Help UH Mānoa Sailing Program Chart Its Course

Peter McGonigle “P.J.” Wenner Memorial Endowment Fund

Team sailing at UH Mānoa

Family and friends established this endowment in memory of P.J. Wenner to provide support to the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Athletics Sailing Program.

Team sailing at UH Mānoa provides lifelong lessons in leadership, decision-making, teamwork, communication, and shared accomplishment. We have sailors from around the country on our team that set high academic goals and competitive aspirations. Teams regularly participate proudly in all six Pacific Coast Championships and our women’s and coed dinghy teams made it all the way to the national finals in 2014.

Remembering P.J. Wenner

In 2008, Peter McGonigle Wenner, otherwise known as P.J., was a member of the University of Hawai‘i coed sailing team. Wenner, a sophomore at the time, was a 2007 graduate of Loyola High School in Los Angeles. In September of that year, he competed for the UH coed sailing team at the Pacific Coast Conference Sailing Men’s Singlehanded Championships in San Diego, and took sixth place.

Wenner participated in several regattas as a member of the UH sailing team, including a fifth-place showing at the Pacific Coast Conference Sailing Men’s Singlehanded Championships and a sixth place showing at the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association Sloop National Championship in Fort Worth, Texas.

P.J. passed away Nov. 8, 2008, at age 19 in a recreational boating accident when his sailboat capsized approximately two miles off Waikīkī.

“Peter represented everything good about being an athlete, sailor, and student here at the University of Hawai‘i. He was the heart and soul of our team and we all miss him immensely.”

— Andy Johnson, UH Sailing head coach