Sexy Me: On board Otam's 28m flagship 90 GTS yacht

The key here, according to the yacht’s exterior designer Giuseppe Bagnardi of Rome’s BG Design Firm, was to keep the lines clean and maintain the distinctive style that carries across all Otam boats. “We didn’t want to add a thousand details here and there. It’s too risky,” he says. “We wanted to make a boat that is sexy now, and that will still be sexy 10 years from now. And in fact, when the owner first saw the 90, he said, ‘Woof, that’s a sexy boat.’”

He felt the emotion so viscerally that he named her Sexy Me. The yacht’s raison d’être is effectively to be a party boat. She follows a smaller Otam named Crazy Me and will spend her days chasing a fleet of Mediterranean-based yachts. As such, while she can be run with a captain and one crew member if needed, she will usually be staffed with four crew who will offer around-the-clock service.

She certainly has enough deck space for it. At the Cannes show, a busy schedule and rough weather outside the port means that my time aboard coincides with – fittingly enough – a large party. As we shove off from the pier, there is a consortium of crew, Otam executives, journalists, PR representatives and potential buyers on board – close to 20 of us in total – all with ample room.

We board via a rather special passerelle. Otam prides itself on its ability to customise its boats, and one of the main customisations on Sexy Me is this passerelle, which has the ability to pivot at almost 360 degrees. This was necessary to allow guests to board not only when the boat is docked stern-to but also from the other yachts in the fleet as it pulls alongside them. “We had quite a hard time putting this baby aboard,” says Matteo Belardinelli, Otam’s sales director.

“It’s quite a massive weight, over half a tonne more than a normal passerelle,” he says. “It presented quite a challenge, but I think our ability to have it installed speaks to the lengths we go to to meet our clients’ customisation demands.”

Belardinelli also points to the boat’s air-intake cooling systems as another example of Otam’s ability to do things differently from other boatbuilders. “We really got the idea from the automotive industry,” he says. The boat has two air-intakes installed in the hardtop and two below the windscreen, with the express purpose of helping to cool the massive, twin 2,600-horsepower MTU 16V engines.

For Bagnardi, who has worked in the past with carmakers such as Lamborghini, the boat-car interplay was a natural fit. “I wanted this project to have the feel of a muscle car, but in a very elegant way,” he says. “It needed to be sporty but elegant, aggressive yet balanced. During the entire design process I reminded myself, ‘less is more’.”

Up front, there is a foredeck lounge with U-shaped seating with a teak table aft, and a sunpad for three forward of that. In the tip of the bow is a technical area that offers flat and open space for the crew to perform anchoring and docking duties. The best thing about this foredeck, though, has nothing to do with its features.

Bagnardi deftly raised the gunwales to completely hide the deck when viewed from the side. To put a finer point on it, even though I have seen the boat in videos, I do not realise the foredeck lounge exists until I step on board. Ten people can enjoy this space, with adjustable backrests that make it multi-purpose, and an extendable dining table for ease of use.

Down below, the accommodation level is of high quality though I doubt anyone will be sleeping on this boat for anything more than a cat nap. Nevertheless, the amidship master and the forward VIP are en suite and relatively spacious, and done in a breezy light oak that serves to open up a space that, had it been done in darker wood, might have felt slightly claustrophobic.

There are three cabins in total and all of them have wardrobe space and amenities to make them comfortable for overnight stays. The deck is also notable for feeling solid. There are no creaks or groans down here, even under way. This robust construction is one way that Otam was able to keep the decibel levels to 46dBA when the boat is running (the level of pleasant conversation is about 65dBA).

One major factor in the boat’s obvious sturdiness is that its hull is made from Aramat, a multi-layer composite that features Kevlar – the same material used in bulletproof vests – as a major component. The boat’s superstructure was made from carbon fibre for enhanced rigidity and also to keep the centre of gravity low – a concern for any boat, but particularly for one meant to rip around the way this one does.

At the F1-racing-inspired helm, the captain is surrounded by more carbon fibre at the dash, a carbon fibre wheel, two Böning screens, and soft Alcantara textile nearly everywhere else. A joystick helps the boat manoeuvre at docking speeds. But truthfully, most don’t care about what this Otam will do when it’s going slow. They want to know about when it’s going fast. The 90 GTS was contracted to go 42 knots, yet the builder reports it hit 45 knots in initial sea trials. In my time on board we don’t see quite those numbers.

With the throttles pinned and the Arneson drives spitting out a showstopping rooster tail behind us, the fastest speed I see is 40 knots. Still an impressive number for a 27-metre laden with nearly enough people to fill out a Major League Baseball team’s roster. At a 37-knot cruise the hull’s fine entry slices through a breezy chop out on the bay of Cannes. And in turns – even hardover ones – the 90 GTS is remarkably well balanced. Heel is noticeably mitigated, and lines of sight remain reassuringly unblemished as we charge through a waterway dotted with this year’s latest offering of new yachts.

None of them however, can top the Otam. This model offers so much in terms of intimate customisation, heavy-duty construction and those world-beating MTU powerplants. Like its arrowhead styling, the 90 GTS has been launched cleanly and neatly into the market, and Otam is quietly dusting off its bow and getting ready to bring out various different configurations of this model to target a wider selection of clients. No doubt they’ll all be as swift and sharp as this one. 

First published in the February 2025 issue of BOAT International. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.