A family business, full of 100% Italian talent.  A young and dynamic environment where investments in research and development for new solutions and products play a fundamental role, working with some of the top universities in the country like Naples and Pisa. This is CMC Marine, a company that has been working in the manufacture and sale of the latest in boat automation systems, and that has become well-known internationally for the revolutionary intuition of naval engineer, Alessandro Cappiello, president and founder of the company, who created the first electric stabilising fins in the world, presented at the Genoa Boat Show in 2008. Daily Nautica went to Cascina, near Pisa, to see this important Italian business in person.

CMC MARINE: THE ELECTRIC REVOLUTION

Let’s take a step back. It was 2005 and Alessandro Cappiello, a naval engineer with deep rooted experience in the boating industry, decides to set up on his own and founds CMC Marine in Como.

“When I started the business – Cappiello shares with DN – I had been working for 25 years. The initial difficulty wasn’t so much getting known as a ‘professional who could…’ but it was introducing a new company to the market. At that time (2005) it was hard to introduce a new brand. For many years we were referred to as ‘Cappiello et al.’ rather than CMC. That was the hardest and longest part.”

FROM HYDRAULIC TO ELECTRIC: “THIS DEVELOPMENT WAS HARD TO BELIEVE”

After the first few years of work, creating hydraulic stabilising fin systems and thrusters, finally, in 2008, the right time came to present the world with a revolutionary idea: moving from hydraulic systems to electric ones. And so the first Stabilis Electra were made.

Success arrived quickly: in 2009 the first electric systems were delivered to the Sanlorenzo shipyard. In 2010, the renewed and expanded range received orders from some of the most important Italian shipyards, and the next year from those abroad. In 2011, Stabilis Electra won the Dame Award and the next year, Cappiello obtained a European patent.

“The idea came to me – remembers Cappiello – when I sat in front of an empty piece of paper and started to think like a boat owner, asking myself what I wanted from a system. Innovation needs to respond to this requirement. This requires time, prototypes, studies and, in the meantime, the company needs to keep moving forward. For this reason I started CMC by making oil-hydraulic systems. I stepped into the market with technology that allowed me to take orders to keep the company going.

My ‘lucky break’ was the economic crisis. The crisis is like a medal: on the one hand you have the crisis and on the other is the opportunity. We had been working as CMC for a few years, and had proven that we worked well. We had credibility and this reinforced our innovative proposal. The first Stabilis Electra were met favourably by my colleagues working in those shipyards that were paying close attention to what was going on, but it was mostly the boat owners who understood quickly.”

The founder of CMC Marine immediately realised the importance of his idea. “It was difficult to understand – he explains – and the question I was asked the most wasn’t whether or not it would work, since that was pretty obvious, but it was how had nobody thought of it before.”

CMC MARINE: FROM THE FIRST SITE IN LOMBARDY TO THE REST OF THE WORLD

In order to meet the increasing demand for their products, to implement their services, and move strategically closer to an area with many important shipyards, like the area of La Spezia and Upper Tuscany, in 2013 CMC decided to move their head offices and manufacturing facility to the province of Pisa.

As of today, CMC Marine has a head office in Cascina di Pisa, a manufacturing site in Vicopisano, a research and development department in Milan, and a new manufacturing facility in Salerno which opened in 2023. In addition to these, there are two foreign offices: CMC United Kingdom in Poole and CMC Marine USA in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in addition to 33 technical offices around the world.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE: THE IMPORTANCE OF INNOVATION AND RESEARCH

CMC Marine is always looking to the future. Research for the development of new systems is an important part of the business, so much so that, on average, each year, 15% of CMC Marine’s turnover is invested in R&D projects, and for which, in 2019 a dedicated office was opened in Milan.

This is how, for example the SR Short Range, HS High Speed and LR Long Range systems were created in 2017, designed, respectively for vessels under 20 metres, planing yachts with speeds above 24 knots and displacement or semi-displacement yachts. In 2019 the new range of electric ultra-compact Waveless stabilisers, created for vessels starting from 12 metres in length, marked an important change because, up until that moment, production was centred only on making products for yachts over 16 metres. In 2023 new gyroscopic systems were launched along with the LR 180 and LR 250 blades, the biggest fins ever built by the company, created for displacement vessels over 70 metres.

CMC MARINE TODAY

To date, over 2500 CMC systems have been delivered, and the company’s turnover has doubled over the past 3 years. CMC Marine’s products range from the Stabilis series, with 30 different possible configurations, available with electric or hydraulic actuators, the ultra-compact, electric Waveless stabilisers created for 12-metre-plus boats, the Dualis series of manoeuvring propellers with a counter-rotating dual propeller, also available with electric or hydraulic transmission, and the Directa electric wheelhouses.

When we asked him whether, with all of these results, there was still something he wanted to make with CMC, Alessandro Cappiello answered: “There isn’t a time for dreaming and a time where you stop dreaming. You either do it or you don’t. I don’t see myself any differently than when I started working. In my future I have only one idea that I want to do, and it is always the same: Keep having fun in my job. When you are lucky enough to do a job you love, it doesn’t feel like work. Certainly, managing a business is a responsibility and a sacrifice, but seeing growth year after year is extremely satisfying.”