After spending three months working with Dick Bertram in Miami, Wagstaffe returned before returning to the UK to complete the Yacht and Boatyard Management Course at Southampton Institute.

Wagstaffe began working for the industry with the original Ship and Boat Builders National Federation (SBBNF), staying for 30 years. He told BBhe reckoned he has spent over two years of his life inside Earls Court? His MBE was received for his work on the Inland Waterway Amenity Advisory Council (IWAAC) in the late 1980s and most of the '90s, where he helped produce the 1997 report entitled Undervalued Asset, highlighting that UK waterways were not given due credit for their benefits to the public and their potential for urban and city centre regeneration.

This led to a number of waterfront regeneration projects and other related inland waterways improvements throughout the UK.

He has also worked for British Waterways and, more recently, as secretary of the Thames Boat Trades Association (TBTA). He also works as a consultant to marine companies.