The Kane'ohe Canoe Club may have been knocked down earlier this year, but it was far from out.

Relying on a collective effort from the entire club, Kane'ohe collected its seventh consecutive Na 'Ohana O Na Hui Wa'a championship yesterday.

Kane'ohe scored 67 points to edge Waikiki Beachboys and win the Hui Wa'a Championship Regatta at Ke'ehi Lagoon.

"This was an 'ohana win today," Kane'ohe head coach Clint Anderson said. "The whole club brought in points, and that's what it took to win this regatta."

Kane'ohe entered 24 crews in yesterday's regatta, and all 24 contributed points. Only the top four canoes in each race receive points, on a 5-3-2-1 scoring system.

Of Kane'ohe's 24 crews, six placed first, six placed second, seven placed third, and five placed fourth.

"All those little things make a difference," Anderson said.

Kane'ohe's streak of seven consecutive championships is second-best in Hui Wa'a history, behind Lokahi's 12 straight from 1987-98.

Still, this year's title was somewhat surprising for at least two reasons.

For one, Kane'ohe had a decrease in membership this year. As a result, it spent the year in the AA division, which is for medium-sized clubs.

Kane'ohe is now the first club in Hui Wa'a history to win the overall championship out of the AA division.

"That's the first time, so that's exciting," Anderson said. "That means it was all about the paddlers."

Second, Kane'ohe struggled during the regular season, at least by its standards. Kane'ohe won three of the seven regattas during the regular season, and its last victory came on June 7.

"The last couple weeks, we made some adjustments, add this, add that, move this, move that," Anderson said. "This week, we put in what we thought was our strongest crews."

Perhaps the best example was Kane'ohe's girls 18 crew of Kree Espinda, Tiare Lafradez, Kalahiki Long, Kelia Parrilla, Xian Pomare and Teresa Rogers. Just two weeks ago, the crew placed sixth out of six canoes. Yesterday, they won their 1/2-mile race.

"We changed up our crew this week, and talked about how we needed to win not just for ourselves, but for the club," Parrilla said.

In the end, Kane'ohe needed every point it got to hold off the history-chasing Waikiki Beachboys.

The Beachboys won a regatta-high 10 races and finished second with 64 points. It was seeking a first Hui Wa'a championship in the 36-year history of the club.

"We're still extremely pleased with how things went this year," Waikiki Beachboys president Dana Gorecki said. "A couple of crews that normally pull points for us came up a little short and we knew those points would come back to hurt us."

Like Kane'ohe, Waikiki Beachboys is a AA division club. The Beachboys fielded just 16 crews yesterday. Four of those crews finished undefeated against Hui Wa'a competition this year: women novice A, women freshman, women sophomore and women senior.

Waikiki Beachboys swept the prestigious senior races yesterday.

The women's senior crew of Kelsa Teeters, Jen Polcer, Dana Gorecki, Andrea Messer, Rachel Bruntsch and Kaui Pelekane paddled to a dominating win.

The men's senior crew of Franco Arango, Dane Keohohou, J Donovan, Patrick Nguyen, Victor Bovino-Agostino and Patrick Switzer clocked their fastest time of the year at 11 minutes, 25.84 seconds.

Manu O Ke Kai won six races and finished first in the AAA division for big clubs with 57 points. Koa Kai placed second with 47.

North Shore won two races and finished atop the A division for small clubs. Kalihi Kai and Ka Mamalahoe tied for second with 18 points each.

As proof of the balance in the Hui Wa'a organization this year, 12 different clubs had at least one first-place crew yesterday.

Yesterday was also the last chance for Hui Wa'a crews to qualify for the Aug. 1 state championship regatta at Hilo Bay. The top three Hui Wa'a crews in each division — based on full season results — will get to compete in Hilo.

The O'ahu Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association will hold its championship regatta today at Ke'ehi Lagoon.