(Words by Scott Liggett) There is just something about boats that were built from mahogany that just exudes class. The warmth of wood hand carved into a water craft just seems so much more beautiful than any boats made from fiberglass. Your author has always had a thing for the era of mahogany boats. That was cemented when I came across the famous Thunderbird of Lake Tahoe back in the mid-90’s.
I was up there for work and had some time to kill, so I started to wander around the lake and saw a sign pointing to the Lake Tahoe Concours d’Elegance that was happening that day. Being a gearhead, I immediately thought I would see some really cool classic cars. But, the sign pointed to the marina on the lake. It was ending and people were beginning to pack up their lawn chairs and such. What I first saw when I walked down the docks was the Thunderbird.
You have probably seen Chris Crafts and Century boats when they were built of mahogany, but when I saw a 55 foot wooden boat had a stainless steel deck house, I knew I came across something special. Then they started the engines and I started drooling. I could tell right away those were no Mercruiser flathead six poppers idling. That rumble was far more visceral. Far more powerful.
The Thunderbird was the brain child of it’s owner, George Whittell Jr. Born in the 1880’s as the son of the PG&E power company magnate in San Francisco, he was way into all things that were the latest technical gadgets. He owned his own Douglas DC-2, a half dozen Duesenbergs, and several other pricey things from the 1930’s and 40’s,
Whittell was deep into building a magnificent house on Lake Tahoe and he needed a magnificent boat to go with it. The Thunderbird Lodge was part of the 40,000 acre estate he owned on the lake encompassing just about the entire Nevada side of the lake, near the town of Incline Village. But, he liked to run over to South Lake Tahoe, on the other side of Lake Tahoe. Instead of driving, he wanted to take a boat over. And, it had to big enough to bring along a few friends, and get their pretty darn fast. Faster than driving around the lake in 1940.
Whittell enlisted naval architect John L. Hacker to design a very special boat for him. Huskins Boat Works in Bay City, Michigan actually did the building of the boat. Hacker’s design of the Thunderbird incorporated a lot of influence of aviation with the stainless steel deck house looking very much like his aircraft’s cockpit and fuselage. The resulting build came out to be about 55 feet in length with a 12 ft beam (That means 12 feet wide, land lover!) and weighing in at 18 tons. Final cost of the build was near $90.000 in 1940. Whoa.
What appeared to be a luxury lake yacht was much more of a speed boat because it was powered by a pair of Kermath V12 engines advertising 550 HP each!! I wasn’t able to find many details on the specific Kermath engines in Thunderbird, but the 550 HP versions used by the military rescue boats during WWII were extremely advanced with four overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder. They displaced 1414 ci and had 24 quart dry sump oiling systems. These powerplants were capable of pushing the big Thunderbird to 60 knots. That’s just under 70 mph!!
As Whittell aged, he became more reclusive and eccentric. (Ever notice that only rich people are called eccentric? if you are poor, you are just weird.) He was seen less and less in public around Lake Tahoe, and so was his beautiful boat. He was known to hang out with other eccentric recluse rich dudes, like Howard Hughes and Ty Cobb. He had a 100 foot boathouse built to house the Thunderbird and a 600 foot long tunnel built so he could get from his house to the boat without being seen. When WWII came along, he hid his boat away, afraid the military would appropriate it, or its engines, for war use. Thunderbird wasn’t really seen much after WWII ended either as Whittell suffered a broken hip and was wheel chair bound. So, the boat sat, dangling from straps in the boathouse.
In 1962, William Harrah of Harrah’s Casino’s purchased the boat to run his high zoot casino clientele and the big time entertainers he had playing his casinos around the lake. The boat had only raked up 83 hours of run time in those 22 years. But, Harrah did a full restoration on the boat making a couple changes along the way. He added a flying bridge and replaced the Kermath engines with Allison V12’s that popped out 1100 horsepower each. Harrah took much better care of the boat, pulling it out of the water each year to have the hull sanded and re-varnished.
Now, the boat and the Thunderbird Lodge are in the care of the Thunderbird Preservation Society. Until Covid hit this year, they offered tours of the Lodge property and rides on this magnificent boat. Definitely one for the bucket list.
Photo credit: Images 01-07 courtesy of Thunderbird Preservation Society.
The MOST BEAUTIFUL big boat I’ve EVER seen, livin’ in the SF bay area this has been added to my post/covid bucket list (at least see in person, ride if possible!)
Your video lead me to some of this boat cruising Lake Tahoe, Boat/Scenery doesn’t get any nicer————Thanks BS
I’m from Bay City & I had never heard of Huskins Boat Works until today. I do know that Defoe Shipbuilders in Bay City cranked out tons of PT & Rescue boats for the military so those Kermath V12s were probably intended for military service down the river before they were installed in this beautiful yacht!
I sincerely enjoy and appreciate when you interject amazing wooden boat and historic engine stories like this! – Would love to see the “Gar Wood Hornet II” story next!
jaw dropping keep bring the unusual never dreamed that some would build such a labor intense boat