Patent ID: 7744433

Claim:
A jet-propulsion personal watercraft comprising: an engine which is configured to generate a driving power for generating a propulsion force to propel the watercraft; an engine speed changing system which is configured to be able to change an engine speed of the engine; a determiner configured to determine whether or not to execute a control for effectively steering the watercraft at a start of deceleration of the watercraft; and an engine controller configured to control the engine speed changing system based on information received from the determiner; wherein the engine controller is configured to, when the determiner determines that the control for effectively steering the watercraft should be executed, control the engine speed changing system to output a command to lower the decrease rate of the engine speed; wherein the determiner includes an input detector which is configured to be able to detect an operated state of an input device with which a driver performs an operation to increase or decrease the engine speed, and a driving power output detector configured to be able to detect a driving power output of the watercraft; wherein in a first detection, the input detector detects that the input device has been operated by the driver in a direction to decrease the engine speed, with a change rate which is not smaller than a first threshold, up to a position which is smaller than a second threshold, and the driving power output detector detects that the driving power output is not smaller than a third threshold; wherein in a second detection, the input detector detects that the input device has been operated by the driver in the direction to decrease the engine speed, with the change rate which is not smaller than the first threshold up to the position smaller than the second threshold, and the driving power output detector detects that the driving power output is smaller than the third threshold; and wherein the determiner determines that the control for effectively steering the watercraft should not be executed when the second detection occurs and that the control for effectively steering the watercraft should be executed when the first detection occurs.