Champion Watermen

Silver was on the rise, and Rousilles Jewlers on Washington Blvd ran an ad for replating silver tea sets, sugar bowls, and trays, noting how their value had increased from $6/oz to over $49/oz.

Unfortunately, by May, the silver market crashed as the Hunt Brothers’ corner on the market fell apart. Jimmy Carter was ending his Presidency in mediocrity. Elected into power in the aftermath of the fall of Richard Nixon, the “Man from Plains,” Georgia, presided over a weak economy, gas shortages, a hostage crisis in Iran, and a failed rescue attempt. The former Democrat and Hollywood actor, California Governor Ronald Reagan, was running against Carter on the Republican ticket.

The Parker House was granted a new licence. The owners placed large ads as an open letter to the people of Sea Girt, noting their seriousness about being good neighbors. Council imposed 13 conditions on the licence, but the owners sought an appeal from the ABC, and many of the most restrictive rules were overturned. The most restrictive was that only people sitting and eating on the first floor could drink liquor.

The Sea Girt Beach Patrol won its first Lifeguard Tournament gold. The Bradley Beach Tournament was the oldest at the Shore and was the most prestigious in Monmouth County. Tournaments were held intermittently since the 1920s, and Bradley made it an annual event in 1967.

Always training became the norm for the Sea Girt Beach Patrol

The reputation of Bradley Beach was unmatched. They had produced the greatest rower ever. Walt “Bam” Seyler, who started as a Bradley lifeguard in 1927 at age 14, developed a stand-up rowing style that had never been seen. In 1937, he won the national championships held in Lavallette, and he was still winning races in the mid-1950s. He made his own boats and oars and held the world rowing record. Jack Wright, a champion swimmer at NC State and a 12-year Bradley Beach Lifeguard, was another legend of the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Sea Girt had entered the contest for the past three seasons. Coach Kevin Mclynn led 17 guards to their first victory. Six events: the shuttle relay, out and in boat race, boat swim, line pull, boat pickup, and boat relay tested lifesaving skills. The Sea Girt team beat the second-place Bradley Beach favorites by winning the boat relay by 250 yards. This began a long tradition of Sea Girt Lifeguards training as athletes, both for public safety and to test their skills against other lifeguard units.

The first large lifeguard tournament hosted in Sea Girt was the King Neptune in 1979. For the 1980 contest, the Commodore Stockton restaurant on Washington Blvd. hosted the Queen of the King Neptune Beauty Contest. 20 young women competed in Fashion, Swimsuit, and Personality in a two-day affair in front of 350 patrons. Miss Rene Keriger of Toms River, a regular at the Sea Girt beach, won. Leslie Dammer and Karen Horning, both of Sea Girt, tied for second place.

But the true champion of 1980 was Henry Bossett

Henry had grown up around his father, Robert, at the Manasquan River Yacht Club. Robert knew boats. Robert Bossett was a former Purdue football player (see 1942) and was raised in Sea Girt, around the water. He was a shop teacher at Matawan, and he built and restored boats, particularly the small skiffs, scows, and sneakboxes that raced around the river.

When Henry was 15 in 1966, he won first place in the Bay Head- Metedeconk River race in a scow. People were shocked that such a young man could beat the experienced sailing captains without ever having taken formal sailing lessons.

Henry could read water and wind, and sailing earned him a scholarship to URI. His boats won his school eight regattas, and he was the All-American on the squad. He was admitted into the Intercollegiate Sailing Hall of Fame at Annapolis. He also took up ice boating in Midwest winters and was a champion there as well.

Henry had grown up in Brielle but made his home at his grandparent’s house on First and Chicago in Sea Girt with wife Maggie and three children. While college sailors were competitive, it was only when Henry beat the professional sailors in the 1979 North American Tornado Championships that he was recognized as one of the top sailors in America. His impressive sailing gave him a shot at the 1980 Olympics. Jeff Kent was his mate for the Olympic run.

Henry at the Tornado’s helm with Mike O’Brien, crew (North Sails website)

Politics got in the way. Between the Lake Placid Games, where Team USA pulled off their Miracle on Ice, and the Olympic Sailing Trials in Newport, the USSR invaded Afghanistan. President Jimmy Carter reacted with sanctions and a pullout of Team USA from the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow. Henry’s boat, the Dream Weaver, beat his rival, Kieth Notary, and he earned his spot on the 1980 team. While he was officially an Olympian, there were no summer games for Americans to attend.

Henry continued to win water races and won three ice championships. He made a living from sailmaking. By 1984, he had trained and was ready for his second Olympic qualifier. Sea Girt hung a sign over Washington Blvd. “Sea Girt Supports Henry Bossett.” It was painted by the children of SGES and Manasquan High School. April was “Henry Bossett Month,” as declared by Mayor Black and the Sea Girt Council.

The women of the community held a fundraiser to help sponsor his travel and the shipping of his boat to California. Only the first-place boat gets to attend the Olympics, and Henry did not win the ‘84 qualifier. But his discipline and attention to detail made him one of the top sailmakers in the world.

In the sailing world, he was a celebrity and was featured in a Chapstick commercial, using the product in Finland while speeding along at 40 knots, inches from the ice. “I credit my wife Maggie, and my children for their tremendous support while sailing took me around the world”. The community helped as well. Sea Girt declared April 1984 “Henry Bossett Month” with a banner across Washington Ave., and they raised money for his Olympic campaign. Henry opened a sail-making loft in Point Pleasant in 1975, specializing in the design and production of high-performance racing sails. “In sail making, a millimeter of cloth is the difference between a winning design and second place”, Henry stated.

To expand into larger cruising and racing yachts, he partnered with Shore Sails of Rhode Island in 1982. Who wouldn’t want a champion racer to try out your new sails? Henry won new business by getting out on the water with his customers and gained a worldwide following for his sails. By 1995, he became an agent for North Sails in New Jersey, the top specialty sailmaker, which gave him access to their cutting-edge technology.

In 2022, after 42 years of sail-making and 52 years on the water, Henry retired from selling and cutting sails. His advice for young people trying to grow a business, “Find your niche, where you can offer something different. The market for racing sails was underserved for ice boats and catamarans. Once I established my reputation there, it was easier to move into other markets.”

He retired after 42 years of sailmaking and owning the company’s NJ sail loft. Read more about Henry in Spring Lake/Sea Girt Magazine