Give or treat yourself to a subscription to Boats in Motion print + digital and for only 39 euros a year you get the magazine at home plus read it on your PC, smartphone and tablet. With a sea of advantages.
After extensive restoration work “Honey Fitz,” the legendary yacht used by former U.S. President John F. Kennedy, among others, has entered the charter market for the first time and is available to the public for cruises and private events. A cruise at sea is in itself an extraordinary experience that allows one to relax, get in touch with nature and reconnect with oneself.
However, it acquires a whole special flavor if the chartered boat is how to say “auteur,” that is, belonged to a very special owner, whose soul somehow still hovers among those rigging, on the deck and in the interior spaces.
This is the case, for example, with the legendary presidential yacht “Honey Fitz,” which recently entered the charter market for the first time with Lessing’s Hospitality Group.
The special feature of this splendid 28.3-meter overall motor yacht is that it has been used by as many as five U.S. presidents-Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon and especially John F. Kennedy, the latter in particular a great lover of the sea, sailing and cruising. 
“Honey Fitz” was built by Defoe Boat & Motor Works in 1931 and was originally owned by Montgomery Ward tycoon Sewell Avery, who named her “Lenore.”
In later years the boat took on the official role of “presidential yacht” and was especially important to Kennedy himself, who renamed her after his maternal grandfather “John Francis Fitzgerald” and used her often on cruises with his family.
First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy also redesigned the yacht’s interior in the early 1960s, transforming herself into an “interior designer” for the occasion, a role she enjoyed so much that she also later helped to take care of the interiors of other yachts, such as the 99.1-meter “Christina O” that belonged to her second husband Aristotle Onassis. 
In 2020, “Honey Fitz” underwent a deep and historically sensitive restoration that saved her from “complete deterioration.”
The refitting work, supervised by Charles R. Modica, lasted 3 years and the yacht was officially launched at the 2023 Palm Beach International Boat Show.
“Honey Fitz” can accommodate up to 35 passengers and features a main salon, a formal dining room, a sundeck, a fully equipped galley and a private owner’s suite.
Several working parts of the vessel date back to 1931, World War II and the presidential eras from 1945 to 1971, although restoration focused on the Kennedy administration period.
For charter business, “Honey Fitz” will be based at the Pelican Club in Florida, U.S., and will be available for private cruises and dockside events, including weddings and parties.
You might be interested in the story of Trump’s superyacht: https://www.barcheamotore.com/trump-superyacht/
Sign up for our Newsletter
Powerboats, its stories, from small open to motoryachts. Sign up now for our free newsletter and receive the best news selected by the editorial staff each week. Enter your email below, agree to the Privacy Policy and click the “sign me up” button.
Christmas can be a great time to think about getting a new boat! And in the magnum sea of presentations one can lose one’s bearings. Here, then, is a review of the most interesting boats to be presented at the
On the occasion of the upcoming boot Düsseldorf 2026, scheduled for January 17-25, the Pesaro-based shipyard will present the world premiere of its latest project, the Santasevera 42. This new model fits into the range by taking up the stylistic
For the first time, we will see a catamaran from Aquila Boats, an American shipyard and world leader in motor catamarans, at the upcoming Düsseldorf Boat Show (Jan. 17-25). While most manufacturers have converted from the sailing world, Aquila started
For the twenty-sixth consecutive year, Azimut Benetti Group has been confirmed at the top of the Global Order Book, the international ranking curated by Boat International. This ranking, which has been monitoring the world production of megayachts since 1992, has
