Some boating nostalgia: In 1960, a 30-foot wooden prototype Bertram with a revolutionary deep-V hull, won the Miami-Nassau race in record time. Indeed, it beat the second place boat by about two hours, and the second-place boat was the only other boat to finish that day. In the face of eight-to-12-foot seas, the other boats in the race returned to port or finished the next day. That winning boat was designed by C. Raymond Hunt for Miami yacht broker Richard Bertram, and it was named Moppie, after Bertram’s wife.
After the race, Bertram rented a warehouse in Hialeah, turned the prototype into a plug, cast a mold and built the first fiberglass Bertram 31.The next year he drove that 31-foot Moppie with his mechanic in the same race, winning again (see top picture).
Moppie was the start of Bertram Yachts, as well as the start of a legend. The Bertram 31 is a fixture on just about everyone’s list of the best boats of all time. Bertram made 1,860 Moppies in 16 years. Some are still in use in fishing fleets, others have been treasured and restored by private owners all around the world.
One of those owners, Doug Coe, of Boca Grande, Florida, just repowered his 1970 Moppie with new Volvo IPS pod drives and joystick controls, specifically IPS600s with 435-hp D6 diesels (see picture above). As a result, his boat, Fiddler, gained 10 knots, to a top speed of 34 knots, the acceleration is faster, the noise levels are lower, and the fuel efficiency is better.
Fiddler also is easier to drive. The difference in maneuverability has been “night and day,” Coe said, while the switch to joystick controls was easier than he anticipated.
“I’ve been driving boats all my life,” he said. “I’m 54, so I’m a little old school. When I put my hand on the joystick, I took a minute, but I got it. Not as quick as my 20-year-old, who picked it up in a second. But I picked it up pretty quick.”
Coe now to plans to spend more cruising time on Florida’s West Coast and on his second home in Cape Cod.
