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The Thunderbird is a 24-foot keelboat native to the Pacific Northwest. Ben Seaborn, a naval architect in Seattle, created it in 1958 in response to a competition sponsored by a plywood company in Tacoma, Washington, for a high-performance racer/cruiser design that could be built by knowledgeable amateurs. Today, the "T-Bird" is both a comfortable cruiser and an established one-design racer, with more than 1,250 boats around the world. The lightweight hull is a hard-chined V-bottom with cast iron keel. Racing boats carry a spinnaker in addition to the main and genoa; sail size is strictly specified in the class rules. The relatively narrow beam-eight feet compared to the 26-foot length-makes trailering feasible. Fleets are most extensive in Canada and the United States Pacific Northwest. Plans are available for both wood and fiberglass construction. Professional builders produce Thunderbirds in Canada and also in Australia, where the boat has a following. For more information, read the Thunderbird Wikipedia article.