DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM The state recently blessed the floating F Dock after it was rebuilt, returning 70 slips to Ala Wai Harbor. Michael McKinney and his girlfriend, Mieko Makita, inspected the dock yesterday. McKinney hopes to dock a boat at one of the new slips.

Ala Wai high: Dock repair has boaters hopeful

Harbor users cheered the state's newest dock at the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor that opened last week, a step that could be the beginning of several major repairs at the harbor.

A handful of boaters had already moved to the $975,000 dock yesterday and were busy tending to their boats.

Luigi Ermini, 62, returned to the dock after he was kicked out in 2004 when the dock was condemned. During the displacement, he moored his boat at row 800 at the Ala Wai.

Row 800 lacks piers to board boats, which had made it difficult for Ermini to prepare for a planned two-year trip to Italy with his wife and two children, 6 and 4.

"It would have been impossible," he said. The new dock "couldn't have come at a better time."

F Dock, rebuilt since October, returns 70 slips to the harbor, which has a total of 747 slips. However, 120 slips at Ala Wai remain out of service because of deterioration.

Boating officials say the new Ala Wai dock is a step in the right direction after years of neglect.

"It's definitely a turning point for boating to get the support and the funding that it needs to move forward and replace these docks that have been in disrepair for so long," said Meghan Statts, Oahu district manager for the state Land Department's Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation.

She said the support of the Lingle administration and legislators has helped to secure funding for the replacements.

"They were unsafe," she said of the F Dock slips. The replacement dock is made of aluminum frames that sit on floats filled with polyethylene foam. The deck is made of plastic composite resembling wood.

DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM John Spardaro fixed a light yesterday on the bow of his boat, Boomerang, in one of the slips on the rebuilt F Dock.

Floating docks B, C and D were built in 1972 and were supposed to last 20 years, according to Statts. They have now been in use nearly 36 years. G Dock was replaced in 2002.

The deteriorating and closed slips also exacerbate a waiting list of more than 900 people. The waiting period lasts two to five years.

She said part of the problem was the department didn't get funding from the Legislature in the past.

Harbor officials are waiting for Gov. Linda Lingle to release money from $10 million secured last year to replace B, C and D docks. Replacement of the docks is scheduled to begin in September.

Repairs needed at all the state's 21 harbors total $250 million to $300 million, according to engineer Eric Yuasa.

The boating division plans to seek another $10 million from the Legislature this year with an 8 percent fee increase for harbor users.

The harbor also has plans for design work on Rows 500 and 700 and transient docks to begin this summer.

Ermini's Sundance, a Swan 48, is back at F Dock, allowing Ermini to wrap up preparations in the next few months.

"For me it's like going back in time," he said. "Everything works. I lived on this slip before it crumbled. I enjoyed it very much. It's a nice atmosphere, people make friends. They're a community. I look forward to re-creating the atmosphere of seven or eight years ago."