Ala Wai Harbor [1] is the largest small boat and yacht harbor in Hawaii. The harbor is situated in Honolulu at the mouth of the Ala Wai Canal, between Waikiki and downtown Honolulu. To the east are Waikiki and Diamond Head; to the west, Magic Island and the Honolulu waterfront.
The harbor has 699 berths, 85 moorings, one boat ramp, and 22 dry storage spaces. It can accommodate vessels up to 85 feet (26 m) in length. [1]
The TransPac sailing race begins in Los Angeles and ends at the harbor, an event that takes place every two years. It is one of the world's longest-running ocean races. [2]
Many Waikiki hotels are in the area, but the Prince Waikiki Hotel and the Hilton Hawaiian Village are essentially adjacent to the property, and the Ilikai Hotel is built on harbor land, paying rent into the boating special fund.[ citation needed ]
The harbor is home to the Waikiki Yacht Club and the Hawaii Yacht Club, which host junior sailing clubs, waterman programs to include surf ski and Hawaiian outrigger canoeing, weekly sailing races, and fishing tournaments. Boats from around the world find shelter in state harbor berths, and yacht club berths. There are no fuel facilities and the harbor is prone to crime as the dock gates are not locked on the state docks.[ citation needed ]
Following dredging to widen a path to sea for the Ala Wai Canal through the reef, the Territorial Government initially constructed the Ala Wai Boat Harbor in 1935 at the mouth of the canal with purported financial support from the Hobron family, who had purchased land in the Kālia area.
Soon after, the Waikiki Yacht Club (founded in 1944) and the Hawai‘i Yacht Club (originally founded in 1901 by King David Kalākaua at Pearl Harbor) would establish their headquarters in the Harbor.
In 1886 at the San Francisco Yacht Club, King Kalākaua, an avid waterman, pitched the idea of a 2,225 nautical mile race to Hawai‘i. This sparked the Transpacific Yacht Race, one of the world's most enduring long-distance sailing contests. The global attention of the Transpac incentivized much of the expansion of the Ala Wai Harbor; in 1967, a 1,460-foot-long breakwater was constructed to accommodate mooring of yachts, and in 2008, Hawai‘i Gov. Linda Lingle approved $6 million for infrastructure improvements citing "the economic value of prestigious yachting competitions". [3]
Honolulu is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island of Oʻahu, and is the westernmost and southernmost major U.S. city. Honolulu is Hawaii's main gateway to the world. It is also a major hub for business, finance, hospitality, and military defense in both the state and Oceania. The city is characterized by a mix of various Asian, Western, and Pacific cultures, reflected in its diverse demography, cuisine, and traditions.
Waikīkī is a Honolulu neighborhood and the eponymous Waikīkī beach on its south shore, on the island of Oʻahu in the U.S. state of Hawaii. Despite popular perception and frequent marketing materials to the contrary, the use of the kahakō is both official and commonly used.
Honolulu Harbor, also called Kulolia and Ke Awa O Kou and the Port of Honolulu, is the principal seaport of Honolulu and the State of Hawaiʻi in the United States. From the harbor, the City & County of Honolulu was developed and urbanized, in an outward fashion, over the course of the modern history of the island of Oahu. It includes Matson, Inc. harbors on Sand Island.
The Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort is a resort hotel on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, Hawaii. The resort first opened in 1955, and since has grown to become the largest in the Hilton chain of hotels, and one of largest hotels in the world.
Ala Moana Beach Park is a free public park on the island of Oahu, U.S. state of Hawaii, located between Waikiki and downtown Honolulu. This 100-acre (0.40 km2) park has a wide gold-sand beach that is over a half-mile long.
King Kamehameha I Day on June 11 is a public holiday in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It honors Kamehameha the Great, the monarch who first established the unified Kingdom of Hawaiʻi—comprising the Hawaiian Islands of Niʻihau, Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Maui, and Hawaiʻi. In 1883 a statue of King Kamehameha was dedicated in Honolulu by King David Kalākaua. There are duplicates of this statue in Emancipation Hall at the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C., and in Hilo, island of Hawaiʻi.
Manoa is a valley on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. It is a residential neighborhood of Honolulu, Hawaii. The neighborhood is approximately three miles east and inland from downtown Honolulu and less than a mile from Ala Moana and Waikiki.
Ala Moana is a commercial, retail, and residential district of Honolulu, Hawaii. It is located between Waikiki and Moiliili to the east, and Kakaʻako and Honolulu Harbor to the west. King Street, to the north, marks the border with the neighborhood of Makiki.
Queen Kapiʻolani Regional Park is the largest and second-oldest public park in Hawaii, located in Honolulu on the east end of Waikiki just beyond Kuhio Beach Park and the Waikiki residential neighborhood. The 300-acre (1.2 km2) park, named after Queen Kapiʻolani, the queen consort of King David Kalākaua, is home to the Waikiki Shell and the Honolulu Zoo.
The Ala Wai Canal is an artificial waterway in Honolulu, Hawaii which serves as the northern boundary of the tourist district of Waikiki. It was created in 1928 to drain the rice paddies and swamps which would eventually become Waikiki. It also serves as a primary drainage corridor for the rivers and streams that run through central and east Honolulu.
Fort DeRussy is a United States military reservation in the Waikiki area of Honolulu, Hawaii, under the jurisdiction of the United States Army. Unfenced and largely open to public traffic, the installation consists mainly of landscaped greenspace. The former Battery Randolph now houses the U.S. Army Museum of Hawaiʻi, which is open to the public. The Hale Koa Hotel, an Armed Forces Recreation Center, and the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies are also located on Fort DeRussy.
Route 92 is a major east–west highway on the island of Oahu which begins at exit 15 off Interstate H-1 (H-1) in Honolulu. The western end of the highway is located at the gate to Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam and the eastern end is 0.6 miles (0.97 km) east of the Ala Wai Canal crossing in Waikiki. The western portion of the highway, west of Richards Street, is named the Nimitz Highway. East of Richards Street, Route 92 is also known as Ala Moana Boulevard.
Duke Paoa Kahanamoku Lagoon is a small, man-made wading pool in the Waikiki neighborhood of Honolulu, on the south shore of the island of Oʻahu near the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor and Fort DeRussy Military Reservation. The Hilton Hawaiian Village is adjacent to the lagoon.
Dillingham Construction International, Inc. (DCII) is an American engineering and construction services company, with North American headquarters in Ponca City, Oklahoma. It was previously based in Oahu, Hawaii then in San Francisco, and Pleasanton, California. The company was founded by Walter F. Dillingham in 1889, as the Oahu Railway and Land Company to build a railroad across the swamps of Oahu, Hawaii for large-scale sugar cane production. It is also known as Dillingham Construction.
Commodore Clarence William Macfarlane, was a businessman and yachtsman of Hawaii. He founded the Transpacific Yacht Race (Transpac) in 1906 by sailing from San Pedro/Los Angeles, California to Honolulu, Hawaii.
Ala Wai may refer to:
Naval Base Hawaii was a number of United States Navy bases in the Territory of Hawaii during World War II. At the start of the war, much of the Hawaiian Islands was converted from tourism to a United States Armed Forces base. With the loss of US Naval Base Philippines in Philippines campaign of 1941 and 1942, Hawaii became the US Navy's main base for the early part of the island-hopping Pacific War against Empire of Japan. Naval Station Pearl Harbor was founded in 1899 with the annexation of Hawaii.
Kalākaua Avenue is a street in Honolulu in the US federal state of Hawaii. The street travels across the tourist Centre of Waikīkī and belongs to the prospering streets of the United States. It demonstrates an architectural fusion of Hawaiian, Gothic, Asian, Spanish and Moorish architecture.
Edwin Leo Bauer was an American architect, whose mid-20th-century work significantly influenced the architectural landscape of Honolulu, Hawaii. His designs, characterized by innovative use of space and materials, played a substantial role in defining the era of Hawaii Mid-Century Modern architecture.
The Harbor View Plaza building is a residential condominium building in the Waikiki precinct of Honolulu, Hawai'i. It was constructed from c. 1965–1968, designed by architect Edwin L. Bauer in a blend of Tropical Modern and Postmodern architectural styles, and built by Dillingham Development, a prolific construction company known for many notable buildings in the vicinity.