Progress now underway for project to create new $85,000 Kailua Bay Regatta Course

Three Kona canoe clubs are leading the push to bring outrigger canoe racing back to Kailua Bay for 2026 and beyond.

In collaboration with Hawai‘i Island’s Moku O Hawai‘i Outrigger Canoe Racing Association, the Kailua Bay Regatta Course is a communitywide effort that recently kicked off a GoFundMe campaign to help finance the project.

“Kai ‘Opua, Keauhou and Kai‘Ehitu — plus the island’s Moku O Hawai‘i Canoe Racing Association — have been meeting for months to bring this to fruition, and we all support reconstruction of the Kailua Bay Regatta Course to return canoe paddling regattas to Kona,” said Keauhou Canoe Club President Bill Armer in an announcement about the effort.

Kailua Bay regattas have been delayed nearly 3 years because of functional problems with the old race course.

Armer says the new course will bring thousands of participants and spectators back to Kailua Pier to revitalize the pageantry and excitement of Kona regattas.

“No other sporting event stages young and old — from age 10 to folks in their 80s — competing in the same koa canoes on the same course on the same day,” he said. “We at Keauhou Canoe Club invite and appreciate all support of this effort.”

The $85,000 Kailua Bay Regatta Course will be used for Moku, Big Island Interscholastic Federation high school and other community racing events.

Regattas presented by each of the three canoe clubs and Big Island Interscholastic Federation Kona-side regattas for the 2026-27 season with an expected completion in March.

“Being able to race in Kona enables paddlers to compete in different conditions than Hilo,” noted Kealakehe High School paddling coach Mike Atwood in the announcement. “Hilo’s course is inside a breakwater and somewhat protected while the Kona course is open to ocean waves and winds.”

Atwood said the “clear waters” of Kailua Bay have been the location of Big Island Interscholastic Federation regattas for two decades and the bay continues to be used by West Hawai‘i schools for practice from November through February.

Islandwide Moku o Hawai‘i will own the course once it is completed. The association is home to 15 canoe clubs, and the new course will have 16 lanes.

Moku Moku o Hawai‘i President Doug Bumatay said the number of participants to sign up for canoe racing season increased during the past 5 years, with about 2,300 paddlers signing up for the 2025 season.

“The Kailua race course is definitely needed, for sure — especially for the Kona paddlers and their families,” emphasized Bumatay in the announcement. “It’s a big deal for the three clubs to host their regattas there; it’s their opportunity to shine.”

He said the project sets the tone for other courses with similar challenges, such as protecting coral.

Project organizers think the Kailua Bay Regatta Course is the first permitted engineered and designed outrigger canoe course in the state.

The course’s lanes will be installed through a system of 3,000-pound concrete mooring blocks, steel sand anchor screws and one drilled pin in solid rock. Racing lanes will run in a north-south direction, with canoes lining up for starts from mauka to makai.

Course construction is set to start this month.

To protect coral growing on the southern line of the course, the blocks will be placed in sandy areas and an underwater line will go between them, up off the bottom. Course race flags can be tied down to that line.

The trunk line between blocks would be in place only during racing season and removed afterward.

Kai ‘Opua President Kris Hazard said the $85,000 price tag is worth it for Hawai‘i Island, pointing out the generous donations of time and materials that kept the project’s cost down.

“The benefits of having regattas here in Kailua Village are many,” noted Hazard, who is also an active paddler, in the announcement. “The excitement of the colorful racing flags, the beautiful koa wood canoes, the smiles, laughter and cheering of our paddling community — they all bring us together as a vibrant, healthy community to enjoy our state’s official team sport.”

Canoe culture is an important part of carrying on the Hawaiian tradition of seafaring, she added, and having a space in Kona for people of all ages to participate in competitive canoe paddling is tantamount.

“We have to get regattas happening here again or we’re going to lose our West-side keiki to other sports,” Hazard said. “Without the excitement of competition, they will drift away.”

Kai‘Ehitu Outrigger Team President Puamaile Kimitete said the project is dear to the hearts of those working on it, and they are looking forward to the new course opening to the local community of paddlers.

“One of our top Hawai‘i sports is hoe va‘a — it allows us to move together as a family from our kamali‘i [children] to kūpuna,” said Kimitete in the announcement.

The project received a $30,000 contribution from an anonymous donor, and the three Kona canoe clubs pledged to raise the reminder of the money needed.

They recently launched a joint GoFundMe campaign and ask everyone who loves the sport of paddling and the benefits it brings to help the cause.