Patent ID: 8150569

Claim:
A marine vessel running controlling apparatus for a marine vessel which includes a propulsive force generating unit arranged to generate a propulsive force to be applied to a hull of the marine vessel, and a steering unit arranged to turn the hull, the marine vessel running controlling apparatus comprising: an operational unit to be operated by an operator of the marine vessel to control a steering angle of the steering unit; a speed measuring unit arranged to measure a traveling speed of the marine vessel; an intrinsic characteristic acquiring unit arranged to acquire, during travel of the marine vessel, an intrinsic characteristic defining a relationship among the traveling speed of the marine vessel, the steering angle of the steering unit and a turning behavior of the marine vessel; a steering angle characteristic setting unit arranged to determine and update a traveling speed-operation amount-target steering angle characteristic to define a relationship between a target steering angle of the steering unit and an operation amount of the operational unit according to the traveling speed of the marine vessel based on the intrinsic characteristic acquired by the intrinsic characteristic acquiring unit such that a marine vessel maneuvering characteristic defining a relationship among the traveling speed of the marine vessel, the operation amount of the operational unit and the turning behavior of the marine vessel satisfies a predetermined target marine vessel maneuvering characteristic; and a target steering angle setting unit arranged to determine the target steering angle of the steering unit for the operation amount according to the traveling speed measured by the speed measuring unit based on the traveling speed-operation amount-target steering angle characteristic determined by the steering angle characteristic setting unit.