The amazing story of the Ocean Sports fleet begins decades before we ever became a company. In 1957, Hawaiian boat designer Rudy Choy joined forces with Warren Seaman and Alfred Kumalae to form C/S/K Catamarans. Basing their designs on the ancient Polynesian double-hulled canoes, they were the first modern day proponents of the seaworthiness of multihull boats.
In 1966, James Arness (the television actor who portrayed the character Matt Dillon on the popular TV show “Gunsmoke”) contacted Rudy to have C/S/K design a boat for him to win the prestigious Transpacific Yacht Race – a historic downwind sailing race running from California to Hawaii. Seasmoke entered the 1968 race and finished a day and a half ahead of all the other boats! When Arness tired of winning races, he gave Seasmoke to the Sea Scouts in California and they eventually sold her (apparently she was too much boat for them to handle safely). Ocean Sports had the privilege of operating Seasmoke when we first opened in 1981 until she “moved” to Maui in 1984. We got her back again in 1993 and she’s been our flagship ever since.
Seasmoke’s sister catamaran, the Manu Iwa is another C/S/K designed catamaran. Commissioned in 1967 by Lance Reventelow (heir to the Woolworth fortune, stepson of Cary Grant and husband of Jill St. John), Manu Iwa actually raced Seasmoke in the 1968 Transpac Race. She finished in a respectable 4th place, arriving in Hawaii just two days after Seasmoke. Her name “Manu Iwa” is the Hawaiian word for the Frigate Bird. Manu Iwa was most recently operated by Hualalai Watersports, and joined the Ocean Sports family in 2010.
The largest catamaran in our fleet, the ‘Alala, was designed by Barry Choy (Rudy’s son) and completed in 1995. Originally called Sail Catalina, she carried 49 passengers from Seal Beach, California to Catalina Island at high speed and returned each day under sail. Owned by a local businessman and surfer who was nicknamed the Raven, she was renamed “Raven’s Spirit” after his passing. Ocean Sports acquired this unique vessel in 2000 and has since upgraded her rating to carry 76 passengers. Her current name “Alala” honors the Raven, as the “Alala” is the Hawaiian name for an endangered species of crow currently living in the wild only on the Big Island.
And the final boat in our Ocean Sports fleet is the Glass Bottom Boat. She began running tours of Anaeho’omalu Bay as the “Doherty One” in 1984, and in 1988 had her hulls painted red and was renamed the “Red Whale”. Six years later, her name was changed once again to the “GBB”. With the arrival of the ‘Alala, she was modified to work as a water taxi used to ferry passengers to the catamarans-- but we still love to run her daily on tours above the reefs of Anaeho’omalu.
Manu Iwa actually raced Seasmoke in the 1968 Transpac Race. She finished in a respectable 4th place, arriving in Hawaii just two days after Seasmoke. Her name “Manu Iwa” is the Hawaiian word for the Frigate Bird. Manu Iwa was most recently operated by Hualalai Watersports, and joined the Ocean Sports family in 2010.
The largest catamaran in our fleet, the 
Anaeho’omalu Bay as the “Doherty One” in 1984, and in 1988 had her hulls painted red and was renamed the “Red Whale”. Six years later, her name was changed once again to the “GBB”. With the arrival of the ‘Alala, she was modified to work as a water taxi used to ferry passengers to the catamarans-- but we still love to run her daily on tours above the reefs of Anaeho’omalu.
