About 500 Sails
The canoe brought us here
More than 5,000 years ago, the first Chamorros crossed an open ocean to reach these islands. We are a CNMI nonprofit putting their canoes back on the water.
Our history
Four chapters of canoe culture
Our story starts on the open ocean and comes back to it.
Over 5,000 years ago
Settlement
The first Chamorros crossed a vast, unknown ocean to settle the 14 Chamorro islands. Life centered on the forest and the sea, and here they built and sailed beautiful, fast canoes.
1521 to 1686
The canoes Europeans wrote about
Hundreds of sailing canoes met European ships at sea and circled them at two to three times their speed. Pigafetta, sailing with Magellan in 1521, wrote that they were “like dolphins bounding from wave to wave.”
1668 to 1698
The ban
Spanish soldiers and missionaries settled on Guahan in 1668. By 1698 the Chamorros of the northern islands had been moved to Guahan, and Spain banned building and sailing Chamorro canoes so no one could sail home.
2008 to today
The revival
In 2008 work began on the first large Chamorro voyaging canoe in over 265 years. Today we build fiberglass canoes from the same 1742 drawing, so more families can sail.
In their own words
“…so light that they looked like birds that fly in that sea.”
Carletti, Italian trader aboard the San Pablo, 1596
Our beginnings
From one redwood log to hundreds of canoes
In 2008, Sakman Chamorro Inc., founded by Pete Perez and Noel Quitigua, began planning a sakman, a large Chamorro voyaging canoe. They based it on the Anson drawing of a 40-foot canoe that the English captured off Tinian in 1742. In 2009 the project passed to CHE'LU (Chamorro Hands in Education Links Unity) in San Diego.
A team led by Mario Reyes Borja finished the 47-foot sakman Che'lu from a single redwood log in 2011. It took a year and cost more than $150,000.
Pete Perez and Mario Borja saw that canoe culture needed a faster, more affordable way to build. In 2014, Emma and Pete Perez founded 500 Sails on Saipan to build fiberglass canoes from the same Anson drawing.
Why we sail
Our mission, vision and values
Our mission
To revive, promote and preserve the maritime cultural traditions of the Mariana Islands through community engagement in canoe culture values and activities.
Our vision
The CNMI is enriched by a healthy, thriving native community that has successfully integrated traditional cultural values into modern life.
Our canoe culture values
Respetu
Showing respect to others, to ourselves and to the environment.
Responsibilidåt
Being a responsible, dependable presence in the lives of those around us.
Inafa'maolek yan Tipiyeew
Keeping harmony, resolving conflict and taking care of one another for the common good.
Maolek Kotdura
Making careful decisions that have value, worth and merit.
Minagåhet
Keeping our thoughts, words and actions honest and consistent.
Minesngon
Holding firm to our goals however hard the voyage gets. Perseverance.
We also hold to safety and well-being, stewardship, spirituality and resilience in everything we do.
Where to find us
Two homes on Saipan
Both are provided by the CNMI Indigenous Affairs Office.
Guma Sakman canoe house
On the beach in Susupe, across from Marianas High School
Our canoes live here. It is home to our swim and sail programs, cultural presentations and summer camp days on the water.
The boatyard
12856 Lower Base Drive, Lower Base
A fully tooled teaching boatyard and our offices, in a large warehouse. We build and repair canoes here, and it is home to the Cultural Maritime Training Center.
Leadership
Board and leadership
Staff
Jun Coleman
Executive Director
Board of Directors
Clinton A. Dela Cruz
President
Geraldine Babauta Sasamoto
Treasurer
Emma L. H. Perez
Secretary
Dr. Jessica Taylor
Member
Naomi T. Lizama
Member
Pedru J. Perez
Member
Cecilio Raiukiulipiy
Member
Mario Borja
Member Emeritus
Advisory Council
Luella I. Marciano
Resident Executive, Indigenous Affairs Office