Patent ID: 7367854

Claim:
Method of regulating engine speed and steering in the event of fault detection in a control system in a boat with two engines ( 40 ), which are speed-controlled by electronic engine control means ( 34 ) depending on signals from sensors ( 35 ) which are coordinated with manually operable gear and throttle controls ( 36 ), and an outboard drive ( 5 ) coupled to each engine, which has an underwater housing ( 36 ) which is rotatable relative to the hull of the boat and in which at least one propeller shaft ( 7 , 8 ) can be driven via an electrically operated transmission ( 13 - 18 ), with forward, neutral and reverse gear, arranged in a housing in the drive and the rotation of which is regulated by means of an electric servomotor ( 26 ) controlled by an electronic control unit ( 31 ) depending on signals to the control unit from a sensor ( 32 ) coordinated with manually operable steering means ( 30 ), characterized in that—in the event of detection of a fault in the control system of one drive ( 5 ) during driving—the following measures are initiated automatically by the engine and drive control electronics ( 34 , 31 ): gradual reduction of the engine speed from a speed within the higher speed range of the engine to a predetermined lower speed in at least the internal combustion engine belonging to the drive with the control system in which the fault has been detected, alarm for a driver, locking of the drive with the control system in which the fault has been detected in the current steering position, limiting of the maximum permitted engine speed to a lower speed than the maximum speed in at least the engine belonging to the drive with the control system in which the fault has been detected after acknowledgement from the driver that the fault detection has been noted.