Patent ID: 8265830

Claim:
A steering control method for a watercraft including a steering wheel and a steering device electrically connected together, the method comprising the steps of: storing a preceding steering wheel rotational angle in a memory; computing a present steering wheel rotational angle of the steering wheel; computing a steering wheel rotational angle variation of the steering wheel based on an amount of change of the present steering wheel rotational angle from the preceding steering wheel rotational angle stored in the memory in one or more control periods prior to the step of computing the present steering wheel rotational angle, and if the preceding steering wheel rotational angle stored in the memory corresponds to a steering wheel rotational angle of a first operating station on the watercraft and the present steering wheel rotational angle of the steering wheel corresponds to a steering wheel rotational angle of a second operating station on the watercraft, an actual steering angle of the steering device is retained at the preceding steering wheel rotational angle corresponding to the first operating station; calculating a target steering angle based on the steering wheel rotational angle variation; and steering the steering device based on the target steering angle; wherein if the preceding steering wheel rotational angle stored in the memory corresponds to a steering wheel rotational angle of a first operating station on the watercraft, and the present steering wheel rotational angle of the steering wheel corresponds to a steering wheel rotational angle of a second operating station on the watercraft, an actual steering angle of the steering device is retained at the preceding steering wheel rotational angle corresponding to the first operating station.