After leaving Outrigger Canoe Club at the turn of the century to compete with an all-star crew and focus on work and one-man outrigger canoe paddling, Billy Pratt expressed gratitude upon returning to paddle with the club this season.

If Sunday’s encouraging result at the 46th annual Duke Kahanamoku Long Distance Race is any indication, Pratt’s crewmates are glad he’s back in their iconic red-and-white canoe, as well.

"I’m fortunate to be part of their gang. … I just had my 45th birthday, so a lot of the boys I’m paddling with are half my age," said Pratt, who also serves as president of the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Foundation. "Fortunately it’s working out OK. It’s nice for us old buggahs to be in the mix."

Outrigger No. 1 emerged victorious, completing the 26-mile course in 2 hours, 54 minutes and 12 seconds. A trio of Oahu Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association rivals rounded out the next three positions, as Kailua No. 1 (2:54:46), Lanikai No. 1 (2:55:35) and Hui Nalu Black (2:57:24) could not catch Outrigger.

The race featured 44 crews that maneuvered through a course spanning from Kailua Beach, around Makapuu, past Hawaii Kai and Diamond Head, and finished adjacent to the pier on Duke Kahanamoku Beach fronting the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki.

Outrigger’s victorious crew also included Scott Gamble, Alfred Van Gieson, Victor Bovino Agostini, Justin Watts, Bill Balding, Heinere Itchner, Simeon Ke Paloma and Makena Fernandez. Pratt said the crew tweaked its lineup along the home stretch as he moved up to the stroker position after initially calling changes and scouting the "bumps" in the second and third seats while Balding steered.

"It was a really good win for us, more so for Billy Balding and I in the sense that we were together for many years and won a couple of Molokai (Hoe) for Outrigger in the late 1990s before I left to go paddle for Team New Zealand/Hawaii," said Pratt. "We don’t have a lot of numbers in the program this year, but we’re trying to stay together and keep the ohana. Kailua, Lanikai and Hui Nalu all paddled a heckuva race and battled, and we felt that if we could be within reach once we got to Hawaii Kai area, we’d be OK."

Competitors faced relatively flat conditions, and used a stiff tailwind to traverse around the rugged coastline. Kailua jumped out to an early advantage but eventually gave way to Outrigger, which took the lead for good along the south shore. Outrigger’s result was surprising because, according to Pratt, its canoe was hindered with a "terrible start" around Flat Island that involved multiple collisions with other canoes and a buoy as well as a near huli.

"We were ahead until midway through (the) Hawaii Kai (stretch spanning from Maunalua Bay to Diamond Head)," said Kailua steersman Jordan Wong. "That’s their water. We paddle in Kailua every day, so upwind, we’re good. They killed us downwind during the Hawaii Kai run. We just couldn’t stay in front of them."

Wong was joined in the Kailua crew by Conrad Martin, Gavin Hanoa, Jason Akamine, Donovan Leandro, Blaize Seto-Mook, Levi-Jordan Goeas, Nick Herrera and Chris Tanaka.

"We finally have a good bunch of guys who are dedicated, so we’re definitely looking forward to the rest of the season," Wong said.

Sunday’s race was the second jaunt of the long-distance campaign, and was held two weeks after paddlers completed the regatta sprint season. Team Primo, which did not participate in Sunday’s race after winning the traditional canoe division of the season-opening Na Pali Challenge along Kauai’s north and west shores on Aug. 4, had won the event in 2010 (2:54.36) and again in 2011 (2:53.35) before taking last year off to race in the World Sprints. Lanikai entered as defending champion, having claimed last year’s race in 3:01.49.

Team Primo, which races under the banner of Wailea Canoe Club on Maui, set the record for the fastest finish by a crew from Hawaii in Molokai Hoe history in 2012, but still finished more than 12 minutes behind seven-time defending champion Shell Va‘a of Tahiti. Last year, Shell Va‘a finished more than 21 minutes ahead of the closest Hawaii competitor, Livestrong, a Kona-based crew.

At the Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association’s state championship regatta at Hanalei Bay, Kauai, on Aug. 3, Team Primo claimed the prestigious 11⁄2-mile senior men’s race in a dominant sprint, which it won by 17 seconds over Keauhou (Big island), Outrigger and Lanikai.