Founded in 2005 by Alessandro Cappiello, in 2008, with the launch of the Stabilis Electra system, CMC Marine was the first company in the world to patent and bring to market a system of stabilizing fins with fully electric actuation. An important technical discontinuity in a sector accustomed to hydraulics, which opened the way to a path of continuous innovation: from the Dia-Log control software, patented in Europe in 2013, to integrated stabilization and steering systems, up to the Waveless range, which made CMC technology accessible also to boats from 12 to 35 metres. An active-fin stabilization system, compact, fast in response, silent and with limited energy requirements, designed to fit within the onboard constraints of lower-range boats without giving up comfort and control.

Twenty years after its foundation, CMC Marine is no longer the “family start-up” that developed stabilizers for some Italian shipyards, but a reference supplier for yachts and superyachts, with an industrial structure articulated over several sites, a strong international presence and a range that goes from electric stabilization to thrusters, from full electric steering systems to integration with bridge consoles. With Pietro Cappiello, who today leads the development of the company founded by his father Alessandro, we retraced the main stages of this evolution, entering into the merits of technological choices, industrial strategies and the vision for 2035.

PM – Pietro, let’s start from the beginning. You saw CMC Marine being born practically at home. In twenty years, from 2005 to today, how has the company changed?

PC – I had the privilege of seeing the whole history of CMC with a certain awareness. When the company was born, I had just started university, so I saw it start from a sort of evolved garage and become what it is today: four sites in Italy, two abroad, a turnover that went from “almost 10 million” seven or eight years ago to over 30 million today. In between there were decisive steps: the first patent for electric stabilization, the first full electric steering system, internationalization and, above all, the evolution from a small family reality to a player that, in fact, today has a multinational dimension.

PM – CMC Marine is known above all for stabilizing fins. But you do not deal only with this. Which products marked the main stages of growth?

PC – The first real watershed was the electric stabilization system, which then became Stabilis Electra. It did not yet exist on the market: we developed the product, patented it and installed it in parallel on boats from Azimut and Sanlorenzo for the first tests. That was a fundamental passage.

Then there was the first completely electric steering system, born almost as a “trial” project with Sanlorenzo. It had to be something different from the usual, experimental. The shipyard’s reaction was: “Nice, give me 20 this year?”. From there that solution quickly became a series product.

In parallel we also developed electric thrusters. Today CMC Marine is not only fins: we make stabilization systems, full electric steering systems, thrusters and integration between these subsystems, and with Waveless we have brought the same philosophy also to smaller boats.

PM – When you speak of full electric steering, are we talking about a system really without hydraulics?

PC – Exactly. The actuator is completely electric, it is not electro-hydraulic. There is no hydraulic circuit, there are no pumps or oil power units: everything is electric. This choice simplifies the onboard architecture, reduces the risk of leaks and makes the system more easily integrable with the rest of the onboard electronics.

PM – An important junction is 2017, when the company becomes entirely family-owned and you enter the staff. What changes from that moment?

PC – Until 2017 CMC Marine had two partners, my father and a minority partner. In 2017 the family bought out the partner’s shares, the company became 100% family-owned and I officially joined the team. That was the starting point of a new phase: we were already invoicing almost 10 million, but from there growth became much faster and we reached over 30.

Then, in 2018, we opened CMC USA and afterwards CMC UK. At the same time we brought electric stabilization also to boats under 20 metres, something that a few years ago was almost unthinkable. And we continued to increase in size, installing systems on ever larger yachts: first 60 metres, then 75, now around 80 metres.

PM – Bringing a new technology, completely electric, into a sector very accustomed to hydraulics is not trivial. Did you encounter resistance?

PC – Yes, and it is normal. Ours is a particular market: on the one hand there is distrust towards novelties, on the other there is a constant request for innovation, because if you build a boat identical to your neighbour’s you do not sell it.

For about ten years the market was divided in two: on one side CMC making electric fins, on the other all the others with hydraulics. The classic argument was: “Hydraulics are proven, they are safe. Why should I trust an electric system?”.

We were convinced that the electric system worked better and we designed it with important safety margins: oversized mechanical parts, many tests, sea trials on real boats. Confirmation came when the first shipyards tried the boats: the advantages were so evident that there was no discussion.

PM – Was there a moment when you had the perception that the market had definitively “turned” towards electric?

PC – I would say after Covid. At a certain point the “electric vs hydraulic” discussion practically disappeared. Today nobody seriously maintains that hydraulics are “better” in principle. Someone remains attached, but the market has decided that electric stabilization is reliable, it works and brings concrete benefits. Proof is that all competitors are running to develop their own electric system, the same ones who until a few years ago spoke badly of it. It is physiological: the customer says “CMC’s works better, can you make it too or do I go to them?”.

PM – One of the aspects that struck me, speaking with your father years ago, was the work on fin shape, developed also with the University of Naples. What have you done on this front?

PC – It is a key theme for us. From the beginning we collaborated with the University of Naples on profiles and control, both in the tank and in simulation. Over time we grew: today we have aerospace engineers in-house who deal with fluid dynamics and hydrodynamics, we have CFD software and internal computing capability.

Fin design is done by us: profiles, geometries, thicknesses, chord distribution. Recently we also developed a new fin design for large sizes, we are talking about surfaces around 3–3.5 square metres, with a completely different shape from traditional ones.

PM – From a technical point of view, what is the balance to be sought in fin design?

PC – There are different factors. Lift, that is the fin’s ability to generate the force necessary to stabilize the boat. Neutrality when the fin is in the minimum resistance position, because it must oppose the least possible drag to forward motion. Then all the effects of vortices and turbulence must be considered. A fin is in any case an immersed appendage: it generates wakes, vortices, turbulences that impact propellers, rudders and hull. CFD work also serves to ensure that these turbulences do not follow the hull but go outward, reducing overall resistance.

PM – Is there also a level of customization of the fins, according to the hull?

PC – Yes. We have a range of standard profiles and sizes, but when the project requires it we can study specific shapes as a function of hull form, displacement and the space available for positioning. We can adapt the fin to constraints of volume, draft or appendage layout.

Moreover, we also carry out four-fin installations, a solution that in some cases allows more precise motion control especially on large yachts.

PM – The other great pillar is software. How much does the control part weigh today in the final result?

PC – A lot. It is easy to stop at the difference “hydraulic vs electric”, that is you remove oil and add an electric motor. In reality the real leap is made when you exploit the dynamic performance of the electric actuator with advanced control.

Our control system for Zero Speed is patented. The electric actuator is faster and more precise, and this allows stabilization algorithms that are much more refined compared to a hydraulic system. It is a complex part to explain and, being patented, we cannot go too much into detail, but it is one of the factors that allows us very high performance at anchor.

PM – From a hardware point of view, what do you use?

PC – The logic is to start from robust and widespread industrial components: Mitsubishi motors and PLCs, taken from catalogue, with the advantage of a technology designed for industry and therefore very reliable; Wittenstein gearboxes, which come from industrial automation and are designed to work at full load 7 days a week; mechanical parts designed internally and produced to our drawings; everything is assembled and tested in-house, on test benches with controlled loads, complete cycles and tests at maximum loads.

In practice, from the blank sheet to delivery to the shipyard, the whole cycle is internal, except for the base components that we purchase from selected suppliers.

PM – In recent years, integration of systems on superyacht bridges has increased enormously. How have you moved on this front?

PC – We worked a lot on a product called DALI. It is a sort of advanced gateway with multiple functions. It integrates our fins with steering systems, both CMC and third-party, so that stabilization and steering “talk” to each other; it interfaces with integrated bridges and multifunction displays – Garmin, Raymarine, Furuno, Simrad and, gradually, also systems such as Boening and Team Italia – allowing control of our systems directly from the plotters; it works as a datalogger: it records all system data and sends them, every night, to our servers.

PM – What does this allow you on the service and maintenance side?

PC – First of all, rapid remote diagnostics. If an owner or a shipyard calls us saying “I had this alarm”, if there is DALI onboard we can in a few hours see what happened, analyse the log, understand which commands were given and in which conditions. It has happened several times that the report arrived in the evening and the next morning we already had a precise answer: “You carried out this manoeuvre, this happened, do this operation and it is solved”.

In addition we can offer clients monthly reports: hours of navigation, hours of fins at anchor, average roll, absorptions, etc. And above all enable predictive maintenance based on real operating hours, not only on calendar deadlines: if we see that a system is approaching the maintenance threshold, we can warn the client before the warning appears onboard.

PM – Electric stabilization also has an impact on consumption. We are talking about energy-hungry boats, between air conditioning, hotel load and onboard systems. Are you also working on energy efficiency?

PC – Yes, we have two main development lines. The first concerns hybrid or diesel-electric boats: more and more often there are significant battery packs onboard, designed to navigate in protected areas without switching on generators. In these cases we can configure our systems to be powered in high-voltage direct current. This means connecting directly to the onboard DC bus, with the advantage of reducing currents, simplifying cabling and integrating well with electrified propulsion. The second is the Energy Recovery System (ERS), which in practice is a “KERS” for the fins.

PM – How does this ERS work, concretely?

PC – The fins have a very impulsive operation: when they accelerate they require a lot of energy, when they decelerate they would dissipate a lot. The ERS is a module that is inserted between the fins and the generator. It monitors the absorbed power; it uses a pack of capacitors to quickly store the energy generated during braking; it returns that energy in the phases of higher request, “smoothing” the peaks.

In this way we modulate the request to the generator, we avoid overloads and peak loads. It has become almost a necessity, because often shipyards want smaller generators, to be “greener”, on boats that however are larger and heavier than previous ones. The ERS helps to square the circle.

PM – An important piece of your strategy is the opening of the new plant in Salerno. What role does it have in your organisation?

PC – In December 2023 we opened the Salerno site. There we have two main souls: a department with machine tools, which allows us to produce internally all mechanical parts to our drawings, and a building dedicated to fiberglass, to make fins and related accessories in-house. Before we had suppliers who in practice worked almost only for us: we ended up managing not only CMC Marine, but also the external mechanical company and the fiberglass company. At a certain point we said: let’s internalize.

PM – Beyond the industrial aspect, does Salerno also represent an “ethical” choice?

PC – Yes, I would say there is also this component. The area is a ZES, so there are some incentives, but the most interesting part is having found qualified personnel – machine tool operators, laminators – and being able to create employment in a territory that needs it.

In six months we went from renting the sheds to putting them into production, with machines installed and working lines operational. For us, as a family, it is a source of satisfaction: there is not only the economic return, there is the fact of giving work and building skills in an area of the South.

PM – Your relationship with shipyards is very close. There is always this dynamic of initial distrust but also of search for novelty. How do you experience it from your point of view?

PC – The yachting market is particular: it is a luxury market where nobody can afford unreliable solutions on boats worth millions, but at the same time it is a market in which you must always offer something new, otherwise the boat does not differentiate.

At the beginning, with electric fins, we were “the ones who make the new thing and who knows if you can trust them”. After twenty years of novelties that worked, the situation has reversed: today often it is the shipyards that come to us saying “we need something different, can you help us develop it?”.

The same applies to clients who once were almost unreachable, such as Feadship, who today work with us. It means that we have gained credit, not only as technology but as a reliable partner.

PM – On a cultural level, does there still remain a certain distrust towards Italian technical components?

PC – In part yes. There is still the idea that Italian boats are fine for design, interiors and style, but for the technical part many think that “abroad they are better”. I do not like that: in Italy we build hundreds of boats a year, in other countries many fewer. We must know how to do something. Our experience shows that also on the technical side we can be a reference.

PM – If I ask you to summarise in three words the drivers that lead an owner, a captain or a shipyard to choose one of your systems, what are they?

PC – Innovation, reliability, performance.

Innovation because we always try to be one step ahead of competitors, proposing solutions that bring real added value.

Reliability because we are talking about critical systems: you cannot allow a boat worth millions to have stabilization problems.

Performance because you can have an innovative and reliable product, but if it does not work – if it does not stabilize, if it consumes too much, if it requires a dedicated generator – it makes no sense.

PM – Does energy efficiency fall within these drivers or is it a separate element?

PC – For us, energy efficiency is implicit in performance. A system that works very well but forces you to install an additional generator, in fact, is not performing. Performance, for us, includes stabilization, comfort, reliability and efficiency in the use of energy.

PM – Let us try to project CMC Marine to 2035. Where do you see it in ten years?

PC – The objective is to become the market reference in the control and steering of the ship. Stabilization will remain central, but it will be part of a broader ecosystem.

We are very interested in foils, not necessarily for full foiling boats, but for assisted foiling solutions. We are interested in trim control systems underway – interceptors, bow fins – to optimize behaviour and comfort at different speeds.

We want to work on integrated comfort monitoring platforms, which do not limit themselves to roll but take into account all movements and all areas of the boat, to modulate the action of the different systems.

Another theme is continuous parametrization: having systems that understand in which conditions the boat is – tanks full or empty, tender onboard or not, Atlantic or Pacific – and automatically adapt their operation.

PM – And from the point of view of markets?

PC – We want to grow further in the United States, develop the Asia-Pacific area more and not limit ourselves to yachting. We are already making commercial applications and for military units and coast guard; in the future we would like to enter more decisively into segments such as supply vessels and other types of workboats where motion control is equally important.

PM – Let us change perspective. If you had to explain to a young engineer why they should come to work at CMC Marine, what would you tell them?

PC – I would say that we are a company where innovation is concrete, not theoretical. We are not a mega multinational where you spend two years doing “homework” on a tiny portion of product. With us young people immediately come into contact with real projects, systems that then go onboard yachts dozens of metres long.

We have an R&D office in Milan, near the Politecnico, from which many new graduates arrive. There we work on mechatronics, control, hydrodynamics and system integration. For a naval engineer there is also the possibility to go onboard during start-ups and trials, which is an added value.

PM – On the production side, has the investment in Salerno also helped you to find the right figures?

PC – Yes. In the North, in areas like Viareggio, all shipyards compete for the same resources and it is difficult to find machine tool operators or laminators. In Salerno we found many qualified people, in a context where the pressure on volumes and costs is different and we can build a more balanced relationship.

PM – Let us close with a theme often underestimated: assistance. How much does it weigh in your model?

PC – A lot. We have built over time a very extensive assistance network, made up of CMC technicians and partners, active 7 days a week in strategic areas: Cyprus, Malta, Spain, Balearic Islands, France, Caribbean and so on.

The logic is simple: boats, especially large yachts, are often used only a few days a year. If something breaks in those 15 days, it is a disaster. And punctually the problem arises on Friday afternoon, when the owner is arriving.

We always say that the commercial department sells the first system, but service and assistance sell the second, the third, the fourth. Giving the shipyard and the owner the certainty that, wherever they are, there is someone ready to intervene makes a big difference in loyalty.

PM – I would say that in twenty years you have put a lot on the fire: electric stabilization, full electric steering, integration, energy recovery, industrial investments and a global assistance network.

PC – Yes, the path has been intense, but the feeling is that there is still a lot of space to innovate. Motion control and onboard comfort is a field in which it is still possible to do a lot, and we want to continue to be among those who push the technological limit forward.