Meet Peter Wagner. This Bay Area venture capitalist has been around the sport since he was three. His dad got him into racing early on Long Island Sound, and he’s been at it ever since.
“I grew up sailing Lasers and then continued racing in College.” Peter doesn’t mention it, but he was a two-time All American racer at Harvard and captain of his team. “I eventually moved out to San Francisco and started racing Melges 24s and J/105s there. Just last year, I got into the J/111 Class.”
For Wagner and his crew on board Skeleton Key, this will be their first time competing at Sperry Charleston Race Week, although several crew have been here before on other boats. “We’re interested in doing the event because we’ve heard great things about the regatta from people in the J/111 Class. Also, we competed this winter at Key West Race Week, so while we’ve got the boat in the Southeast, this seems to be a good opportunity to check out Charleston.”
What Wagner doesn’t say about Key West is that he and his team were dominant, winning the class there by a huge margin. And the crew he has assembled for Charleston appears to be equally talented if not even stronger.
“We’ve mostly got a S.F.-Bay-Area-based team with a number of people who are connected through other activities such as college sailing and guys that I’ve gotten to know in other classes,” Wagner explains. “I will be driving while our mainsheet trimmer will be Russ Silvestri, who is, of course, very well known in the sport. He’s a former Olympic competitor and national champion in a couple of different classes. Then, we’ve got Seadon Wijsen doing the tactics and our bowman is John Collins, who is an elite S.F. Bay veteran. Our two trimmers are an old college friend of mine, Dave Lyons, and Peter Clarke, who is relatively new to the S.F. scene, but has done a lot of high level racing on the East Coast out of Newport, R.I.”
For Wagner, this will be his first time on the water in Charleston since his college days. “The last time I was there was 1988 for the collegiate singlehanded national championships. Honestly, I don’t remember a lot about the conditions there, but we’ll be sailing outside the harbor with the J/111 Class. I’m sure the conditions will be fun even though they might be unfamiliar to some of us on board. We’re really looking forward to the regatta. We’ve got the boat going well right now, but we know it will be a competitive fleet. For us, it’s about continuing our learning curve in the class and having fun while we’re at it.”
Wagner says that CRW will be the last event for team Skeleton Key before the boat is shipped to England for the J/111 World Championships this summer. “We’re hoping that Charleston will be a good send-off for us,” he says.
