Malia

Mālia is the name of a Hawaiian-style wooden racing canoe crafted by James Takeo Yamasaki. The canoe was hewn out of blonde koa wood in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii in 1933. Its wooden hull provided the founding model for all subsequent outrigger canoeing hulls, including those later molded from fiberglass. Hawaiian racing canoeist Tommy Holmes observed that Malia "remains a prototype for contemporary racing canoes [and] was among the first canoes built exclusively for the sport." The canoe was listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places in 1993. Outrigger canoe racing became popular in Hawaiʻi during the early 1900s. Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalaniana'ole was an early aficionado and commissioned the first canoe specifically built for...