The yacht of Camelot, Honey Fitz, is one of the most distinguished yachts in the world. She has served Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard M. Nixon. She was also the yacht of Camelot under the Kennedy Administration. The 92-year-old motor yacht was originally built by Defoe Boat & Motor Works in Bay City, Michigan, in 1931 for the contentious tycoon and Montgomery Ward Chairman, Sewell Avery with the original name Lenore.
Apparently, yacht seizure is not a new thing.
Lenore was named after Avery’s daughter and was seized in 1942 by the U.S. Government. In 1944 Avery in his 70’s was carried from his office by National Guardsmen for lack of payment of $30,000 for relief funds to go towards Franklin Roosevelt’s National Recovery Act. Avery did not support the New Deal, instead, he financed the Church League of America or CLA which is “one of the oldest private spy networks in the U.S.,” and the American Liberty League More HERE More on Sewell Avery HERE
View Video HERE
Lenore was given a new lackluster name CG-92004 with a war career in Rockaway Point and Fire Island, New York, and submarine training in New Hampshire. Later she became the tender for the presidential yacht USS Potomac, Franklin Roosevelt’s vessel thus the start of a presidential yacht career. Truman renamed her Lenor II and used her on the Potomac River, South Florida, and the Caribbean where guests included Winston Churchill. Dwight Eisenhower gave her a $200,000 refit and renamed her Barbara Anne after one of his granddaughters, frequently using the vessel to golf at the Newport Golf Club.
She finally found her destiny as Honey Fitz, named after John Francis “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, Kennedy’s maternal grandfather, U.S. Representative, Mayor of Boston, and founder of the Jefferson Club, a political club founded to organize the Irish Catholic voters of South Boston. In 1946 when JFK ran for congress, the 83-year-old Honey Fitz helped him plan his campaign, then with the victory predicted that his grandson would one day occupy the White House. Again she found her way to Palm Beach, Newport, and other destinations as the preferred first family yacht. According to Dave Powers, Special Assistant, Kennedy’s happiest moments were spent on Honey Fitz with his children. The First Family spent Easter and Christmas on the yacht in Palm Beach and Kennedy’s last birthday.
Lyndon Johnson used it to entertain and Nixon renamed her Patricia and then put her up for sale in 1971. Joseph Keating Sr. a Kennedy enthusiast and restauranteur of Greenwich Connecticut purchased her for $170,000 and renamed her Presidents bringing her back Camelot-era charm for charters spanning decades. She made her way as far as Louisiana to be restored at some point before being a highlight in a 1989 Guernsey’s auction of Kennedy memorabilia. McAllister Towing and Transportation Company of New York sold the 88-ton boat the Honey Fitz for $5.9 million to an unknown buyer. Then purchased by William Kallop in 2001 she was refitted twice with a 2.6 million dollar price tag at Bradford Marine in Ft. Lauderdale.
“It was close to being cut up and thrown away,” Capt. Mark Glasser said. “… The bow was down and the stern was down. It took months to get it to go straight.” (2013 before the previous refit)
In 2020, classic yacht restoration hobbyist Charles Modica found her again in serious disrepair but purchased Motor Yacht. Modica has a serious appreciation for classic yachts, detail, and history. Honey Fitz has finally found a home where she will be cared for.
“The Honey Fitz was using these waters extensively when John Kennedy was president over here at Peanut Island as well as upon the beach itself,” Modica said. “It’s very fitting that after a three-year restoration that Joe and I oversaw, that boat is back here now debuting at this show.”
Modica is known as the founder and chairman of St. George’s University School of Medicine in Grenada, a resident of Shelter Island, and founder of Charlie & Joe’s Love Street in Jupiter, Florida with Pro Football Famer Joe Nameth. There they have several bustling restaurants called The Beacon, Lucky Shucks, and Topside with breathtaking views of the Jupiter lighthouse overlooking the inlet with warm breezes.
The three-year refit of the classic yacht including the construction, articulation, and design was well thought out, by Charlie Modica, Joe Namath along with Capt. Greg Albritton and Brad London, founder of Total Refit at Rybovich Marina.
“We made it back exactly the way that it was during President Kennedy’s administration. The furniture back here will be exactly like the furniture that was on the boat. We have these small couches in here now but we are redoing the chair for the back that President Kennedy sat on at the time when he was on the boat. We’re really trying to make it exact to history,” Honey Fitz Capt. Greg Albritton said.
“Eisenhower was on it. Truman was on it to start with and of course, Kennedy and Nixon, and Johnson. She’s part of the country. Part of our history” said NFL legend Joe Namath.
Historical functioning parts of the vessel dating back to 1931, World War II, and the presidential periods from 1945 to 1971, can be seen throughout the ship. The vessel will make its first debut at the Palm Beach International Boat Show.” PBIBS release
She debuted at the 2023 Palm Beach International Boat Show, back to the area she visited frequently and down the street from a watering hole for locals, tourists, and yachtsmen called Camelot, a memoir of the Kennedy reign. As per instructions, the yacht had to be specifically repaired, restored, and renovated to resemble its appearance during its golden age or the days of Camelot. It reminds one of the lengthy and highly-detail-orientated restorations of the White House by Jackie Kennedy, I’m sure she would be proud of the refit, it would bring tears to her eyes.
“Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, summoned presidential chronicler Theodore H. White to the Kennedy family compound in Hyannis Port, on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. She wanted White to write an essay about her husband for Life magazine.” Vanity Fair
“Jack Kennedy listened to Camelot on his “old Victrola.” “I’d get out of bed at night and play it for him when it was so cold getting out of bed,” she said. His favorite lines were at the end of the record” Vanity Fair
“Don’t let it be forgot
That once there was a spot
For one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot.”
Length: 92ft. 3in.
Beam: 16ft. 6in.
Draft: 4ft. 10in.
Cruising speed: 12 knots
Weight: 88 tons
Builder: Defoe Boat Works, Michigan
Year: 1931
Designer: Thomas D. Bowes
