race in 1947 and the trophy was then retired after the relay race was discontinued.
The winners of this trophy were Tommy Arnott, Jamie Dowsett, Robert Bush, Kenneth Chaney, Alan “Turkey” Love, Jimmy Pflueger. Carlos Rivas. J. Wilkinson, Don Tobin, John Beaumont, Don Denhart and Toots Minvielle.
The silver cup sits atop a wooden pedestal, which sits on a wooden base.
In 1991, the Primo Cup was returned to competition and was awarded to the winning Masters Men. Originally, the youngest Masters crew was 35. The age was moved up to 40 in 2003 by OHCRA.
Masters Women Bowl
Masters Women 40
In 1984 Mrs. Muriel Macfarlane Flanders donated two lovely hand carved milo bowls for the winning youngest and oldest Masters women’s events.
The bowl sits atop a seven-sided koa wood pedestal.
The youngest Masters women’s age group began at age 35. The age was raised to 40 in 2003 by OHCRA.
Ke Ka Wa`a Kahiko Trophy
Senior Masters Men 70
First presented on July 4, 1995, this trophy is based on an ancient Polynesian canoe bailer.
The trophy is a copy of an ancient Polynesian canoe bailer in the Bishop Museum. It was a joint donation from Kawika Grant and the U.S. Navy.
The trophy is currently awarded to the winning Masters Men 70 crew. Previously, the oldest racing event was the Masters Men 40, Masters Men 45, Masters Men 50, Masters Men 52, Masters Men 53, Masters Men 55, Masters Men 60 and Masters Men 65.
Senior Masters Women Bowl
Senior Masters Women 70
In 1984 Mrs. Muriel Flanders donated two lovely hand carved milo bowls for the winning youngest and oldest Masters women’s events.
The bowl sits atop a seven-sided koa wood pedestal.
The oldest Masters women age group began at 45 and has now been raised to 70.
The USS Arizona Award
Military Invitational Race
At its 73rd annual Walter J. Macfarlane Memorial Regatta on July 4, 2015 Outrigger Canoe Club introduced a very special new trophy saluting our nation’s service men and women in uniform: The USS Arizona Award for the winner of the Military Invitational Race.
This was the sixth year Outrigger had extended an invitation to the island’s five major military services – Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard – to compete against each other in a special canoe race celebrating our nation’s birthday… a race OCC has made a permanent part of the Macfarlane regatta with the enthusiastic support of OHCRA and its member canoe clubs.
The history of this race goes all the way back to Outrigger Canoe Club’s very first 4th of July regatta in 1910 – two years after the Club’s founding. Back then there was no organized canoe racing or association of clubs for OCC to invite to its canoe race.
There were three naval ships in Honolulu Harbor at the time, however, and in those days warships all had longboat crews who raced against each other in friendly competition when in port. All three ships were invited to race each other in the surf at Waikīkī, and all three accepted enthusiastically. Those three ships were the Navy cruisers USS Cleveland, USS Chattanooga, and the Belgian naval training ship L’Avenir. Surfing waves in Hawaiian canoes proved to be too much for the longboat-trained American crews. Both swamped, but the Belgians survived to win the race and the plaudits of the crowd ashore.
As more local crews from such early clubs as Hui Nalu, Healani and others began competing, no other military crews were invited to the 4th of July regatta until WW II, when Waikīkī’s hotels became military R&R centers. Outrigger initially organized special officer and enlisted men and women races for its 4th of July race, but not as inter-service competitions. It was not until 1945 when a service-vs-service competition was finally held – between the women’s service branches, and it was the Lady Marines who emerged triumphant.
The end of the war brought an end to service competition, and it was not until 2010 – for the 100th anniversary of Outrigger’s first 4th of July regatta – that the suggestion was made to have a military invitation race as part of the celebration, in recognition of that first race one hundred years before.
Outrigger proposed the race as a special event to OHCRA, and the entire association endorsed the idea wholeheartedly. Clubs participating in the regatta that year willingly agreed to host a service team of five paddlers, providing use of their canoes, a qualified steersman, paddles and even some quick orientation in Hawaiian canoe paddling.
Originally intended to be a quarter-mile ‘tourist-type’ race, local clubs and their adopted military sons and daughters argued for a full-on half-mile race out and back. In a heated competition down to the wire, the Navy squeaked out a close, hard fought win by less than a second over the Marine Corps team from Kāne’ohe – and a tradition was reborn.
The race is back to a quarter-mile as are all OHCRA special races.
The 2014 race even included a crew of five admirals representing the various Navy branches of the U.S. Pacific Command, so it is no exaggeration in stating that the Outrigger Canoe Club’s salute to our military men and women in uniform has gained the attention of the highest level of command.
No better proof of this is the recent, magnificent gesture of respect extended to OCC by the Commander, Navy Region Hawai’i at Pearl Harbor, through the auspices of Jim Neuman, Command Historian in granting the Club custody of a hallowed piece of USS Arizona to serve as a perpetual award to the winning service crew of the Macfarlane Military Invitational Race.
On February 11, 2015 the Navy presented the Club with an iron beam from the aft deckhouse superstructure of the battleship USS Arizona (BB 39) which was sunk at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii during the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941. On hand to receive the relic from the Navy were Marc Haine and Kawika Grant.
An appropriate presentation stand, designed by Tay Perry and Kawika Grant was built by the Club under the guidance of Domie Gose – from a rare and beautiful piece of koa wood generously donated by Karl Heyer IV.
Kama`aina Hui Perpetual Trophy
Junior Men and Women
This trophy was first awarded on July 4, 1952 to the winning Men’s Junior 6. The trophy was retired in 1955.
In 2019, the Canoe Racing Committee reactivated the trophy and had a double pedestal added. The Kama’aina Hui Perpetual Trophy is now awarded to the winning Junior Men’s and Junior Women’s crews. The men’s crew winners go on one pedestal and the women’s crew on the other.
Click here to see past winners.
Wilford D. Godbold Perpetual Trophy
Men and Women Open 4
The Wilford D. Godbold Perpetual Trophy was first awarded on July 4, 1952 in honor of Wilford D. Godbold, a past president of the Outrigger Canoe Club. It was awarded to the winning Men Senior 4. The trophy was retired in 1955.
In 2019 the Canoe Racing Committee decided to reactivate the trophy and award it to the winning Men’s and Women’s Open 4 crews. A new double pedestal was made for the trophy with the men’s names on one pedestal and the women’s on the other.
Click here to see past winners.