The Wise family, special friends and the Seattle sailing and boating community gathered at Corinthian Yacht Club in Seattle Thursday, August 6th to celebrate the life of Philip Wise, who died this past Monday after a sudden stroke. He was 52. Philip is survived by his siblings Mike, Perry, Peter, Jim, Lisa, and Mara; by his special friend Cath Picha; and, by the entire Seattle sailing and boating community where he played, worked, and reveled over the past two decades.

Prior to coming to Seattle, Philip was never far from the water. He found his love for sailing as a teenager in Rochester, Illinois where he began crewing on a Thistle. He later completely refurbished a Star boat and successfully raced it for many years. Phil was also one of the original group of sailors who began sailboarding on Lake Springfield. Following his graduation from Illinois State University, Phil traveled to Stuart, FL, where he attended the Chapman Marine School and earned his Coast Guard Pilot’s License. This opened the door to make sailing a profession and Phil worked on charter sailboats in the Caribbean and Mediterranean and also made several trans-Atlantic crossings.

Eventually Philip settled in Seattle where he worked for Sands Marine, a yacht maintenance business for twenty five years. He also delivered yachts up and down the west coast and to Hawaii, Canada and Mexico and continued to race various classes of sailboats. But for many years, he was the heart and soul of the crew of the Cookson 40, White Cloud. This led to Phil’s interest to serve on the Whidbey Island Race Week Advisory Board, given his passion to grow the sport of sailboat racing in the Pacific Northwest.

Phil’s life touched so many people in the Seattle sailing and boating community and he will be greatly missed. If you do plan to attend Thursday’s gathering to honor Philip, please don’t wear black. Phil hated the color black. Shorts and regatta t-shirts would be fine.

Phil’s family requests that, in lieu of flowers, donations should be made to the operating fund for the Race Committee at CYC Seattle in Philip’s memory, to support he sport he so loved.