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Don Boyd | all galleries >> Places Photo Galleries >> Lake Worth Inlet / Peanut Island / Palm Beach / Riviera Beach / Singer Island Photo Gallery > Early 1960's - President Kennedy's presidential yacht "HONEY FITZ" moored at the new concrete docks at USCG Peanut Island
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Early 1960's Courtesy of Bob Baesler

Early 1960's - President Kennedy's presidential yacht "HONEY FITZ" moored at the new concrete docks at USCG Peanut Island

Coast Guard Station Lake Worth Inlet, Peanut Island, Florida


Thank you to Bob Baesler, 340-116, USCG, who served at two years at Coast Guard Station Lake Worth Inlet from 1960 to 1962. He was in A-44 Company at the Coast Guard Recruit Training Center at Cape May, New Jersey. He is the first Coastie I've heard from who served at Lake Worth Inlet prior to me in 1967.

Bob says that the Peanut Island station received new concrete docks so that the presidential yacht HONEY FITZ could be docked there.

The HONEY FITZ's statistics:

Length: 92' 3", Beam: 16' 6", Draft: 4' 10", Cruising Speed: 12 knots, Weight: 88 tons
Built: 1931 by Defoe Boat Works in Bay City, Michigan

She was originally built for Sewell L. Avery, chairman of the board of Montgomery Ward and named LENORE after his daughter. The U. S. Coast Guard bought her on August 15, 1942 and she was reconditioned at the Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay, Maryland. She was declared ready for duty on January 9, 1943 and renamed CG-92004. She served as a coastal picket patrol boat at Coast Guard Stations Rockaway Point and Fire Island, New York. For the last half of 1944 she served as a training ship for submarine crews at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. On June 23, 1945, she was assigned to the Navy Yard in Washington as a tender for the USS POTOMAC. On November 28, 1945 she was officially transferred to the U. S. Navy. She was used by Presidents Truman (who renamed her to LENORE II), Eisenhower (who renamed her to BARBARA ANNE), Kennedy (who renamed her to HONEY FITZ), Johnson, and Nixon (who renamed her to PATRICIA) who sold her in a government auction in 1970. She was sold to Mr. Joe Keating and recommissioned as the yacht PRESIDENTS on December 4, 1970.

According to the site linked to below, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy redecorated the HONEY FITZ and had the first color television installed on her to entertain her children. The site also says that President Kennedy and family spent Easter and Christmas holidays on the HONEY FITZ at Palm Beach. At the time the HONEY FITZ was commanded by Lieutenant Commander Walter C. Syle of the U. S. Navy since the Eisenhower administration.

For more information please see: http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Reference+Desk/Honey+Fitz+Details.htm


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Don Boyd24-Apr-2013 06:34
Guest, thank you for posting. CG-40485 was still there when I was there from June 1967 to December 1967 and I went out on her numerous times. The brand new 44-footer, CG-44371, was picked up by a small crew from Lake Worth Inlet at the CG Yard in April 1967, two months before my mutual transfer came through from CG Group Baltimore to Lake Worth Inlet. The 36-footer was always on the beach while I was there with "Keep Oof" (sic) painted on one side of her.

Don
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Guest 23-Apr-2013 18:20
The first rescue boat next to yacht was cg40485 the on closest was a 36ft wooden self bailing / self riding (cg36375). We pulled out of the water and reculked it with wadding, that took forever, and after we painted and polish all the brass it was taken away from us for a museum piece. Wwe only took it out in bad weather because it was dependable but in emergency cases that was the last one out because it was super slow.That was in 66? It was replased by the newer 44ft self riding boats.