The Flagship
The most famous wooden boat in the West
Fifty-five feet of mahogany and stainless steel, styled after her owner's DC-2 — and still running from her original boathouse.
1939–1940
Built to match an airplane
Whittell commissioned naval architect John L. Hacker — the finest of his generation — and had the boat built at Huskins Boat Works in Bay City, Michigan, for $87,000. Her lines were drawn to echo the fuselage of his personal DC-2, which was also named Thunderbird. She was shipped west by rail and first crossed the lake on July 14, 1940.
When war came, Whittell hid her in the boathouse, afraid the military would seize her engines. By the time they were removed, the original Kermath V-12s had logged just 83 hours.
In 1962 casino magnate Bill Harrah bought and restored her, adding the stainless flying bridge and twin 1,100-horsepower Allison aircraft engines — the same V-12s that powered the P-38. Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and Tony Bennett all rode her rails. Every winter her hull took ten fresh coats of varnish.
- Length
- 55 feet
- Hull
- Double-planked Honduran mahogany
- Superstructure
- Brushed stainless steel
- Designer
- John L. Hacker
- Delivered
- July 1940 · $87,000
- Power
- Twin V-12 Allison aircraft engines, 1,100 hp each
Watch
The Thunderbird story, on film
From Michigan boatworks to Rat Pack summers — the Society’s short film traces the yacht’s eight decades on the lake.
From the Archives
Eighty-five years in the boathouse
Cruise aboard her.
The Thunderbird makes a handful of private excursions each year, and Flagship members at the Commodore level and above cruise each season.