Learned about peculiar boat wreck (8)
I believe the answer is:
sabotage
'wreck' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'learned about peculiar boat' is the wordplay.
'learned' becomes 'sage' (both can mean wise).
'about' indicates putting letters inside.
'peculiar' indicates an anagram (a peculiar or strange ordering of the letters).
'boat' anagrammed gives 'abot'.
'sage' placed around 'abot' is 'SABOTAGE'.
(Other definitions for sabotage that I've seen before include "Deliberate act of destruction or disruption" , "Got a base (anag.)" , "(E.g. factory) wrecking" , "Vandalism" , "malicious damage" .)