Patent ID: 7993171

Claim:
An apparatus for controlling a small boat having a hull, at least one outboard motor driven by an internal combustion engine and adapted to be mounted on a stern of the hull, and an actuator adapted to open/close a throttle valve of the engine for regulating speed of the engine, comprising: an acceleration sensor installed on the boat to generate an output indicative of acceleration acting on the boat in a direction of gravity axis; a correction amount calculator that calculates a correction amount of the engine speed for said at least one outboard motor based on the output of the acceleration sensor so as to change behavior of the boat such that the boat moves toward a corrected navigation direction; and an actuator controller that controls operation of the actuator based on the calculated correction amount; wherein the correction amount calculator calculates the correction amount of the engine speed such that a speed of the boat increases when the acceleration in the direction of gravity axis increases.