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First Race, First Win. Bus (a contraction of "Buster," the nickname given him by a hospital nurse at birth) has been sailing—in dead earnest—ever since his daddy dropped him into a dinghy at five. Starting from scratch as a messenger boy in a Wall Street brokerage house, Emil Sr. had already climbed so far as an investor that he could buy "Brook Hills," a 43-acre estate in White Plains, N.Y. George Gershwin was a frequent visitor, wrote most of Porgy and Bess in a guest cottage tucked away on a corner of the grounds. The Mosbachers wintered comfortably in Palm Beach; summers were given oyer to sailing on Long Island Sound, first in the family shell boat, and then, when Bus was nine, in his own boat: a Star. That August, with coaching from his father's professional helmsman, he entered his first race—and won. "There was," grins Bus, "only one other boat in the race."
By the time he was 13 and a third-former at the Choate School in Wallingford, Conn., Bus was a familiar, fiercely competitive figure in Star-class races on the Sound. He won the Midget championship in 1935 and 1936, moved up to the Juniors in 1937 and took that national title two years later. "It was obvious from the start," says his father, now 70, "that Bus had what it takes to be a great sailor." When he was only 16, Cornelius ("Corny") Shields asked him to sail on his Interna tional Dinghy team—a high honor, indeed, coming from the famous "Grey Fox" of U.S. yachting (TIME cover, July 27, 1953). But Emil Sr. felt Bus still had lots to learn. "The thing that made me mad was his extreme conserva tism—especially with money. I remember once he was racing in the Midget Star class during Manhasset Race Week. I went down to the dock to check out the boat and noticed that his sheets were frayed. He had never even mentioned it to me; hell, I would have been glad to replace them. I got so mad I slashed the sails. That was the last of Manhasset Week for him."
Whenever Bus was racing, supper at the Mosbacher household was a pretty lively affair. "Why did it take two minutes to get the spinnaker up?" Papa would demand. "Why did you tack when you did?" Recalls Bus: "He was most sparing with his compliments. If I pulled a really bad blunder, I would arrange to have dinner with a friend. On one or two occasions I stayed the weekend." One of Emil Sr.'s concerns was sportsmanship. "He thought it was terrible to file protests," says Bus, "and he always warned me not to get involved in gamesmanship, which was especially prevalent in the '30s."