The Kailua Canoe Club is proof that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

In a tribute to consistency and sacrifice, Kailua won the O'ahu Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association Championship Regatta yesterday at Ke'ehi Lagoon.

The OHCRA championship regatta started in 1979, and Kailua has now won it five times. The last time was 2005.

Lanikai, which was the three-time defending OHCRA champ, placed second yesterday.

Just six weeks ago — after Kailua placed second to Lanikai at the opening regatta of the season — Kailua head coach Kathy Erwin said she was happy "just to be close" to Lanikai.

Yesterday, Kailua won by a convincing margin, scoring 96 points in the 39 races of the regatta to top Lanikai's 81 points.

"It's pretty amazing isn't it," Erwin said. "I'm not sure what happened. I think everybody realized how important every person's effort is."

Kailua won seven races: boys 14, girls 16, men novice B, women 60, men 50, women open-4 and mixed 55.

Just as important, Kailua had 14 second-place crews.

Only the top four canoes in each race score points on a 5-3-2-1 basis. In other words, Kailua's seven first-place crews scored 35 points, and its 14 runner-up crews added 42.

"I was just really pleased with the consistency throughout the day," Erwin said.

Erwin had a whole list of people from the club she wanted to credit — "From the little kids to the older people, everybody came together ... 400 people, every person contributed," she said.

She gave special mention to Kailua's "three wisemen" — Pat Erwin (her husband), Hank Leandro and Kamoa Kalama.

All three are longtime Kailua paddlers who are now assistant coaches for the club. They are affectionately known as the guru, the godfather and the governor, respectively.

Leandro coaches the Kailua open men. In an effort to score more points for the club, he said he shuffled his paddlers into various crews to create multiple good crews, rather than one or two great ones.

"It's unselfish of (the paddlers), because everybody wants to win in their own crew," Leandro said. "We move our guys around. We want to win races, but it's more important for us to score points."

Kailua did receive inspiring victories from three crews: boys 14, girls 16 and women open-4.

All three crews were winless during the regular season.

The women's open-4 crew of Mahea Handley, Marata Tamaira, Leyla Samimi and Shaunessy McCue beat Lanikai's crew by six seconds yesterday.

"Determination and drive," Samimi said. "We wanted this one."

Lanikai still won a regatta-high 10 races, but ultimately could not match Kailua's overall consistency.

"We win races, but we needed to place a little more," Lanikai head coach Jimmy Bruhn said. "That's where Kailua is strong. They're steady scorers. A lot of seconds and thirds."

Lanikai started strong, winning six of the 13 youth races in the morning.

Lanikai also scored an upset late in the day in the women's 50-older race, defeating previously undefeated Kailua.

"We have 11 ladies that are 50, so our coach kept switching every week, looking for the right combination," said Lei Cunningham, who steered the Lanikai crew. "This crew never raced together before today, but it was the right combination."

Surprisingly, though, Lanikai did not win any of the open adult races.

"No excuses," Bruhn said. "We moved some paddlers around to try and qualify for states, but we were trying to win this regatta, too."

Outrigger placed third overall with 62 points, and won the prestigious men's senior race.

The crew of Scott Gamble, Billy Lawson, Mike Kane, Tapa Worthington, Kapono Brown and Jimmy Austin scored an impressive 12-second win over Lanikai in the 1 1/2-mile race.

"We were definitely feeling some pressure," Gamble said. "It's a windy day, so you never know what can happen. We're just happy to be where we are today."

Outrigger went undefeated against OHCRA competition in the men's senior race, and will face strong challenges from Big Island and Maui crews at the state championship regatta at Hilo Bay on Aug. 2.

Hui Lanakila capped a strong season in the AA division for medium-sized clubs with 49 points yesterday. Hui Lanakila won the AA division by a convincing margin at every regatta this season.

Healani finished second yesterday with 27 points.

As usual, Hui Lanakila's open women led the way. They swept the freshman, sophomore, junior and senior races.

The crew of Mikala Bradley, Jaimie Kinard, Michelle Arnold, Arlene Holzman, Sara Jane Larkin and Sarah Van De Vanter won the women's senior race by eight seconds over Outrigger.

Hui Lanakila is undefeated in both the women's junior and senior races heading into the state regatta.

"It'll be nice to see what we can do at states," Bradley said. "There's so many good teams out there that we haven't seen yet."

Waimanalo won just one race — men 55-older — and it proved crucial. Waimanalo scored a total of eight points, and it was enough to win the A division for small clubs. Waikiki Surf Club placed second with seven. The girls 18 crew for Waikiki Surf Club capped an undefeated OHCRA season with a win yesterday.

OHCRA, which is the largest organization in the state, will get to send four crews in each race to the state championship regatta.

Kailua and Lanikai are expected to battle with Hawaiian Canoe Club of Maui for the overall championship. Lanikai won the state title last year, and Hawaiian won it seven consecutive years before that.

Kailua's Erwin said a state championship for her club "would be gravy."

"This was our focus for the year," she said.