Hunt was desingning his "deep Vee" well before 58. The 23 you mention was a Fiberglass prototype built by Dyer (of Dyer Dinghy's no less) - and was a HUNT design! Additionally Hunt experimented with similar designs as far back as at least the eary 50's.
Quote from Bertram History:
"Bertram first encountered Hunt's experimental powerboats during America's Cup trials in 1958. He noticed a 23-foot, fiberglass prototype, designed to be a tender, slicing through the chop of Block Island Sound. Bill Dyer (who came in second in the legendary 1960 race) had laid up the fiberglass on the swift little tender. After running it himself. Bertram wrote, "Knifing through those six-foot seas at 30 knots, this little 23-footer stopped every sailor...in his tracks. No one had ever seen powerboat performance to approach it." Bertram was impressed enough to commission a wooden 30-footer from Hunt. The boat was finished in early 1960 and christened with a bottle of domestic champagne."
And from the history of Formula:
"This story began in 1965. It was during that year that Florida-based boat designer, Don Aronow, designed a 19' hull for offshore racing. But while the design proved extremely successful, Don continued to modified it until 1969, when he increasing its length to 23'. So began the original Formula Marine."
