Patent ID: 8100732

Claim:
A boat propulsion unit comprising: an engine; a drive shaft arranged below the engine; an output shaft arranged below the drive shaft and extending in a direction intersecting with the drive shaft; a propeller disposed on the output shaft and arranged to rotate together with the output shaft; a first clutch mechanism arranged on an axis of the drive shaft and arranged to switch an engagement state between a first engagement state in which a driving force of the engine is transmitted to the output shaft, and at least one of a half-engaged state in which only a portion of the driving force of the engine transmitted in the first engagement state is transmitted to the output shaft, and a first disengagement state in which the driving force of the engine is completely disengaged; and a second clutch mechanism arranged on an axis of the output shaft, and arranged to switch an engagement state between a second engagement state in which the driving force of the engine is transmitted to the propeller in order to propel the boat forward and a second disengagement state in which the driving force of the engine is disengaged; wherein the second engagement state of the second clutch mechanism includes a forward travel engagement state in which the driving force of the engine can be transmitted to the propeller in order to propel the boat forward, and a reverse travel engagement state in which the driving force of the engine can be transmitted to the propeller in order to reverse the boat; and the second clutch mechanism is arranged to switch the engagement state to either the forward travel engagement state or the reverse travel engagement state when the first clutch mechanism is in the half-engaged state.