Cummins | Opportunity Knocks

With a solid share of the inboard diesel market and particularly in the 6.7-litre to 11-litre segment favoured by builders of luxury yachts, no one would begrudge the senior management at Cummins Inc for taking a break and resting on their accomplishments. But that’s just not in the DNA of the US-based engine builder and its more than 61,000 global employees. With demand growing worldwide for smaller boats powered by engines of lower horsepower, the company sees an opportunity to grow its leisure marine revenues through an aggressive product extension strategy aimed at capturing share in what has become an increasingly appealing sector.

“Our lowest-powered engine today is a 6.7-litre, inline six-cylinder diesel that starts to deliver at 250 horsepower, and we want to extend our product range on the lower side of that,” explains Michel Kozulic, marine business development manager at Cummins. “In the leisure marine segment we typically work with boats starting at around the 40-foot range. But there are a lot of boats being sold in the 30-foot to 45-foot class, and we will now have an engine that will allow us to bring something unique to that market.”

“Someone repowering a boat with shafts can now enjoy a modern joystick control.”

Michel Kozulic, Cummins

With an official launch planned for mid-summer 2021, the newest Cummins marine engine will be a four-cylinder diesel with a power output ranging from 110 horsepower to 250 horsepower, representing a near-ideal fit for leisure boats in that 30- to 45-foot category. “We already have a superb four-cylinder engine that we use in other industries and we thought it would be a really great solution for this market,” says Kozulic. “So we began to develop it for use in marine applications. It is a four-cylinder design that will be competing in what right now is a six-cylinder market, and it’s an engine that really reflects the Cummins philosophy, which is reliability, durability and tremendous amounts of torque. This will be an ideal engine for recreational boats in that 30-foot to 45-foot range.”

More than just muscle

Beyond churning a boatload of muscle out of a comparatively lightweight and compact footprint, Kozulic says the new engine will further benefit from having the ability to work with other Cummins marine technologies, giving it a measurable advantage over competing product in the segment. That includes full compatibility with the company’s latest edition of its DockCommand joystick control system.

“DockCommand provides boats which are equipped with traditional shaft-and-rudder drivetrains with the ability to maneuver from a joystick,” explains Kozulic. “In some markets around the world buyers prefer shafts over pods. So instead of being based on two pod drives with separate steering, DockCommand is based on using thrusters and conventional propulsion in either a single- or twin-engine arrangement, giving the vessel perfect sideways maneuvering capability. It is an attractive alternative to pods because of its simplicity, and it comes in at a lower price. 

While Cummins has offered a joystick system since 2015, a next-generation update released earlier this year brings expanded capabilities, including an ability to modulate power levels for greater control. “Our previous system was binary, it would activate the bow thruster on and off,” explains Kozulic. “But now it has been refined to allow moderation, so the captain can apply anywhere from 0% to 100% of the power from the thruster. It allows more precise control, allowing the boat to be maneuvered to the centimeter if that is what is required.”

Kozulic notes that the combination of the new four-cylinder engine paired with the controllability of the next-generation DockCommand system should give Cummins a unique value proposition in that coveted 30-foot to 45-foot market segment. Prospective customers include boat builders as well as service yards working in the refit sector. “We all know how we get attached to our boats, and we want to keep them around for a long time,” says Kozulic. “Someone repowering an older boat with shaft drives can now enjoy all the benefits that come from a modern joystick control system, which otherwise would not be available to them.”

Still more tech on deck

Not content with two major product launches on the calendar for this year, Kozulic notes that Cummins has yet a third trick up its sleeve in the form of an all-new telematic system that will allow an end-user to remotely monitor their boat.

Also slated for launch this year, Cummins PrevenTech system securely delivers remote engine monitoring capability, including reporting potential performance issues using email and phone alerts.

“We’re going to be launching PrevenTech in the marine market, in partnership with Siren Marine, this summer,” says Kozulic. “Siren obviously is a very well-known, highly-respected partner with an easy-to-use, intuitive app, so they’re the first company that we’re partnering with to bring this technology to our segment of the market. We’ll be doing that in the commercial space as well as in the recreational market this year.”

Whether Cummins has any more new surprises in store for 2021 remains to be seen. But with a new four-cylinder product line giving it an entry in the under-250 horsepower segment, an update to its DockCommand control system providing even greater precision, and a partnership with Siren Marine to bring all-new engine monitoring capability, the company is clearly focused on capturing a bigger share of both the OEM and refit business in that 30-foot to 45-foot sector.