Patent ID: 7575491

Claim:
An electric propulsion system for a watercraft comprising: an electric power source; a remote manual electric motor control mechanism, connected to said power source, having a single control shaft movable to any radial direction for three hundred and sixty degrees and controller circuitry, said controller circuitry generating a digital control signal in response to the movement of the control shaft; said digital control signal carries an embedded control value that indicates the angular direction and the relative distance from the center neutral position of any deflection of the control shaft; at least two electric motors, each having a propeller mountable to a watercraft hull and being connected to said control mechanism and power source wherein a first electric motors with a first propeller is mounted on the port side of the watercraft hull and a second electric motors with a second propeller is mounted on the starboard side of the watercraft hull; said digital control signal causing the first electric motor to rotate the first propeller and the second electric motor to rotate the second propeller, wherein the first electric motor rotates the first propeller in a forward or reverse direction and at a specific speed determined by the control value, the second electric motor rotates the second propeller in a forward or reverse direction and at a specific speed, determined by the control value; and the remote manual electric motor control mechanism electrically controlling the velocity and heading of the watercraft by the control value to every motor, wherein said control value causes the first motor and the second motor rotate the first propeller and the second propeller, respectively in the same direction at the same speed, in the same direction at different speeds, in opposite directions at the same speed, or in opposite directions at different speeds.