The state has an ambitious plan to spend hundreds of millions of dollars over the next five years on island recreation areas.

Picture a man-made, triangle-shaped island more than double the size of Ala Moana Beach Park in the middle of Ke’ehi Lagoon.

Our state’s division of boating and ocean recreation will soon be making some of the most dramatic improvements in decades to Oahu’s Ala Wai Boat Harbor.

It is not likely you will find any kamaaina in Hawaii, and especially in its recreational boating community, who doesn’t know all about the Transpacific Yacht Race.