The Family That Crabs Together Stays Together
4 Generations of Boyles Celebrate 50-Year Tradition
This family reunion went the extra mile.
It linked four generations, decades of nostalgia, and a Sea Isle City stage. A grand depiction of the Philly-Jersey Shore summer connection took place on water, in the kitchen, and throughout neighboring homes being rented in late July and early August.
In the end, it literally “Boyled” down to numbers for the Philadelphia-area family’s annual summer crabbing event. The extended family of Gerry Boyle celebrated the big Five-Oh at Larsen’s Marina.
That’s 50 years since the tradition started one morning in 1971 in Ocean City, when Gerry took three of his children crabbing to give a breather to wife Peggy.
Look where that breather went.
Gerry and Peggy have been married 60 years and have seen the emergence of nine children, 19 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. The large group thrives at big family get-togethers, like the crab-fest that ran for 35 years in Ocean City before moving to Sea Isle City for the last 15.
These were the “stats” from the milestone year:
• Fifty-three crabbers represented a record for this family competition.
• The four generations on hand ranged in age from 4 to 85.
• The group collected 188 crabs, which became part of dinner.
And best of all for 85-year-old Gerry Boyle, the crab-fest bridges his former life distributing arcade games to boardwalk operators and his current era of retirement, surrounded by loved ones.
This edition is one for the books.
Sean Cupchak shows off his catch.
Newcomer Nora Spence with the trial of a first-timer, “kissing the fish.”
Caiden Boyle caught a nice-sized blue claw crab.
“We had special T-shirts celebrating our founding crab leader,” says Sean Walker, who is married to Boyle’s daughter Kalen. “We have a couple of poems that were read in his honor and some of the granddaughters created a video of past years to music.”
The shirts were innovative, inscribed with “BOYLE’S CRABBING TRIP” and featuring a decorative orange crab. The dominant feature is Gerry’s head coming out of the crab, which looks ready to walk right off the center of the shirt. Gerry is wearing a hat with the No. 50.
The crabbing event occurs in the middle of the family’s annual two-week rental period in Sea Isle City, bridging late July and early August. Boyle’s extended family has enlarged the tradition, making it a full-flung ritual.
“Our day typically starts with my father-in-law barking at everyone to get them out of bed at 7am, with the legal-age grandchildren often a bit hung over and regretting their commitment,” Walker says.
“We trek to Larsen’s and then mayhem ensues. No matter how much we prepare, there is always confusion on who gets on which boat. Eventually, we get in the boats and get settled. We have a very strict tradition that anyone on the trip for the first time must kiss the dead bunker bait.
“This sometimes causes drama, but the condition is never waived.” (Many this year had to kiss the fish.)
This year, the Boyle clan unfurled panache, in Walker’s estimation.
“We went in bright 50th anniversary shirts and orange bucket hats for the captains, looking like an intimidating armada going under the Sea Isle bridge,” he says with a laugh.
After the day of crabbing, the crew headed back home to start the feast, highlighted by Sean’s famous crab gravy and brother-in-law Mike Swider’s Maryland crab soup.
Seamus, Evelyn, Terrance, and Maggie heading out on the boat.
“It is pretty cool to watch how this has grown over the years,” says Swider, married to Gerry’s daughter Megan. “We get to see our kids go all the way through, from the time they are 4 years old.
“One of the biggest thrills is watching them kiss a fish before they start. It’s funny in its own right. You think it will be a big stretch for them to be out there all that time, but you see their big eyes wide-open, enjoying it.”
Tracey, married to the Boyle’s son John, has been part of the tradition for 30 years. And this year, she became an organizer, of sorts.
“It was chaos this year,” she laughs. “One day I received a text from Sean saying they had put together a committee for this special 50th year. I learned pretty fast that the committee was me.
“So, this year it was how many people do we have? It’s five per boat. Can we get 11 boats? Who is on them all? How do we get the adult-to-children ratio? This year we had the shirts, too. Our son Tyler drew the picture of the crab and then we had to get everybody to agree on one color. It was all worth it.”
That’s because the fuss honored the founder. Some reports said he was emotional. Gerry, however, made one thing perfectly clear.
“That is NOT my head in that crab,” he jokes.
The elder Boyle, 85, remains sharp, energetic and passionate about the family’s love affair with this area and this tradition. How does he feel about this milestone?
“Very good,” he says, repeating a phrase for which he’s famous within the family. “We are a close family all year-round. We rent two or three houses near each other in Sea Isle and we all come together. That’s why I had all these children. I think we have a small city in here right now. We want them to learn from us, so they can pass it down.”
The children aced the lesson, passing down a feeling that is manifested in large family activities.
For two weeks, the Boyle clan forgets its occupations in and around Philadelphia and converge on Sea Isle City. The family rented in Ocean City for about 35 years before the elder Boyle considered it too crowded and moved the venue here 15 years ago.
For Gerry Boyle, who has come to this area for more than 70 years, this has been a satisfying journey. He vacationed here as a teenager and later launched an event that now hits the planning stage for Decade No. 6.
The heartbeat of Sea Isle City’s summer economic boom is tourism, vacationers, and family reunions. People pass through, maximize their shore experience, and take memories back to Pennsylvania.
This was one vivid example.
