jfk sailboat drawing

JFK and Victura

President John F. Kennedy’s beloved sailboat Victura (Latin for “about to conquer”) is a 25-foot Wianno Senior sloop purchased in 1932 as a 15th birthday gift from his parents. It is on the Victura that he taught his wife Jackie to sail and also where the Kennedy family enjoyed their love of sailing on Cape Cod.

John F. Kennedy was an avid sailor, having won many sailing events – including the Nantucket Sound Star Class Championship Cup in 1936, and the MacMillan Cup and East Coast Collegiate Championships in 1938 (with his brother Joe). He enjoyed many boats throughout his life, including a 92-foot wooden presidential yacht that served five presidents and the same yacht that he renamed the Honey Fitz after his maternal grandfather. However, it was the Victura that was JFK’s cherished boat and the very boat that he sketched on many of his documents in meetings during his presidency.

The Victura was struck by lightning in 1936 and rescued from ruin by John F. Kennedy as he dragged it onto a beach during a 1944 hurricane. The Victura also escaped ruin in December 2003 when a fire swept through Crosby Yacht Yard in Osterville, Massachusetts.

Boat LOA: 26 Feet Boat Width: 8 Feet Boat Weight: 3500 lb Boat Material: Wood Boat Builder: Crosby Yacht Yard in Osterville, MA Boat Launched: 1932 Look for a model of the Victura during your visit to the John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum!

JFK’s Last Sailboat Sketch Heads to Auction

• Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest Youtube

Roger Scoble blogs about the latest gadgets, travel and luxury…

A sketch of a boat, done by president John F. Kennedy the day before he was assassinated, is among some 200 JFK items on sale yesterday in an online auction.

The pencil drawing, doodled on stationery from Houston’s Rice Hotel, will fetch an estimated US$30,000 to US$40,000 (RM95,000 to RM127,000), said the RR Auction house, based in New Hampshire.

It is accompanied by a typed note on White House letterhead, signed by Evelyn Lincoln, Kennedy’s personal secretary.

Lincoln explained that the president had spent three and a half hours at the Rice Hotel on Nov 21, 1963. He then went to dinner before spending the night at the Texas Hotel in Fort Worth, near Dallas. He was shot and killed in his motorcade the next day in Dallas.

The shape of the boat in the drawing is reminiscent of the president’s sailboat, the Victura, according to RR Auction, which said Kennedy “was known to cover entire sheets of paper with stacked boxes, repeated words, and small drawings – most frequently of sailboats.”

Some 228 items linked to the former president will be sold in the auction, held 50 years after the assassination,

Items include a Bulova watch engraved with “JFK 1941,” estimated at US$15,000 to US$20,000; his earliest known signed photograph, inscribed with the message “Remember Me? Jack K,” estimated at US$8,000 to US$10,000; and the keys of the presidential limo used the day of the attack.

Less expensive items include ties worn by the president, photos, notes, and small pieces of furniture.

Bidding will run through 7pm on Nov 13 on the website www.rrauction.com .

Roger Scoble blogs about the latest gadgets, travel and luxury news. A graduate of UCLA, Roger loves to travel, drive luxe autos and have amazing adventures.

Yachting - the boats of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, president, sailor and skipper!

April 6 2020

Written by François Meyer - Yachting Art English Edition

If there is a president who loved the sea and travelled it on many types of boats, it is John Fitzgerald Kennedy ... 

Light sport sailboat, fast torpedo boat, motor yacht, classic yawl... discover the boats of JFK, the President Skipper.

Victura, a classic little sloop

The young JFK, born in 1917 to a wealthy family whose father, Joe, made his fortune during Prohibition, attended the best Ivy League and British universities where he developed his passion for regatta racing and sailing. For his 15th birthday, the lucky young man received a beautiful 25' Wianno Senior, Victura, which he will always use. These classic, jib sailboats were designed for regattas in the Nantucket Strait, the waters closest to the Kennedys' family summer home in Hyannis Port.

Lieutenant Kennedy's PT 109 Torpedo Boat

Enlisted as a volunteer in the US Navy after Pearl Harbor, Lieutenant Kennedy commanded a PT 103 class fast torpedo boat, the PT 109. These interception ships, 24 m long and weighing 57 tons (including armour and armament), carry three 1500 HP Packard V12 petrol engines, i.e. 4500 HP, for a top speed of 41 knots. They are armed with 4 torpedo tubes, 2 cannons and 4 heavy machine guns.

On August 1, 1943, a flotilla of 15 US Navy fast torpedo boats headed for the Japanese "Tokyo Express" convoy, in order to destroy it in the middle of Blackett Strait near Kolombaranga Island (Solomon Islands). blackett picture

On a moonless night, the PT 109 was rammed then cut in two by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri (120 m). For 6 days, the weakened JFK men swam every day, hauling the wounded on rafts from island to island to get closer to the American troops.

Having been able to report their position engraved on a coconut and delivered to the authorities by a native, the survivors found themselves on the deck of a fast torpedo boat on August 7, on their way to their base. The coconut, passed on to posterity, will come back to JFK and serve as a paperweight on his desk in the Oval Office!

The Honey Fitz (ex. Barbara Ann and ex. Lenore), a former tender that became a presidential motor yacht!

Once in the Oval Office, Kennedy found a 92' motor yacht, the Lenore 2 (ex. Lenore and ex. Barbara Ann, who was particularly fond of her predecessor, General Dwight Eisenhower, the architect of the Normandy landings of 1944.

The latter, an enemy of ostentatious luxury, had decommissioned the 245' Presidential Yacht Williamsburg, which he considered too "bling bling" in 1945, and of which the Barbara Ann was the tender! Refitted by Ike, the Barbara Ann became Lenore then Lenore 2, a Commuter boat intended to transport its owner from his residence to his office...

Kennedy also refitted it, renaming it Honey Fitz on occasion, and used it extensively on the Potomac River, near Washington, but also in Newport or Palm Beach. He used this yacht with his family, often one-on-one with his children.

Manitou, the Floating White House

Although a frequent user of the Honey Fitz, the President missed the sail. Victura, on which he often still sailed with his family, was proving too small to accommodate the members of his firm in the relaxed management style he loved.

So he had a large, sporty and elegant sailboat searched for among the fleets of federal departments and agencies.

Built in 1937 in Maryland by Davies & Sons and designed by Olie Sparkman (The Sparkman by Sparkman & Stephens, yacht architect but also the Swan by the Finnish Nautor), Manitou is a pure regatta sailor of the great lakes. At the time of its launch, its sponsor had offered itself the fastest yacht of the moment.

Rigged in Bermudian yawl (or yawl Marconi or in French côtre à tapecul), heavily canvassed, long and low on the water, sparkling with varnish and bronzes, Manitou, (which means "Spirit of the Water", the deity of all deities, in Algonquin Indian) is a magnificent classic.

Its 167m2 of upwind sail area for 62' and 27 tonnes (4 tonnes of ballast) gives it a very good speed thanks to an upwind sail area/displacement ratio of nearly 19!

Once spotted by JFK's office, the yacht left for a rather special type of yard during which unusual equipment was added to the existing chimney:

• A bathtub in the aft cabin and a hot water system.
• An encrypted long-range radio, even allowing communications with Moscow, as the Cold War requires.
• A cover for an automatic pistol and its ammunition (later replaced by a rocket launcher).

At the end of this shipyard, JFK had an elegant, comfortable and fast sailboat, an almost mobile office that was soon to be nicknamed "The Floating White House"...

On board, Kennedy received the members of his limited cabinet as well as members of his family and, for much more intimate visits, those of Miss Marylin Monroe, for example.

Decommissioned, then rearmed 15 years after the assassination of the president, Manitou served as a training ship to train socially disadvantaged American teenagers, very much in the vein of Father Michel Jaouen's Bel Espoir in France.

Returning to the hands of regatta sailors, last year he was still racing on the classic regatta circuit, participating in the Saint-Tropez and Antibes regattas.

Yachting - les bateaux de John Fitzgerald Kennedy, président, marin et skipper ! - ActuNautique.com

S'il est un président qui ait aimé la mer et l'ait parcouru sur bien des types d'embarcations, c'est bien John Fitzgerald Kennedy... Voilier léger de sport, torpilleur rapide, motor yacht, yawl ...

http://www.actunautique.com/2020/04/yachting-les-bateaux-de-john-fitzgerald-kennedy-president-skipper.html

Share this post

You might also like:

Comment on this post

• See the profile of ActuNautique Magazine on the Overblog portal
• Report abuse
• Terms of service
• Cookies and personal data
• Cookies preferences

File : John F Kennedy sailboat Victura at Kennedy LibraryIMG 20160510 141846009 HDRc.jpg

File history, file usage on commons, file usage on other wikis.

Original file ‎ (5,341 × 2,804 pixels, file size: 6.95 MB, MIME type: image/jpeg )

Summary [ edit ]

Licensing [ edit ].

• to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
• to remix – to adapt the work
• attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
• share alike – If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same or compatible license as the original.

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

You cannot overwrite this file.

The following page uses this file:

• File:JFK's Vixtura.jpg (file redirect)

The following other wikis use this file:

• John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
• Wianno Senior
• Boston Harborwalk
• List of museum ships in North America
• Boston/Dorchester

This file contains additional information such as Exif metadata which may have been added by the digital camera, scanner, or software program used to create or digitize it. If the file has been modified from its original state, some details such as the timestamp may not fully reflect those of the original file. The timestamp is only as accurate as the clock in the camera, and it may be completely wrong.

Structured data

Items portrayed in this file, copyright status, copyrighted, copyright license, creative commons attribution-sharealike 4.0 international, 10 may 2016, source of file, original creation by uploader.

• 2016 in Boston
• Boston Harbor in the 21st century
• Museums in Boston
• Victura (ship, 1932)
• CC-BY-SA-4.0
• Self-published work
• Taken with Motorola Droid Turbo 2

Navigation menu

• Subscriptions

Grab a Seat at the Captain’s Table

Essential news coupled with the finest maritime content sourced from across the globe.

Join our crew and become one of the 105,856 members that receive our newsletter.

An Inside Look at JFK’s Presidential Yacht, “Honey Fitz” [PHOTOS]

Share this article.

The former presidential yacht, “Honey Fitz”

With the 50 year anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s death upon us, it’s only appropriate that we honor his legacy here on gCaptain by featuring a photo tour of the presidential yacht, “Honey Fitz”.

The 93-foot wooden yacht was originally built in 1931 by Defoe Shipyard in Bay City, Michigan for Sewell Avery, a prominent businessman from Chicago, who mostly used it to cruise around Lake Michigan. The yacht was purchased, or possibly expropriated, from Avery in 1942 by the U.S. government and assigned to the coast guard.

The yacht first gained Presidential status with President Harry S. Truman, who used it mostly as a tender for the much larger, and more lavish, Williamsburg . In all the yacht was used by five U.S. Presidents – Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon – but was most famous for its role as the presidential yacht for John F. Kennedy, who renamed it “Honey Fitz” after his grandfather.

Kennedy is said to have spent some of the happiest times of is life on the Honey Fitz. During he presidency, he would use it extensively to entertain family and close friends, cruising up and down the eastern seaboard from the Potomac River in D.C. to Cape Cod.

The yacht was eventually sold to a private buyer during the Nixon Administration in 1970. Recently, the yacht underwent an extensive, two-year restoration to bring it back to its “Camelot” era glory days it is most known for.

P.S. – Yes, JFK also enjoyed cruising onboard the other presidential yacht, the familiar USS Sequoia, too.

Lone Stateroom:

Wheelhouse:

Dining Room:

President John F. Kennedy with his daughter, Caroline, aboard the Honey Fitz in 1963.

Sources:  http://www.myhoneyfitz.com/

Unlock Exclusive Insights Today!

Join the gCaptain Club for curated content, insider opinions, and vibrant community discussions.

Be the First to Know

Join the 105,856 members that receive our newsletter.

Have a news tip? Let us know.

Stay Ahead with Our Weekly ‘Dispatch’ Email

Dive into a sea of curated content with our weekly ‘Dispatch’ email. Your personal maritime briefing awaits!

Related Articles

Was The World’s ‘Northern-Most Island’ Erased From Charts?

by Kevin Hamilton (University of Hawaii) In 2021, an expedition off the icy northern Greenland coast spotted what appeared to be a previously uncharted island. It was small and gravelly,...

Wreck Of An Ancient Roman Cargo Ship Found Off Rome’s Coast

ROME, (Reuters) – The wreck of an ancient Roman cargo ship from more than 2,000 years ago has been found off the coast near Rome, the arts squad of Italy’s Carabinieri police said on Friday....

Spanish Archaeologists Plan Rescue Of 2,500-Year-Old Phoenician Shipwreck

MADRID, (Reuters) – A group of Spanish archaeologists have made detailed diagrams of a 2,500-year-old Phoenician shipwreck to help work out how best to recover it from the sea before a storm...

Why Join the gCaptain Club?

Access exclusive insights, engage in vibrant discussions, and gain perspectives from our CEO.

OUT AT SEA?

We’ve got you covered with trusted maritime and offshore news from wherever you are.

JOIN OUR CREW

Maritime and offshore news trusted by our 105,856 members delivered daily straight to your inbox.

Your Gateway to the Maritime World!

Join our crew.

Privacy Overview

Nominees > Contributor

Deceased , Historic

1917 - 1963.

A President of the United States and an avid yachtsman, John F. Kennedy helped bring sailing to the forefront of the American public’s mind.

Though he sailed many large yachts, Kennedy favored small boats throughout his life, appreciating the simplicity, intimacy and ease of handling that a good little sailboat provides. It’s not surprising, therefore, that the 26-foot Wianno Senior sailboat Victura – a gift from his parents for his 15 th birthday – remained his favorite throughout his life.  It was the boat on which he taught many others, including his wife, Jackie, to sail, and it was the boat that captured and held his imagination throughout his life.

Kennedy loved competitive sailing. In 1938, sailing with his older brother Joe for Harvard, he won the MacMillan Cup, the East Coast Collegiate Championship, outsailing two future America’s Cup skippers. On display at the JFK Library are the Nantucket Sound Star Class Championship cup that he won in 1936 sailing his boat, Flash II , and a smaller cup for the Hyannisport Yacht Club race to Edgartown.

Sailing-related Accomplishments and Honors

Preserving America’s Sailing Legacy

Engaging Sailing’s Next Generation

Stay Connected to the National Sailing Hall of Fame

1961: Handwritten notes on military issues; also sketch of sailboats, 20 October

About folder.

A blog of the U.S. National Archives

Pieces of History

John F. Kennedy and PT Boat 59

Today’s post is written by archivist Dr. Greg Bradsher.

When one thinks about President Kennedy’s naval career in World War II, what most often comes to mind is his command of Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109.

Thanks to the 1963 movie PT 109 , adapted from the 1961 book PT 109: John F. Kennedy in World War II by Robert J. Donovan, Kennedy’s wartime exploits with PT-109 were well-publicized and became part of the Kennedy legend (see Stephen Plotkins’s “Sixty Years Later, the Story of PT-109 Still Captivates” in the summer 2003 issue of Prologue .)

What few people realize is that after the loss of PT-109, Kennedy was given command of another boat: PT-59. Actually, the last scene in the movie PT 109 shows Kennedy and this boat sailing off into the sunset to begin new adventures on his path to the White House.

The story of Kennedy and PT-59 begins on the morning of August 2, 1943, in the Solomon Islands, when PT-109. Lt. (jg) John F. Kennedy, USNR, was in command when PT-109 was rammed by a Japanese destroyer and sunk. Kennedy and the surviving crew members were rescued on August 8, and Kennedy was then sent to Tulagi Island to recover.

But Kennedy was eager to get back into the fight, and he was soon was assigned to command PT-59. He reported to the new boat (technically the PTGB-1, Gunboat No. 1) on September 1.

During the next five weeks, PT-59 was converted into a gunboat for use against Japanese barges in the northern Solomon Islands. The four torpedo tubes were removed and replaced with additional .50- and .30-caliber machine guns behind armor shields. The 20-millimeter anti-aircraft gun on the stern was replaced by 40-millimeter antiaircraft guns fore and aft that could be lowered to fire on ground targets. With the refitting completed, Kennedy took his boat to the base at Lambu Lambu Cove on Vella Lavella Island.

When PT-59 arrived on October 18, it was sent out on patrol with two other PT boats across the New Georgia Sound to the northwestern tip of Choiseul Bay on Choiseul Island, an important Japanese barge base.

The PT boats were ordered to block the western and southern approaches to Choiseul Bay and intercept barges. At this point the Japanese were frantically moving troops by barge in anticipation of American landings in the northern Solomons. Kennedy, now promoted to full lieutenant, took PT-59 on eight similar patrols during the next ten nights.

On November 1, Kennedy participated in a rescue mission to Choiseul Island where Marines, part of Lt. Col. Victor H. Krulak’s Second Marine Parachute Battalion(1st Marine Parachute Regiment, First Marine Amphibious Corps) had been surrounded by Japanese forces, and needed to be evacuated. This mission, told in the fall 2010 issue of Prologue , was a successful one, although one of the wounded Marines died in Kennedy’s bunk aboard PT-59. Interestingly, this dramatic rescue mission was depicted in the movie as having been accomplished by PT-109.

On the night of November 5, Kennedy led three PT boats to Moli Point and Choiseul Bay, where they attacked Japanese barges. During the next week and a half, PT-59 would prowl off Choiseul Bay looking for barges.

Kennedy’s final action was on the night of November 16, when he took PT-59 on an uneventful patrol. On November 18, a doctor directed Kennedy—who was mentally and physically exhausted and had lost 25 pounds over the preceding three months—to go the hospital at Tulagi.

Kennedy gave up his command of PT-59 that day and left the Solomon Islands on December 21 for the United States. He left the Navy on physical disability in March of 1945. Soon, he would begin his career in Congress. As for PT-59, she remained in the Solomon Islands until August 1944, when she was transported back to the Motor Torpedo Boat Training Base in Rhode Island.

Share this:

5 thoughts on “ john f. kennedy and pt boat 59 ”.

What is the basis for the PTGB-1 designator? I’ve never seen any such designator in official records and it isn’t consistent with contemporary practice.

I do know the British, who started off WW2 with torpedo boats earlier than the US, referred to as MTBs or Motor Torpedo Boat. They too had a version of the torpedo boat with the torpedos deleted in exchange for more and heavier guns.

The “PT” in a PT boat is an abbreviation for patrol torpedo. So, putting this together, a PT boat is a patrol torpedo boat. It was used in the Second World War by the U.S Navy.

Who was Kennedy’s XO on PT59?

Robert Lee “Dusty” Rhodes lt(jg)

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Find anything you save across the site in your account

You Could Own JFK’s Sailboat

By Alison Levasseur

Photography by Heritage Auctions

On May 18, Flash II —the Star Class sailboat owned by President John F. Kennedy and his brother Joseph—will be offered at Heritage Auctions, in Dallas. “The Kennedy brothers made quite a name for themselves in the Nantucket Sound Fleet racing circuit with this boat in the late 1930s,” says Mark Prendergast, director of trusts and estates at the auction house. “It’s also been the subject of extraordinary and painstaking restoration. Not only is it a piece of American history, it’s also seaworthy and ready for adventure.” The opening bid for the 22-foot-long boat is $100,000. Watch the video below to learn more about its provenance.

For more information visit ha.com

By Michelle Duncan

By Katherine McLaughlin

By Mayer Rus

By Sarah Archer

• Buy a Classic Boat
• Print Subscription
• Digital Subscription
• Single Issues

Your special offer

Manitou: John F Kennedy’s Yacht, Restored and Racing

We look back at JFK’s yacht Manitou, her restoration and racing, and trace her star-spangled origins.

Olin Stephens’ Design

The glittering twin scoops of Cannes Bay squat between the Mediterranean and the shimmering lavender hills of the Estérel mountains like a bum print in the sand. It is a place where life is slow enough to split the day with a siesta and fast enough to benefit in the thrilling warmth of the night.

The old port is surrounded by tall, dark streets where reassuringly surly waiters entice diners into their restaurants. It was fitting that I was in Cannes to join this particular boat, as one of the previous owners was so intrinsically connected with the film business that it is excusable to forget his political career entirely.

John F Kennedy’s Yacht Manitou was built at the MM Davis & Son yard in Solomons, Maryland, in 1937. She was conceived by James Lowe of Grand Rapids, who was so determined to win the Chicago Mac Race (from Chicago to Mackinac Island, across Lake Michigan) that he commissioned the young naval architect Olin Stephens to design her specifically. She is one of Olin Stephen’s famous inboard yawls, a lineage that started with Dorade in 1930, many examples of which are still loved and raced to this day.

What he wanted was a performance cruising yacht that would race well under heavy and light conditions. So Stephens designed a 62ft (18.9m) cutter-rigged bermudan yawl with 44ft (13.4m) in the water, a 13ft 9in (4.2m) beam and a four-ton keel. She had teak planking on deck and mahogany on oak for her hull.

Manitou was launched in 1937 and promptly won the 1938 Chicago Mac Race in the cruising division (on corrected time), beating all previous records. She came a close second the next year and came back to win it again in 1940 and 1941. After these successes Mr Lowe sold her, and in 1955 she was donated to the US Coast Guard to be used as a training vessel.

It was while she was at Annapolis that Manitou was first spotted by a young Senator Kennedy. She obviously made an impression on him because, when he was elected, the presidential yacht at the time was the 92ft (28m) power yacht Honey Fitz (named after his own grandfather) and, as was customary, a fighting ship ready for naval action.

Being a keen sailor, however, and now the president, Kennedy sent naval aide Captain Tazewell Shepard Jr, to search out a suitable sailing yacht that could accommodate the equipment needed for him to keep in touch with the White House, and even the Kremlin.

One of the yachts on the list was Manitou and, in the style befitting of his entire career, the signing of her deeds was one of the first things he did sitting at the presidential desk. She was promptly moved to Chesapeake Bay where engineers fitted her out as a working presidential office. Indeed John F Kennedy’s Yacht was soon given the nickname “The Floating White House”.

LOD: 62ft (18.9m), LWL: 44ft (13.4m), Beam: 13ft 9in (4.2m), Draught: 8ft 6in (2.6m), Disp: 60,000lb (27.2 tonnes), Sail Area: 1,778sqft (165sqm)

Although he never raced her himself, Kennedy and a friend, future America’s Cup winner Emil “Bus” Mosbacher, had an impromptu competition off Newport to see whether Manitou could beat his 38ft (11.6m) Weatherly . Sadly, the boats got so close approaching a mark that the secret servicemen in their RIB, nervous already at this sudden and unexpected turn of speed, intercepted Bus – much to the annoyance of the president.

During his time he not only used her as a presidential yacht, but also invited a bevy of stars and starlets aboard as guests, due to his fascination with Hollywood. The bathtub in the aft cabin, sunken under the cabin sole, is said to have been host to, among others, Marilyn Monroe.

The Star Wanes

In 1968, long after JFK’s assassination, she was finally sold at auction to Paul Hall, the leader of the Harry Lundeburg School of Seamanship, and became once more a vessel for learning. In the same year, Aristotle Onassis was wooing Jackie Kennedy, and, as a token of his love, twice attempted to buy it back for her at “any price”. But Hall was a proponent of the common man, so the offer only strengthened his resolve to keep her for teaching less privileged children about teamwork.

In 1999, in poor state and neglected, her history a mere forgotten footnote, she was bought by Laura Kilbourne, the great-granddaughter of none other than James R Lowe, the original owner. Manitou was given a major and meticulously accurate refit at the Chesapeake Marine Railway in Deltaville, Virginia – just down the road from where she was built.

By 2010, however, Laura was forced to sell by the arrival of triplets, relinquishing Manitou to the present owners Phil Jordan, Pat Tierney, Claes Goran Nilsson and Melinda Kilkenny. Though Laura’s refit had started a decade before, the boat was as yet unsailable and there was much to do. The interior, panelled beautifully in American butternut, a hard but light wood, was totally bare. There were no doors below, the original sails were still with her but could be seen through like greasy paper, and her rig, it was considered, could be improved.

And so, in December, in another fateful turn of events, she was taken back to Solomons where she had been built. Here, her stem was replaced, her engine changed for a 120hp Yanmar, the wiring redone, new tanks fitted and new batteries and navigation equipment were installed. She was given new winches and tracks and then came the varnish. After a gruelling four months of varnishing every inside inch of her, the interior finally sparkled once again.

An interior that, it is important to note, has a sunken bath, a fireplace and a fridge that has been modified to be opened from the top or sides. None of this detracts from one of the most elegantly laid-out living quarters and galleys you will come across. She seems large, light and airy with plenty of headroom and nothing seemingly compromised.

On top, the decks are uncluttered and the companionway, being amidships, leaves the cockpit free. She left the yard on 10 July 2011 and sailed into New York Harbor, flashing her cream sides past the Statue of Liberty with all sails up, making a triumphant 9 knots. Many a proud eye may have dampened with salt spray that day. From there, she went up to Newport, Rhode Island, and was shipped across to the Mediterranean.

Then the next chapter unfurled. She went into the famed Villefranche boatyard near Nice and, along with recaulking her hull and replacing the garboards, the rig was improved. The original mainmast had three sets of spreaders, and this they reduced to two, also removing the jumpers. The upwind performance was improved to such a degree that, with the mizzen staysail balancing it all, Manitou is now the envy of the fleet. Although this year was planned as a training year, no one seemed to have told the boat, and she started winning races regardless, taking first place in the Puig Vela and Alcudia and coming second in Palma, Nice and Imperia.

Sailing Manitou

I stepped aboard JFK’s Yacht as the sun was just drying the dew over the toerail and was welcomed by what at first seemed like a multinational but close family made up entirely of men. They were milling about in the restrained excitement before a race , putting on sailing gloves, taking off socks, discussing tactics and stowing breakables. The winds were light and I was soon pulled into a discussion about the advantage this gave the smaller boats in the class. We made ready and sailed out of Cannes into the Golfe de la Napoule. The wind, little that there was, perked up a bit, so we raised the jib and Manitou woke up.

There were 11 people on board and she didn’t feel crowded. Six minutes were called. We admired the posture and varnish of our adversaries like jockeys leaning on the race paddock fence. Five minutes. I fiddled with my camera and changed the lens. We raised the main. Three minutes. One of the Swedes on the foredeck changed his knee pads. One minute. We no longer admired our adversaries. Go!

One of the things that is unique in sailing is that there’s no suddenness about the start of a race, no screech of tyres. You merely carry on doing what you were doing before. The crew is a syndicate made up of old friends, all evenly tanned and most of them in their fifties. I was immediately intrigued by the dynamic, and as other skippers could be heard yelling at their crews, here was calm. On a full race charter there are constant questions and eternal strangers. Here there was cohesion, the ease of familiarity and the knowledge of each others’ abilities.

I sat down next to a particularly distinguished French gentleman who lived on the western edge of the bay. He explained to me how wonderful the lobsters used to be at a restaurant on a nearby island that had been closed down by the monks who owned the lease. The wind picked up a little more and Claes swung on shrouds and gave complex trimming signals to the well-manned cockpit. Having three of the four owners on board also lightened the potential hierarchy and it became evident that this was a crew of mixed ability but shared enthusiasm.

They had their rules: no shouting was one I particularly agree on; no paid crew, and they’d decided that 30 people was the maximum syndicate size – small enough to avoid confusion but large enough to provide a full crew for most regattas. Friends, and friends of friends. And when the more salubrious regattas became oversubscribed, they decided to put extra money into the funds. Everything was done with the doff of a gentleman’s agreement. Not that there aren’t any women involved. Far from it. When on board, the ladies, as well as one of the owners, Melinda Kilkenny, are known as “The Mizzen Sisters” such is their expertise at dealing with all things mizzenly.

And so we raced. And as we raced, the skipper Alex Tilleray, prised from The Blue Peter , guided us through the race, adjusting sheet cars ready for a tack, setting the spinnaker boom in case we needed it and even explaining how to tie a particular haul knot. His influence was pervasive; his racing knowledge unquestionable and his demeanour lacked that manic violence of the fanatical winner. We won, it seemed – it’s always difficult to tell – and we headed back to the old port to drink beer in the cockpit and talk of our tactics, joined by wives who’d been shopping.

It was on dry land, however, that I fully understood the advantage of a syndicate. There was, as there often is, an altercation during the race, which led to an inquiry. The inquiry led to one of Manitou ’s owners, Phil Jordan, being threatened by the skipper of the other boat in the pub straight afterwards. He was surrounded by the syndicate, shoulder to shoulder, ready to defend him. Had they been a group of strangers, that may not have been the case.

Pat told me that when they were looking for a boat to buy, Phil had said he was looking for one with significance. There can be few, if any, with more.

• Oldest Ocean Globe Race Boat: Olin Stephens’ Galiana
• Western Flyer Restoration: The John Steinbeck fishing seiner
• Classic Races & Regattas 2024: Classic World Events Guide

RELATED ARTICLES MORE FROM CLASSIC BOAT

Restored Dutch Tall Ship’s World Voyage: DARWIN200 Mission

Whitbread History: The Legacy of this Round the World Race

Cape Horn Hall of Fame Nominations Closing Soon

Recently added to the directory.

Classic Boat is the magazine for the world’s most beautiful boats. Packed with stunning images, we have the inside stories of the great classic yachts and motorboats afloat today, as well as fascinating tales from yesteryear and the latest from the wooden boat building scene around the world.

• Awards 2017
• Telegraph.co.uk

ADVERTISING

© 2024 The Chelsea Magazine Company , part of the Telegraph Media Group . Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy

Watch CBS News

JFK painting finds its way back to artist 50 years after brush with Camelot

March 1, 2013 / 11:18 AM EST / CBS News

(CBS News) While on assignment covering an auction of John F. Kennedy's presidential memorabilia two weeks ago, CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason uncovered a story with a fascinating and personal twist.

Mason explained on "CBS This Morning," "I stumbled on this painting of president and Mrs. Kennedy sailing, while wandering around the presidential auction. It was painted by my stepfather 50 years ago, so I bid on it and bought it back. Then I learned the story behind it."

The Kennedys: Camelot in pictures

The painting and the artist were reacquainted this week. Mason's stepfather, Henry Koehler, hadn't seen his portrait of the president and Mrs. Kennedy sailing since 1963.

His first response to the painting: "Oh, it even looks like them."

Now 86 and still at work, he was just 36 when the Kennedys commissioned the picture.

Asked how important the commission was to him, Koehler said, "I guess a pretty important one."

So important -- that up in the attic of his home and studio in Southampton, N.Y., he still keeps a file of correspondence. In it, a 1960 cover story he illustrated on sailing. Jackie Kennedy liked a painting of his she saw in Sports Illustrated. "She saw this in the magazine and she wanted to give it to Jack," Koehler said.

It was an anniversary gift. Jackie later appeared in front of it in a newspaper photograph. Koehler said of the article accompanying the photo, "I love what she says here: 'It's by far the prettiest picture in our house and by far the only one I have given him that he actually likes.'"

A few years later, he was asked to paint the picture of the president sailing. Koehler said, "It was commissioned with two others by the Kennedy sisters to give their three brothers for Christmas."

He did sketches of Jack, Bobby and Ted Kennedy aboard the family sailboat, the Victura. One of the Kennedy sisters went to Koehler's studio to approve them. But just after she'd left, Koehler recalled, "I had a call from ... my wife, and she said, 'Henry, don't you have the radio on?'"

It was the afternoon of November 22, 1963. The president had been shot.

Koehler said after the president's death, he thought it was the end of the commission. But then he got a phone call from the Kennedy office asking him how the paintings were coming along.

Koehler said with a laugh, "I said, 'Just fine.' I started to paint with both hands to get them done for Christmas."

The president's Christmas present was delivered to Mrs. Kennedy and he received a thank you letter from Mrs. Kennedy that read, "Dear Henry, you will never know how much the painting of the Victura means to me, and I shall treasure it forever. You are right in saying it will serve as a constant reminder of happier days."

But another letter would come from Jackie -- a rambling note written entirely by hand. In it, she asked Koehler to repaint the picture to remove her from it and to make the president "vague and far away." Her secretary, Nancy Tuckerman, told him that, in her grief, Jackie had been staying up late into the night, writing notes she would not ordinarily have written.

Koehler said, "Nancy said, 'Just don't even acknowledge the letter.' So I didn't. I kept it, of course. But I didn't do anything about it."

Koehler said he never repainted the picture.

And that was the last Mason's stepfather heard of it until it turned up at the auction.

Mason asked, "The first question everybody always asks is, why did you make the background yellow?"

Koehler replied, "I just thought it would make a stronger picture. And if you want a photograph, get a photographer."

Ultimately, Caroline Kennedy gave the painting to David Powers, who had been the president's personal assistant, in appreciation of his running the Kennedy Library for 30 years, and that's how it ended up at auction.

Asked where the painting will hang, Mason said, "That's a good question. I haven't even thought about that yet. I just wanted to bring it home. The auction - there were so many Internet bidders that the auction ran literally through the night and the folks at the McInnis Auction House kindly called me at 4:50 in the morning to say it's up for bid now."

Mason said his strategy was to "outwait just about everybody."

Watch Mason's full report in the video above.

More from CBS News

• No products in the cart.

JFK, the sailing President

20 Feb JFK, the sailing President

“I really don’t know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it is because in addition to the fact that the sea changes, and the light changes, and ships change, it is because we all came from the sea. And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it we are going back from whence we came.”

 –  President John F. Kennedy speaking at the America’s Cup in Newport, RI in 1962.

Before John F. Kennedy was President of the United States – indeed, before he met Jacqueline Onassis, before he was a U.S. senator, a Congressman, a Naval hero, a Harvard graduate – he was first a sailor. It could be argued that for JFK sailing was not only his first love, it was the love of his life.

He began sailing at a young age with his family. As a racer JFK won several events, including the Nantucket Sound Star Class Championship Cup in 1936, and the MacMillan Cup and East Coast Collegiate Championships in 1938. Even as president, he took time to sail in the waters off Hyannis, Palm Beach, and on the Potomac. For JFK sailing was a respite, a way to (at least temporarily) escape the heavy burdens of his office.

JFK owned many boats, but one boat remained his favorite throughout his too brief life. On his 15th birthday, his father Joseph Kennedy gave him a 25 foot Wianno Senior, a classic wooden gaff-rigged sloop made nearby on Cape Cod. JFK named her Victura ,   Latin for “about to conquer” – fitting for a young man with big dreams. He went on to other, larger boats – most notably the Sparkman & Stephens designed S/Y Manitou , and the Presidential motor yacht Honey Fitz   –  but it was Victura that captured and held his imagination and his heart.

JFK enjoyed sailing Victura for her simplicity, ease of handling and performance. It was on Victura that he taught Jackie and his children Caroline and John Jr. to sail. There are many photos of the Kennedy family and JFK sailing  Victura , and in those pictures there’s no mistaking the huge grin on his face. It is the smile of a man who loved his boat and loved sailing it. Friends said that he often told them he was never happier than at the helm of Victura .

The next day, hotel staff were cleaning the suite when they learned JFK had been shot in Dallas. In the trash, they found a simple pencil drawing of a sailboat that looked much like Victura , beating through the waves.

The Kennedy family kept Victura and sailed her for almost 50 years. Today, Victura stands on the lawn of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston , with her bow facing out to sea. A moving and fitting tribute to our sailing President.

Did you enjoy this? Here’s another piece of sailing history you might like:  A Shamrock for St. Patrick’s Day  

Four Seasons New York Downtown: A Tribute to Mothers in the Heart of Tribeca

La Crema Winery Slam Dunks A Partnership With The WNBA

10 Most Fashion-Inspiring TV Characters

Top Luxury Vacation Destinations to visit in August

Charleston Shoes Provides Soles for Souls

• Arts & Culture
• About Wine & Travel
• California Dreaming
• Cookies & Cocktails
• Cruise News and Reviews
• Global Etiquette
• Law & Tech for the Millennial
• Leah Travels France
• Luxe Layovers
• Music & Movement
• Oceanviews & Fairways
• Passionate Travel
• Photo Essays
• Planned 2 Perfection
• Put a pin in it!
• Read, Eat, Repeat.
• Third Age Expeditions
• Travel Time with Linda
• Travel Troubleshooter
• Trip Rambler
• Young Writers Series

Hotel La Palma, Capri, Entering Its Second Season

Honeymoon Travel Ideas

Select Page

Victura: the Kennedys, a Sailboat, and the Sea

Posted by luxebeat | Apr 20, 2014 | Auto, Yachts & Aircraft , Books , Featured , History , Literature , Travel |

by James W. Graham

Book Excerpt: Chapter 1

Metaphor for Life

The day before he died President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline, arrived at the Rice Hotel in Houston, Texas, taking a room freshly remodeled for their short stay. They had three and a half hours to rest and dine together before heading out for two evening appearances and the day’s end. Jack, sitting in a rocking chair, wearing just his shorts, worked on a speech and doodled on a sheet of hotel notepaper.

Later, their public obligations satisfied, they retired to another hotel closer to the next day’s events. Jacqueline saw Jack, in his pajamas, kneel by his bed to say a prayer. She told a friend a few weeks later, “It was just like a little childish mannerism, I suppose, like brushing your teeth or some- thing. But I thought that was so sweet. It used to amuse me so, standing there.” She compared his religious rituals to “superstition.” She wasn’t sure he was a true believer, “but if it was that way, he wanted to have that on his side.”

The next morning, with the president and first lady in Dallas for their motorcade’s nightmarish turn past the book depository, the Rice Hotel housecleaning staff found the doodle the president had left in his room. It was a simple pencil drawing of a little sailboat, beating through the waves.

The summer before the 1960 election. From Victura, AP Photo, August 7, 1960.

Jack Kennedy often drew such sailboats during White House meetings or while on the phone. Sometimes, he put a gaff rig on the mast, like the one on the Victura . Somewhere in their minds, throughout their lives, Jack and his brothers and sisters were always at sea. Sailing influenced how they thought, how they competed, the content of public speeches, how as a family they celebrated happy events or managed grief, how they grew close to one another.

Of the nine children of Joseph and Rose Kennedy, the ones most influenced by and enamored with sailing were Jack; his older brother, Joe; and their younger siblings, Ted, Eunice, and Robert. When they were young, sailing was a topic of ongoing earnest discussion, sometimes led by their father.

Robert F. Kennedy steers Victura with plenty of helpers. No youngster was turned away, no matter the boat’s crew capacity. From Victura, AP Photo/Bob Schutz, July 30, 1961.

They would constantly ask one another, What made us lose a race? What gear needed replacing? At what cost? What sailing instructors should we hire? What kind of sails? How do we launch the spinnaker faster? Who can we get to crew? How fast the wind and how high the waves?

As they grew older and moved into independent lives, they always came back to sailing, coordinating return trips to their seaside Cape Cod home, sometimes arranging their lives around regattas, making time for a sail every day. Their children and grandchildren were still doing the same eighty years after they first went for a sail on Victura .

When Robert’s young wife, Ethel, joined the family, she perfectly blended in, not least because she brought her own love of sailing. Jacque- line, enamored less with the races and more with sailing’s beauty, wrote poetry about and drew pictures of sailboats years before she met Jack. Whatever the lofty position a Kennedy held, helicopters, airplanes, and motorcades all eventually pointed back to Hyannis Port in time for sailing races.

Ethel and children have a mishap on Resolute. From Victura, photo by Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection/WireImage/Getty Images, August, 1971.

Once together at sea the Kennedys riveted their attention on the race or, if just cruising, spent hours in conversation while watching sunsets; worrying over storm clouds; taking drenching waves over the gunwale; shivering, almost hypothermic; holding soggy sandwiches pulled from the cooler.

Older Kennedys taught younger ones. They grounded their boat on sandbars, at least once crashing into a buoy. They thought nothing of jumping into the water if necessary to lighten the load and speed the boat. They yelled when mistakes were made, punched one another even, laughed about it afterward.

The stronger the Cape winds, the whiter the whitecaps, the better. They took friends out who became lifelong pals after passing tests of seaworthiness or camaraderie.

Once they became parents they used sailing to connect with their children, including nephews and nieces whose fathers were lost. They learned seamanship and survival skills, which they swear saved Jack’s life in World War II. Sailing, they said, gave their lives perspective and helped them explore how to cope with the complexity that comes with being a Kennedy—the privileges, the attention, and the “buzz saws of life.” They sailed at night too, quietly taking in the infinite stars, distance, space, and horizon and said it gave them insights into life’s mysteries. “Sailing, for me, has always been a metaphor for life,” wrote Ted in his memoir, True Compass, written eighty years after the family first summered in Hyannis Port.

The family had many sailboats, but the favorite was Victura . They kept it the longest and sailed it most, over almost fifty years. It was wooden and modest in size, twenty-five feet in length, spare of accommodation, and gaff rigged, a sail configuration thought quaint today even though folks still say the shorter mast height prevents a knockdown in a gale. About two hundred one-design Wianno Seniors identical to Victura have been built for families like the Kennedys who summer or live on Cape Cod’s South Shore. Thus they fairly compete on boats of equal specifications in races around Nantucket Sound.

That Victura survived so long, a small boat in such big seas, is surprising itself. Acquired in 1932, struck  by lightning in 1936, dragged onto the beach by war-injured Jack during a hurricane in 1944, and nearly lost in a 2003 harbor fire that took twenty other sailboats like it, Victura once sprung a leak and started sinking beneath Ted’s aging and none-too-small size, as the senator resignedly watched boats in the race pass him by until he could get a tow. After they gave Victura to a museum, they bought a new Wianno Senior, called it Victura too and sail it to this day.

Now, when a Kennedy dies and his or her loved ones stand to speak words of consolation, they often turn to the imagery of sailing and to their stories of Victura . At Ted’s death in 2009, four eulogists told stories of being with him on Victura . Less than two years later, when Ted’s daughter, Kara, died of cancer at age fifty-one, her brother Patrick said, “Dad now has his first mate, his crew with him, as they set sail,” and quoted Eugene O’Neill, “I dissolved in the sea, became white sails and flying spray, became beauty and rhythm, became moonlight and the ship and the high dim-starred sky!”

Jack did not know his stay at the Rice Hotel was his last day on earth, but his thoughts went back to the Cape and the sea that night because that is where Kennedy minds always drift. All through his life Jack was sick with one illness or another, but sailing freed him, filled his lungs, tanned his skin when it was ashen or yellow, separated him from worries ashore, and gave him seclusion with family and friends.

Robert, a less accomplished sailor who married young and had less time for racing, still loved taking his children out on the water. Before he died at forty-two, after fathering eleven children, he bought a “sister boat” to Victura and called it Resolute . For years following Robert’s death, when the weather was warm enough, and even when it was not, his surviving family sailed Resolute almost every day. Brothers, sisters, and nephews of Jack bought Wianno Seniors, so Victura and Resolute begat Headstart , another Victura , and Ptarmigan . These begat Santa Maria and Dingle .

Ted, perhaps the most dedicated—some might say obsessive—sailor, lived a long life of ups and downs, the opposite of the short lives of Jack and Robert. They rose together on a steady and uninterrupted path to the White House, but Ted lived almost as long as the other two combined, beaten down by tragedies, some fated, some self-inflicted. Sailing reminded Ted to keep plowing onward, no matter the wind or current or competition. The younger Kennedys picked up on that.

The daughters of Joe and Rose Kennedy had less family pressure to achieve political success, for theirs was an era of male primogeniture, but Eunice grew up to be as forceful and effective a leader of social change in America as her brothers. Perhaps not so coincidentally she was also among the most accomplished sailors.

Photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt steadied himself on Victura’s bow to capture eight-year-old Ted forward andfrom left, Jean, Rose, Joe, Bobby, Patricia and Eunice. From Victura, photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images, 1940.

Over the years the images of the Kennedys at sea defined the family brand and gave birth to the Kennedy myth. Kennedys under sail were the picture of adventurousness, wholesomeness, vigor, and family. They commanded the elements and the political world. Jack Kennedy’s navy experience in World War II became an epic tale of seafaring heroism, retold throughout his political career. A 1953 Life cover photo of Jack and Jacqueline on the bow of Victura , along with their larger storyline, presented them as beautiful, privileged, sophisticated, glamorous, and destined for something great. Media forms like television were fast evolving and multiplying, their effects just being understood, and Jack and Jackie were well cast for the new era.

As Robert and Ted grew older and entered the picture as politicians themselves, they had children who took to the sea as had their parents. The image of the Kennedys at sea became affixed in public consciousness for the rest of the twentieth century and into the next.

The story of Victura , more than the tale of a small sailboat, is a story of a steeled family and uncommon upbringing in a particular time and place, under specific circumstances, some created with deliberateness by parents who had the means, some shaped by world events and accidents of fate. All of these combined to deeply influence the lives of a few extraordinary people who, more than most, helped define America in the second half of the twentieth century. From these circumstances grew the Kennedys and all they became. Always integral to it all was a simple, small sailboat. Victura .

About the Author:

To read the Luxe Beat Magazine version of this article click on the title VICTURA THE KENNEDYS, A SAILBOARD AND THE SEA .

About the author.

For a sophisticated lifestyle...Luxe Beat Magazine is the premiere resource for all things luxury. With content provided by a consortium of the most esteemed and talented writers in the luxury and travel industry, Luxe Beat offers an uncommon perspective.

Related Posts

Luxury Delights at Terranea

August 9, 2015

Shoes, Comfortable Shoes

August 26, 2017

Pucker-up Valentine

February 14, 2018

Enjoy Thanksgiving Traditions in a Non-Traditional Way in 2022

October 2, 2022

Leave a reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Discover more from Luxe Beat Magazine

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Type your email…

Continue reading

• News & Reviews
• VIdeo and Pictures
• Buy the Book

The Kennedys, a Sailboat, and the Sea James W. Graham ForeEdge University Press of New England

John Kennedy’s Stunning Sailboat Is Still a Navigating Gem

The story of Manitou, the yacht built in 1937 and nicknamed “the floating White House” by JFK

More than a boat , the Manitou sailing yacht is a true seafaring legend that continues to draw great interest and admiration at all the rallies and sailing competitions it attends. Images and videos from sixty years ago depict the Manitou yacht in August 1962, elegantly navigating the waters of Maine. But this wasn’t just any old yacht, this boat belonged to John Fitzgerald Kennedy . The fascinating story of the Manitou sailing yacht, however, actually begins much further back.

Built at the MM Davis & Son shipyard in the state of Maryland, the Manitou yacht immediately began turning heads with its impeccable performance. In 1938 it won the Chicago-Mackinac Race, beating out all previous records. The next year it came in second but quickly made up for it in 1940 and 1941, winning the Port Huron to Mackinac Boat Race. After its successes and the period in which it was used for surveillance missions in the Second World War, Lowe decided to sell the Manitou yacht and since 1955, following a donation from the US Coast Guard, it was used as a training ship at the US Coast Guard Academy of the United States in New London, Connecticut.

While sailing to Annapolis, the Manitou sailing yacht was spotted by a young Senator Kennedy, who was immediately struck by the beauty of the vessel. At the time of the election of the 35th President of the United States, the presidential yacht was the 28-meter Lenore motor yacht, which JFK renamed Honey Fitz in honor of his grandfather: as was customary, it was a ship ready for action. Kennedy, however, was passionate about boats, and conveniently in the market for a sailing yacht that could accommodate the necessary equipment to keep in contact with the White House. His choice fell on the Manitou with its understated and elegant look. The boat, swiftly transferred to Chesapeake Bay, was immediately provided the most innovative communication tools of the time and adapted as a mobile presidential office, spawning the nickname “ The Floating White House ” (TFWH).

The wood interiors of the Manitou yacht are distinctive, complete with a small fireplace, a spectacular cabin and the renowned (and unusual) bathtub installed on the dunnage and hidden behind two teak doors, which still works despite its impracticality on a boat. According to some, even Marilyn Monroe was welcomed aboard, as Kennedy spent plenty of time on the yacht both in its function as a presidential yacht and with friends and family: below deck, there’s still a picture of him with Jackie Kennedy and young Giovanni and Marella Agnelli.

In 1968, the Manitou sailing yacht was sold at auction to Paul Hall, leader of the Harry Lundeberg School of Seamanship, becoming a school ship once again. In that same year, Aristotele Onassis attempted to purchase the yacht on two occasions at any price, out of love for Jackie Kennedy: both times he was turned away, as Hall was determined to use the boat to teach underprivileged children.

But the various changes in ownership didn’t end there: in 1999, the sailing yacht was purchased by Laura Kilbourne, the great-granddaughter of James Lowe, the first owner who wanted to see Manitou race. The yacht was in terrible condition and required a substantial restoration at the Chesapeake Marine Railway in Deltaville, Virginia. In 2010, the boat was sold once more, this time to four co-owners. To this day, the Manitou sailing yacht is a prime example of beauty and sailing elegance, featuring an allure charged with history and mystery, drawing crowds at every event, like Argentario Sailing Week or Vele d’Epoca in Imperia 2022 .

A Lemon-Yellow House on an Apple Orchard in Oslo

This Apartment in Rome's EUR Is an Exotic Dream

The Home of the Sami. From Past to Present

During MDW, IKEA celebrates (all) the firsts

Light becomes a sculpture shining in the open air

Matter in Movement at Casa Brera

7 Historic Space Open for the Fuorisalone in Milan

A Scattered Hotel Reinvents Bad Gastein

Villa Rossi in Ivrea Synthesizes Past and Future

“Echoes from the World” According to Giorgio Arman

Materials takes on a new texture

User validation

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

HistorySource

Sailing Was More Than Respite for Roosevelt and Kennedy

By Michael Beschloss

• Sept. 12, 2015

Politicians who sail may be vulnerable to complaints that the sport seems expensive and elitist. But there were two presidents in the last century who were serious sailors, and both succeeded in weaving the pastime into their political identities.

At age 9, in 1891, Franklin D. Roosevelt was taken by his father, James, aboard his 51-foot sailboat Half Moon down the Hudson and then up the New England coast to the family’s summer cottage in Canada, on Campobello Island in New Brunswick. By 16, Franklin was commanding his own sloop, the New Moon, and navigating the island’s fabled tides. He absorbed himself in naval history (including that of his own family) and started amassing a large collection of naval prints. With an interest in the sea that was central to his vision of himself, he persuaded the newly elected President Woodrow Wilson, in 1913, to make him assistant secretary of the Navy.

After Roosevelt was nominated for president in 1932, he set sail on a well-photographed New England cruise with his own sons on the 37-foot yawl Myth II, calling himself “an ancient mariner” and posing at the wheel. When he told reporters about why he liked sailing, he unwittingly conveyed part of his approach to political leadership, saying that the fun of the sport was that “if you’re headed for somewhere and the wind changes, you just change your mind and go somewhere else.”

It was not by accident that Roosevelt chose to make his first major appearance after the Democratic convention at the helm of a boat. He had been dealing with polio for more than a decade, and though it was shrewdly disguised, he could not walk without heavy braces. As Robert F. Cross recalls in “Sailor in the White House” (Naval Institute Press, 2003), he knew there would be whispers that his physical challenges would keep him from serving effectively, and it would be politically useful for him to be viewed as active and in command.

Roosevelt used his affinity for sailing to help create the image he enjoyed of himself as an imposing national captain. Throughout his time in office, he often appeared aboard various vessels with his black naval cape flapping dramatically in the breeze. Not long after he was sworn in, Americans could buy a clock mounted in the center of a miniature ship’s wheel gripped by a replica of a standing Roosevelt, featuring the legend “F.D.R. The Man of the Hour.” A similar product was labeled “Captain of the Ship of State.”

In July 1936, after his nomination for re-election, Roosevelt reprised his earlier success by taking the schooner Sewanna for another New England sailing adventure with his sons . The following month, a 19-year-old John F. Kennedy made his first appearance in The New York Times , sailing his 22-foot sloop Flash II in a 10-mile race on Moriches Bay, Long Island. (After being owned by various others, the Flash II was impounded in 2004 by the Drug Enforcement Administration after its owner had been sentenced to prison for marijuana trading; an auction last spring, with a $100,000 reserve price, failed to draw bidders.)

During summers in Hyannis Port, Mass., the young Jack Kennedy and his siblings had been strongly encouraged by their father, Joseph, to take up the sport. At 15, he named a vessel his father gave him Victura, which, he noted, meant “about to conquer.” (The Victura is now displayed outside Boston’s John F. Kennedy Library.) He later recalled that when World War II approached, he was “interested in joining the Navy” because he had “spent a lot of time in boats.”

When the 29-year-old Kennedy entered politics after the war, he showed no conspicuous anxiety about whether being seen piloting a sailboat might give fodder to critics who dismissed him as a rich man’s son. On the contrary, such nautical images might subtly remind people that he had won a Purple Heart as a naval war hero in the South Pacific. As James W. Graham notes in “Victura: The Kennedys, a Sailboat and the Sea” (ForeEdge, 2014), his brother Edward would make the link between the two subjects by arguing that Jack’s sailing background had been “absolutely indispensable” in helping him to save the lives of PT-109’s crew.

More than Roosevelt, and perhaps encouraged by his example, Kennedy allowed sailing to become an important part of his political image. Like Roosevelt, he was eager to divert attention from his physical infirmities — which included a badly injured back and Addison’s disease — with displays of public vigor.

In July 1953, a Life magazine cover had Kennedy smiling from the Victura with his soon-to-be wife, Jacqueline, who, despite her grin, did not share her husband’s ardor for the pastime. She later told a friend, “They just shoved me into that boat long enough to take the picture.” After her husband was nominated for president in 1960, he was back at Hyannis Port and about to board the Victura with his wife when she told a visitor, “I wish that I didn’t have to go on this corny sail.”

Emulating Roosevelt, Kennedy surrounded himself with ship models and naval prints when he became president. At Newport, R.I., in September 1962, after watching an America’s Cup race (in the presence of the 18-year-old future secretary of state John Kerry, a family friend), he gave a poetic dinner speech, saying, “When we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it, we are going back from whence we came.” But Kennedy’s sailing was not always on political message. That same summer, he was angry about a story that carried this headline in The Times : “President and Family Run Aground in Sloop.”

However, for Kennedy, as with Roosevelt, the deeper significance of sailing was not politics but at least a momentary escape from the crushing pressures of the presidency, even if such serenity could be only in his own imagination. At the White House, during the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962, the president created a pencil picture of a sailboat while advisers talked about the imminent danger of nuclear confrontation with the Soviet Union.

His staff later found another such sketch on a small piece of paper from Houston’s Rice Hotel. It was drawn by Kennedy during the last 20 hours of his life, when he was dealing with contentious Texas politicians, starting with his vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson, during a trip to their state.

Michael Beschloss, a presidential historian, is the author of nine books and a contributor to NBC News and “PBS NewsHour.” Follow him on Twitter at @BeschlossDC .

The Upshot provides news, analysis and graphics about politics, policy and everyday life. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter . Sign up for our newsletter.

From The Upshot: What the Data Says

Analysis that explains politics, policy and everyday life..

Employment Discrimination: Researchers sent 80,000 fake résumés to some of the largest companies in the United States. They found that some discriminated against Black applicants much more than others .

Pandemic School Closures: ​A variety of data about children’s academic outcomes and about the spread of Covid-19 has accumulated since the start of the pandemic. Here is what we learned from it .

Affirmative Action: The Supreme Court effectively ended race-based preferences in admissions. But will selective schools still be able to achieve diverse student bodies? Here is how they might try .

N.Y.C. Neighborhoods: We asked New Yorkers to map their neighborhoods and to tell us what they call them . The result, while imperfect, is an extremely detailed map of the city .

Dialect Quiz:  What does the way you speak say about where you’re from? Answer these questions to find out .