NEWPORT – The yachting world's distinguished Captain Virginia A. Wagner died peacefully at home in Newport, RI, Friday January 30, 2015 with family and beloved friends at her side.
The daughter of the late William L. Wagner of Hudson, OH and Elizabeth Anne Downes Wagner Fettinger of Cleveland, OH, she was born July 13, 1956.
She is survived by her beloved companion, Jamie Stark and, her siblings Danielle, Richard, William and Robert Rosene and William Wagner.
Friends and co-workers at Nicholson Yachts and hundreds of colleagues in the yachting community around the world have joined to celebrate Virginia's life of monumental accomplishments.
Virginia's passion for sailing was an inspiration to aspiring young men and women yacht crew from all over the world. She often shared the story of how a summer job on a square-rigged sail training ship led to her extraordinary 28-year career. Holding both a USCG 3,000 ton Master Ocean license and British Class 4 Master License, she ranks in the elite group of Tall Ship captains and the very small number of women captains in the world. Virginia logged over 400,000 nautical miles in command of sail training ships, luxury yachts, research vessels and passenger sailing ships up to 158 feet in length.
Her zeal for teaching celestial navigation and training crews to sail full-rigged ships was absolute. As Senior Captain and Navigation Instructor of Ocean Star, the 90-foot vessel owned by Ocean Navigator Magazine, Virginia sailed 115,000 nautical miles with a sextant. Sailors in the British Virgin Islands still recall how she rode out two hurricanes aboard Ocean Star on her own.
Virginia was an exemplary role model for men and women entering the yachting industry and she made a profound difference in many lives. She personally trained the crews on every vessel she captained to high standards of professionalism, hard work and dedication in all aspects of their work. Dozens of her former first mates owe their careers as professional yacht captains to doors opened by a good reference that bore her name. As a crusader for women in yachting, Virginia inspired young ladies to pursue new challenges on the high seas. One of her protégés went on to a career crewing on around the world expeditions.
Captain Wagner was respected for her dedication and loyalty to employers. She closed her sailing career with eight years working for the owner of two ultra-modern luxury charter catamarans, True North, 65 feet, and Matau, 75 feet. She treasured her enduring friendship with the owner and his family and each of the over 300 guests who vacationed aboard these yachts in the Caribbean.
In 2012 Virginia retired from 'driving boats' to join Nicholson Yachts Worldwide in Newport as a charter consultant, infused with energy and innovative ideas that streamlined many procedures. Her colleagues in the Nicholson office valued her ability to absorb the myriad detail of 'the other side of yachting'. She was warmly welcomed by yacht owners and charter brokers in the US, England and Europe who knew her record of delivering outstanding sailing vacations to their clients for years. Her encyclopedic knowledge of cruising grounds and maritime regulations and network of contacts from Nova Scotia to South America were invaluable.
In the tightly knit world of international yachting Virginia was known for her lively wit, generous friendship and warm-hearted support of fellow yachtsmen and women. That support was returned tenfold by friends and colleagues around the world when she was diagnosed last year with incurable lung cancer. Requests poured in to Nicholson Yachts for the best way to honor her remarkable achievements. The answer was obvious. The Captain Virginia Wagner Sail Training Scholarship Fund was launched last October at a reception onboard Rhode Island's Tall Ship Oliver Hazard Perry. Wagner told the guests, "I started out as a trainee on a Tall Ship and through a series of circumstances, I became a captain of the Tall Ships Galaxy and Ocean Star and then eventually a captain of yachts. As a young adult trying to find my path through life, sailing on a Tall Ship gave me purpose and made me into who I am today." Virginia's life was extraordinary by every measure. Her spirit will live on through the scholarship fund dedicated to her legacy. And she did it all wearing pearls.
Donations may be made online at https://ohpri.worldsecuresystems.com/ways-to-give - wagner o fund) or sent to Nicholson Yachts, 109 Long Wharf, Newport, RI 02842.
The family is deeply grateful for the skilled and compassionate hospice care given to Virginia by Visiting Nurse Services of Newport and Bristol Counties.
This obituary was originally published in The Newport Daily News (Newport, RI).
