In 1974, the Leilani underwent still another transformation. George and Tay Perry remodeled the bow of the Leilani. They split the canoe from the three seat forward, widened the bow and lengthened the canoe slightly.
OCC raced the Leilani in 1974 and 1978 in the Molokai race.
Still the bow of the Leilani was heavy. In the summer of 1982, Sonny Bradley rebuilt the forward 10-feet of the canoe from the number three seat forward. He cut and lengthened the Leilani by about a foot. Following the keel line up, he added one piece of wood at a time until the front looked like an Egyptian slipper and was 1.5 inches thick.
He finished the job just in time for the 1982 Molokai race. In that race, Outrigger was dead even with Hui Nalu and Imua as they approached the Club on the way to the finish line in Waikiki. They were hit by a large wave at Rice Bowl and swamped. The OCC crew managed to finish third, but the Leilani had an 8-foot crack and two cross braces had broken.
Before the 1983 racing season, veteran canoe builder Joe Quigg took on the job of remodeling the Leilani once again. “After we’d watched the Tahitians beat us in their new-style canoes, we knew that the only way to get a boat like this was to build a new one. However, we knew this would take a few years and we wanted to maximize the potential of the Leilani while we commissioned a new canoe,” Quigg said.
“The Leilani was cut in half and lengthened to 42-feet 4 inches. Quigg skill-sawed it down the lengths of the keel, cutting out 2 ½” of width from the back, narrowing it to 19” wide. This was the first time the back of the canoe was rebuilt. Next, Quigg planed the front end down one inch narrower, making the canoe 20 pounds lighter. He lengthened and lightened the front manu, raised the front gunnel one inch, put in new lighter, stronger seats and cut out all the cross bracings and other rotten remodeled junk.
When he was finished, the bow was three-quarters of an inch thick, the front end had been refined to match the Tahitian style canoes and the Leilani weighed 417 pounds. The Leilani was now so fast in big surf that it took three paddlers to hold it on a big wave.
Outrigger won the 1983 Molokai in 5:45:09 in the newly renovated Leilani. However, the 1984 Molokai race will be remembered for a long time. In 3-4 foot swells, the Leilani surfed to a record finish of 5:18:19.62. This was the fastest crossing of the Molokai Channel ever by a koa canoe and set a record for overall finish. The Leilani koa record was broken by Hui Nalu in 1989 in 5:11:38.
Outrigger also raced the Leilani in 1985 and 1988 in the Molokai race.
In 1990, the Leilani was again remodeled. Quigg said he wouldn’t consider the Leilani finished until she weighed 400 pounds. The cross beams were removed, eliminating nearly 20 pounds of weight in the canoe and new lighter veneer seats were added.
After the Kakina was remodeled in 2001, it was the Leilani’s turn to sit in storage. “We had two really great racing canoes in the Kaoloa and the Kakina,” said Walter Guild. “We decided that the Leilani was our spare in case anything happened to either of the others.”
However, in 2011 when OCC Maintenance Supervisor Domie Gose started talking about retiring, the Canoe Racing Committee decided it was time to renovate the Leilani one more time and make it into the best canoe it could be. Domie began the process in late 2012. The CRC wanted to redo the shape so it resembled the newest Bradley fiberglass canoes, giving it more of a calabash shape.
Before he started, three maintenance workers spent a day taking measurements of the canoe. They didn’t seem right, so Domie spent the next day taking them himself. They still didn’t work. He finally understood that this was a Hawaiian canoe and needed to be blessed before he could start.
He tried in vain to find someone to bless the canoe, before realizing that the relationship was going to be between him and the canoe, and he would have to ask permission for the job he was about to do, not someone else. Domie says he went to the Bar and asked for some wine. He brought the wine down to the shop level in the garage. He dripped some wine on the canoe and put both hands on the canoe. As he started to ask the canoe to let him fix her up so she could return to the water and carry Club paddlers to victory in races, he said “I felt a jolt of something. Every hair on my body stood straight up and I could feel how alive the canoe was. Ever since I asked her permission, everything has gone right. I continue to nourish her with drops of wine every day after I am finished with the work and thank her for how she has served the Club.” Goose bump time.
With the canoe’s permission, Domie began constructing the new hull over the existing hull, working his way from the middle out, until the old hull could no longer follow the newly intended rocker line. He laid in new koa wood four inches wide and 12 feet long for the foundation. He patched wood on the side to make it bigger and bigger until it had the right hull shape. Then the bow and stern were removed. He added almost three feet in length to the stern, making it 44 feet 11 inches. The inside of the canoe was reinforced with koa strips for strength.
The rocker is longer than the original. He also replaced the gunnels and manu with koa to comply with HCRA racing rules. The Leilani also has a new ama and `iako. He also widened the gunnel slightly at seat one to make it easier to get in and out of the canoe. Other special features include new hatch covers, hoop holders, canvas track and reinforcement battens that were hand fabricated by Domie, just like the manu ihu and manu hope. Custom seats were also designed to allow different paddlers to find their sweet spot.
At the first weighing in April 2013 the canoe came in at 392 pounds. When the canoe had its official OHCRA inspection, the canoe weighed 389 pounds and with weights is officially 401 pounds. It is 44 feet 11 1/2 inches long and water lines at 34 feet 11 3/4 inches.
The newly renovated Leilani was dedicated at special ceremonies at the Club on May 31, 2013. Since then the Club has won four straight championships in the Koa Division of the Molokai Hoe in the Leilani, 2013-2016.