The nationally renowned yacht the Honey Fitz left a large impression on the South Shore in June, first docking at Bay Shore before heading out to Ocean Beach on a chartered cruise. The yacht made a lengthy journey from its home port in Florida, where it’s currently being rented out by the locally loved Lessing’s Hospitality Group, who recently began expanding their operations in the Sunshine State.
Originally built in 1931 for Sewell Avery, an executive for the now-defunct Montgomery Ward department store chain, the 98-foot, 88-ton, 35-passenger vessel was subsequently bought by the federal government during WWII as a Coast Guard patrol boat for the South Shore. After the war’s conclusion, the boat was repurposed to be the official Presidential yacht, with Harry S. Truman being its first executive owner.
Although it was technically owned by every President from Truman to Richard Nixon, John F. Kennedy and his family were the Honey Fitz’s most famous seafarers, with the yacht being used by the first family to escape the stresses of leading the free world.
“The President always loved to take Caroline [Kennedy] with him when he cruised on the Honey Fitz,” said Lem Billings, a friend of Kennedy’s from boarding school, in a 1966 interview. “He used to tell her fantastic stories about a white whale… Caroline particularly liked the fact that the white whale liked to eat men’s socks; in fact, men’s socks were its favorite food.”
Kennedy named the yacht after his grandfather, John Francis “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, a former mayor of Boston who helped his grandson plan his run for Congress. The Kennedys celebrated Easter, Labor Day and Christmas (as well as the President’s last birthday) on the yacht, and many of the most famous photos of America’s 35th head of state were taken on the vessel.
The yacht was sold to a private citizen in 1971 and would bounce around from owner to owner while slowly falling apart. As anyone could guess, maintaining a yacht doesn’t come cheap or easy; as Tazewell Shepard, the Naval Aide to the President, wrote in a 1963 memorandum to Kennedy, “The Chief of Bureau of Ships has recommended that it be removed from its present service because of major structural members…he believes the life of the boat could be extended for five or six years, at a cost of $50,000 to $60,000 (between $516,000 and $620,000 when adjusted for inflation).” While the Honey Fitz’s various owners tried to inconsistently maintain the vessel, the yacht’s future looked grim.
That was until 2020, when Charles Modica, the founder of St. George’s School of Medicine in Grenada and a Bay Shore High School alum, purchased the yacht in order to restore it to its former glory. Modica, along with 1969 Super Bowl champion Joe Namtath and Greg Albritton, the yacht’s current captain, undertook an ambitious renovation of the vessel.
“We made it back exactly the way that it was during President Kennedy’s administration,” said Albritton in a 2023 interview for My Hamptons Guide magazine. “We’re really trying to make it exact to history.”
With fastidious devotion, Modica and his team restored the Honey Fitz to its original glory. They used photographs and footage for reference, the yacht’s decks, superstructure, beams, and subfloor were completely refurbished. All the current furniture on the Honey Fitz also resembles its original mid-century style, and even the wine glasses on the boat resemble a set gifted to the President during his ownership.
“It did not matter if the weather was good or bad,” Billings added. “President Kennedy felt that the Chief Executive was entitled to whatever relaxation he needed.”
