22. Jack Kennedy preferred swimming, sailing, and smoking cigars
President Kennedy loved the water his entire life and spent as much of his time as he could either on or in it. He came from an athletic family, but problems with his back limited his ability to participate too strenuously in the famous touch football games at the Kennedy compound. He did play golf as president, not as often as his predecessor, but according to some, he was a better player than Eisenhower. But it was to the water he turned for relaxation, sometimes sailing himself in family-owned boats and yachts, and often aboard the official Presidential Yacht, USS Sequoia. He also used the Honey Fitz.
Kennedy valued the time aboard Sequoia because it was free from the press and photographers. He spent his last birthday aboard the yacht in May 1963, and he was scheduled to host a cruise accompanied with Jackie and close friends on November 24 of that year. Instead, his body lay in State in Washington on that day. Kennedy also was fond of Camp David, and he purchased an estate to use as a retreat near Middleburg, in Virginia’s horse country. After Kennedy’s assassination, the logs and records of his use of the Presidential Yacht were destroyed for reasons officially never disclosed.