Sisu is not the name on engines commonly found in fishing boats. However, in Maine Sisu has received some recognition, as it’s the diesel bolted to the engine mounts of Travis Otis’ First Team, a Northern Bay 36 that wins most of its races on Maine’s lobster boat racing circuit.

The engine in Otis’ boat is the 6-cylinder, 645-cubic-inch 84CTIM, which puts out 410 horsepower at 2,100 rpm. That’s enough power to send the First Team (named after the Army unit his dad served with in Vietnam) up a Maine racing course at 39 mph.

F/V First Team guns it down the lane in the Portland, Maine, lobster boat races, with Travis Otis at the wheel.

Besides lobstering, Otis, with his father, Keith, operates the boatshop Otis Enterprises Marine in Searsport and is also a dealer for Sisu Diesel. That means they are among the first to find out when Sisu is bringing any new marine engines into this country.

At 410 horsepower, Travis has been running Sisu’s most powerful marine engine. It has served him well, but now he’s got his eye on two engines Sisu will be introducing over the next year or two.

The first is the 7-cylinder 98CTIM, a 9.8-liter diesel with a rating of more than 500 horsepower at 2,100 rpm. It’s a bit longer than its predecessor, but at 1,900 pounds only about 180 pounds heavier. The Tier-3 engines are now being marinized in Finland and should be available the third quarter of 2014.

There’s not as much information on the second marine engine coming out of Finland, other than that it’s a 16.8-liter V-12. The marinized version is still in the planning stages, but should come in around 900 horsepower. Expect that engine to be available sometime in 2015.

For more information, contact Otis Enterprises Marine Corp., 85 Prospect St., Searsport, ME 04974; tel. (207) 548-6362, or the Sisu distributor for North America: West Mount, 970 Farmington Road, Farmington Falls, ME 04940; tel. (207) 778-3778; www.westmountweb.com.