JUPITER — A historic yacht that former President John F. Kennedy and his family once plied in South Florida waters is now docked at a reception hall along Jupiter’s waterfront and can be booked for weddings and other parties starting in October.
Renters, beware: The venue carries a presidential price tag.
The wooden 93-foot yacht is known as the “Honey Fitz,” named by Kennedy after John Fitzgerald, his maternal grandfather and a former mayor of Boston.
Four other presidents rode aboard it under its various names from the 1940s into the 1970s: Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon. But the yacht is most associated with Kennedy, whose family owned a beachfront estate in Palm Beach from 1933 to 1995.
The 35th president saw the Palm Beach home as his “winter White House” and would cruise on the Honey Fitz during his extended stays there. Kennedy is even said to have worked on his 1961 inaugural address while visiting Palm Beach.
The Honey Fitz passed into private hands after its time as a presidential yacht. Then, Hobe Sound developer Charles R. Modica, who owns the Charlie & Joe’s at Love Street restaurant complex in Jupiter, purchased it and worked for three years starting in February 2020 with a team to restore the yacht’s historic elements, which were deteriorating.