V1

Posted on Aug 23, 2009

The lease on our shop was signed just hours before a trip to Tahiti for the Super Aito in 2007. Literally, the very first thing that went through the doors of the shop was a V1; straight from Tahiti and broken in three pieces.
Kamanu Composites was founded on the dream to build canoes, and after that trip, a rudderless V1 became a part of that dream. In Tahiti we saw an intensity and passion that we believed stems from the traditional V1 and we hoped to bring some of that back to Hawai'i. However, our dream to immediately build a V1 quietly faded along with our memories of Tahiti. The V1 we brought back remained untouched in the corner of the warehouse as Kamanu Composites grew up around it.

After some time we decided to develop a V1 of our own design. We've done numerous iterations of computer aided design, built and tested two working prototypes and even had the final prototype broken in half by a truck. Months of final design, shaping, and refining have been done and now our V1 is finally approaching completion. Molding is now in process. Below are some photos of the final plug.

The first several demo canoes should be available at the HVA race on September 12th.

Prices, availability, and a name will be announced at a later date.