Rudy Choy, who helped pioneer the modern catamaran, assisted in the design of the Hokule‘a and popularized the tour boat business in Hawaii, died Sept. 13 in Honolulu.
He died of complications from a stroke, said his son Barry Choy.
Choy, 88, was born on Kauai and graduated from the University of Hawaii with a degree in English. He served in the U.S. Air Force during World War II and the Korean War.
He became involved in catamarans in 1947 when he helped Woody Brown and Alfred Kumalae build the first modern catamaran, Manu Kai. Choy went to the mainland and advocated for catamarans in the 1950s when people thought the vessels were "crazy," Barry Choy said.
In California, Choy and two friends began C/S/K Catamarans. The business stopped operating in the early 1970s, but Choy continued developing catamarans and eventually built the Aikane X-5, which set a Los Angeles-to-Honolulu trans-Pacific record in 1989.
Choy returned to Hawaii in 1969 and helped pioneer the tour boat business in the islands with his business, Aikane Catamarans. The operation, which originally consisted of him, his wife and son, was the first to operate at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel on Hawaii island, at Kaanapali, Maui, and at Kaneohe Bay. In Waikiki his business was the first to offer daytime cruises with snorkeling.
In the 1980s, during the company’s heyday, it was the largest tour boat company in the state, employing about 200 people and taking on about 1,000 passengers a day. It made $6 million a year, according to media reports at the time. But the business closed in 1993, a casualty of the Gulf War recession, his son said.
Choy was also a three-term director for the Hawaii Visitors Bureau, advocating for tourism in Hawaii, Barry Choy said.
Surfboard shaper George Downing, who surfed with Choy as a boy, said Choy loved Hawaii.
"He was instrumental in the tourism business," he said. "He really believed that Hawaii was capable of taking care of people that came here."
"He was capable of becoming governor," he added. "He was a very intelligent individual that knew commerce, knew business, knew entrepreneurship."
Choy also respected Hawaiian culture and helped design the hull lines for the Hokule‘a, a reproduction of an ancient Polynesian voyaging canoe.
Herb Kane had the concept of the hull but needed someone with technical knowledge and tapped Choy, according to Nainoa Thompson, president of the Polynesian Voyaging Society.
"In our eyes he and others were a special group of ocean people that were the pioneers that brought back the catamarans to Hawaii," Thompson said. "We have a lot of aloha for him from the voyaging community."
"Rudy is an important part of the whole voyaging story of rebirth and renewal," he said.
Besides son Barry, Choy is survived by daughter Robin Choy and three grandchildren.
A celebration of life will be from 8 to 10 a.m. Nov. 21 at Outrigger Canoe Club. The family requests casual attire and no flowers.
