From record-breaking powerboats to hedonistic party platforms, Otam can do it all, but how does is its latest supercruiser, the Otam 90 GTS, perform at sea?
Way back in the beginning was the Record!, an 80-foot, grey-and-yellow monohull designed by Fabio Buzzi and packing 6,000hp, built for the express purpose of making a splash. True to its name, in one hectic season more than 20 years ago it set three new long-distance powerboat records – around Italy, from Monte Carlo to London and, finally, around Britain, the latter at an average speed of more than 40 knots.
I was a witness to that one, and when they came into St Katharine Docks in London, Buzzi and his navigator, Dag Pike, and co-drivers Simon Powell and Hannes Bohinc looked shattered, but justifiably pleased with themselves.
There was always an ulterior motive to Buzzi’s racing and record attempts, and while he sold a lot of hulls to military and coastguard agencies, he thought of the 80 as a fast motor yacht. Sure enough, Otam boss Giancarlo Rampezzotti, a longtime friend and associate of the Italian engineering maestro, put the 80 into production as a head-turning, custom-built fast cruiser. The new Otam 90 GTS, launched at the Cannes Yachting Festival last September, is its direct descendant.
The GTS’s vast cockpit has the emphasis placed firmly on guest entertainment
Loud and proud
It could probably set a few records of its own, if not for speed and endurance then maybe for the decibel levels cranked out by its stupendous sound system, which is so intimidating that it has its own compartment, complete with a dedicated fan coil unit to keep it cool. Even Otam’s technical drawings label this one the ‘party boat’.
Custom built is key to the concept. Few 90-footers can have been constructed to quite such bespoke requirements. The owner, based in the Med, uses Sexy Me as a big, glamorous dayboat with his family and friends, and I have to say it looks like they have a pretty good time.
There is no dining table and just a crew galley, plus a pantry on the lower deck for making coffee, pouring wine, and concocting cocktails. There are lockers in the cockpit that hold more drinking vessels than the entire glassware department at Heal’s.
A seagull’s eye view of the foredeck lounge
Otam only builds about four boats a year, so as a shipyard it spends more time than most listening to customers, and is prepared to at least entertain any idea you can come up with. It’s not quite carte blanche, however. Because fast boats need to be built like tanks in order to withstand the extreme impacts created by choppy conditions, the 90’s internal bulkheads are carefully aligned and extend from the deckhead right down to the hull bottom, to maximise structural integrity. So once the interior layout of each 90 is agreed, and construction starts, there’s no going back. You can’t change your mind.
The hull itself is Kevlar, which is more flexible than carbon- fibre and consequently offers a slightly more cushioned ride. The hardtop is carbon. In contrast to these high-tech materials, the 90’s interior is built using stubbornly old-school methods, and is constructed first in situ, by hand, to ensure a perfect fit, before being dismantled and taken out for lacquering and varnishing, and then reinstalled. Compared with the streamlined production-line methods employed by most yards these days, “it takes twice as long and costs four times as much,” according to Otam sales supremo Matteo Belardinelli.
The foredeck seats show off their versatility
While the 90’s main deck is a fully optimised entertaining space, with two bars, sunbathing and seating areas fore and aft, and plenty of seating in the shade of the hardtop – not forgetting the titanium deck fittings – the lower deck is laid out along more conventional lines.
Three ensuite cabins lead off from the spacious open lobby at the foot of the main companionway: a twin on the port side, the VIP up in the bow, and the master amidships, down two steps. Their layouts are sensibly rectilinear and make efficient use of most of the available space, and plenty of thought has also gone into maximising stowage volume, which is divided between drawers, numerous hanging lockers, and the cavernous spaces under the double mattresses, which lift bodily on gas struts.
Across the full beam of the hull – which is comparatively slender at just under 20 feet, or six metres, this being at heart a performance offshore boat – the master cabin feels spacious and comfortable, with plenty of floor area. Headroom throughout the accommodation is a generous 6ft 7in or more (2.02m), and there has been no skimping on the size of the beds either: even the twins are 30in (76cm) wide and a surprising 6ft 6in (1.99m) long.
The owner’s cabin is amidships with its ensuite arranged along the aft bulkhead
Smart glass in the hull windows provides privacy to the cabins when moored alongside other boats without shutting out the daylight, while the removeable blackout panels for the master cabin’s side windows are another nice touch, being neater and more effective than curtains or blinds. They can be stowed in the hanging locker, and take up no space at all. The crew arrangements were a particular requirement of this owner: a total of four berths in cabins forward and aft, accessed via the cockpit sole and the foredeck.
When all is said and done, of course, there will only be one question on everybody’s lips as they watch you bring this rumbling behemoth alongside: what will it do? There is no denying the sheer horsepower involved, but it’s surface drives that are crucial to the 90’s performance.
The owner’s en suite
While Buzzi designed the original 80 with four engines coupled to two Trimax drives, the lengthened 90 makes do with two huge Arnesons and two 16-cylinder MTUs, totalling 4,800hp. The machinery space is somewhat constrained by the big tender garage overhead, which can take a 14ft (4.35m) RIB, but it is well organised and neatly engineered, and not as inaccessible as you might expect. You should have seen the engineroom on Record!
The VIP suite in the bow is almost as spacious as the owner’s suite
A hull deadrise of 28 degrees amidships, reducing to 20.5 degrees at the stern, is pretty deep for a boat of this size, and again reflects the marque’s offshore racing heritage. Attempting to obtain accurate fuel measurements on any surface drive boat is always a slightly comical process, as even the slightest adjustment to drive trim can make an enormous difference to speed and consumption.
But in the capable hands of the man who knows her best, her captain, we arrived at a set of numbers for the 90 that gives a reasonable reflection of its capabilities as a fast cruising boat, not the least of which was its impressive 43-knot top speed. Cruising at 35 knots is a perfectly realistic prospect.
A pantry rather than a galley or a fourth cabin was this owner’s choice
Handling was exemplary, and the boat proved pleasingly responsive to helm and throttle inputs – and to drive trim, of course – with just the right angle of heel and a gratifyingly tight turning circle.
The breeze had raised a light chop of two or three feet in the Baie de Cannes, and while we couldn’t claim to be unaware of it – hitting anything at 40 knots is bound to make a bit of a bang – the hull remained sublimely untroubled as it charged over the top of it all. As did we.
It was a fun ride, aboard a genuine party boat. The only thing we didn’t try out was that sound system. The captain assured me they never crank up the volume unless they are literally the only boat in the anchorage. It really is that loud.
4,800hp of German muscle in 90ft of sleek Italian styling is a pretty potent combination
Otam 90GTS specifications
Length overall: 91ft 0in (27.75m)
Beam: 19ft 7in (6.00m)
Draft: 5ft 10in (1.80m)
Displacement (light): 65 tonnes
Engines: 2 x 2,400hp MTU 16V 2000 M96
Fuel Capacity: 1,760 gal (8,000 lt)
Water capacity: 264 gal (1,200 lt)
Maximum speed: 43.4 knots
Cruising speed: 38 knots
RCD: CE certification: B for 16 people
Price from: €9 million ex VAT
Contact: otam.it
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