 
The 1960 Miami-Nassau powerboat race was a watershed event - it marked the birth of Bertram and the advent of the modern powerboat with its fiberglass construction, Deep-V design, stern drives and larger engines. It was also one hell of a bad day to be out there racing, and it was Bertram's first competition. The seas ran 8 feet, some say 12, and winds were steady 30 knots, gusting higher.
"What happened on that gusty April day in the Gulf Stream and on across the clear, rough waters on the Bahama Bank would forever alter powerboating," reported Soundings magazine (May 1994). "The race was won by Moppie, a 30-foot wooden prototype designed by C. Raymond Hunt for Miami yacht broker Richard Bertram and named after Bertram's wife. With a constant 24-degree deadrise running fore and aft, Moppie ushered in the era of the modern Deep-V hull. The Ray Hunt design turned out to have a terrific ability in rough water, and it really set boatbuilding on its ear."
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