Above Keith’s desk hangs a calendar from the Air Force First Cavalry Division helicopter unit in which he served during the Vietnam war, and from which came the name FIRST TEAM for his boat. After the Air Force, Keith went to the western slope area near Boulder, CO, “a good place to chill out” before returning to Maine. Keith started out as an automotive mechanic—repairing Cadillacs and Lincolns—which became scarce as fuel prices increased in 1979. Lessons learned from the automotive industry led him to an appreciation of fiberglass—“light construction, efficient on fuel, not heavy like wood. It’s low maintenance,” he says. Wood swells in water, and planks will work around as you’re flying at top speed. Fiberglass hulls, made of a single skin, create less resistance. Otis moved on, from cars to boats, worked as a sales rep at Perkins, then he went over to Flye Point Marine where he worked on fiberglass hulls with David McGraw. Bruce Grindal, now of H&H, Steuben, was Flye Point’s general manager. Keith’s first project at Flye Point was BHM’S Hull No. 5 - the PHAROAH, a 31' lobster boat out of Vinalhaven, built for Richard Swears, Sr. Around 1995, Flye Point and Duffy & Duffy merged and became Atlantic Boat, but Otis was out of there well before that. In1978, he built his own shop in Searsport on Prospect Street, and got his hands on a mold from North End Composites. After teaming up with Grant’s Marine Diesel, Keith established Otis Enterprises Marine. And that’s when the Otis’ involvement with the lobster boat racing began. Stonington was their first race. “There was a good hole shot and I took it.” said Travis. “We came in fifth. At Friendship, we took third, then we placed second in Winter Harbor. On the way to Pemaquid, the boat blew a high pressure line to the injector.” As things go with racing, that got fixed. Keith’s boat had a new 8.2 Detroit Diesel. David Grant switched it out for a 620 SISU . . . 218 hp. John Hutchins’ Northern Bay weighed in at 4,000lbs., and carried a Kevlar Steyr diesel engine. The Otis’ in the infamous 28' sister ship weighed twice that. The Otis’ emerged from Pemaquid with bragging rights and a trophy. After that there was no turning back. “We’ve got the only boat in the circuit consistently racing with a couch,” says Keith with a look so serious, you know he can’t be. Keith and Travis chair the Searsport Races, famous for the excellent prizes, many from the generosity of Hamilton Marine. It’s also an infamous race, because of the traditional pig roast held under the moon on the eve of race day. Nobody rises to an occasion like Steve WILD ONE Johnson. Maybe the moon was full that one night, because somehow, he got hold of the pig’s head. Since he just happened to have a tube of 5200 on hand, he thought he’d give a car a hood ornament. To get even, the victim removed the head and stuck it on the bow of Johnson’s HATTIE ROSE. Superstition got the better of him—a pig on a boat isn’t cool. Racing trophies are parked above a Rose Marine girl calendar. This side of the office is Travis’ domain. Work with his father began early on. He wandered into the shop one day and with few words, started sandpapering alongside Keith. Travis has just put up Otis Enterprises Marine’s web site on his computer, which has some in-sequence shots of the Winter Harbor 2005 lobster boat races, taken from the air. The only problem is, the last frame recording the finish of a tight race is missing, aggravating when you won the race. ON the desk, a couple of stray Black Cat firecrackers, probably left over from the fourth, where last July FIRST TEAM’S showing at the Moosabec Races hinted that the Otis’ might have a good season ahead of them.
Keith has had some experience after “building 86 or 87 boats,” some for commercial fishing, some sport fishing boats, a catamaran. During the tuna boat craze, he built harpoon boats equipped with electronic harpoons There was an offshore racer, and an OEM 42’ that does 16 knots (195 hp) that went to an overseas client who nets fish in Portugal. Another of his 42’s built in 1990 weighs 26,000lbs., has 540hp, and does 22.5 hp. The OEM 42' mold sits outside his shop. Otis Enterprises is full service, setting up SISU engines with transmissions, installing AC wiring, hydraulics and electronics, and the work is really impressive. The best advertisement for Maine built boats is having previously owned one. In building EMME, a tuna boat Otis finished early last June, Keith’s top priorities were to build a boat efficient to run, fast and light to conserve fuel—so he used chose Tricel Honeycomb for the decks and cabin rather than marine plywood, which is 3 times heavier. His client, an Atlantic Beach, NY fisherman, wanted something he could fish single-handed in. He decided on a Northern Bay 38’ with a 670hp Cummins, capable of 35 mph, comfortable at 30. Before Anthony Siniscalchi had Emme built by the Otis’, he’d owned a 40 footer built by Young Brothers. In their September issue, National Fisherman featured EMME in Michael Crowley’s Boats and Gear/ Boatbuilding feature. In Finland, the price for regular unleaded gas reportedly hit $7.98 last week, so you can bet Keith, whose whole reasoning for going into fiberglass (and getting out of Lincolns and Cadillacs) comes into play here. The Finns are fuel conscious in their engineering. The 513 cubic inch 420 hp Sisu Diesel Citius 84CTIM meets standard EPA Tier 3 requirements. Turbo charged and aftercooled, there’s power and performance in the 6 cylinder engine. In Travis Otis’ words, “With the 20,000 psi common rail injection system by Bosch and newly redesigned four valve heads to the Sisu Diesel Citius 84CTIM engine has reduced combustion noise, using slow firing pressure getting rid of the engine noise common to diesel engines.” The engine is encased in a cast iron tractor block. Travis then left to repair lobster gear. At September’s Downeast Lobstermen’s Association meeting, both Otis’ won a trap. Mike Dassat muscled them around tables, through Jasper’s, and flipped them onto their truck. Now that Travis is out of the office, I can finally ask Keith where the hell he got that couch, the one that’s been on FIRST TEAM since forever. He hangs back, teasing like he’s not going to tell me. “The Boy Scouts,” he says “they had an auction.”
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