Patent ID: 8112190

Claim:
A boat control system for a boat propulsion system having an engine for providing a propulsive force to a boat, comprising: an engine side ECU arranged to control an operation status of the boat propulsion system; a main remote control side ECU, provided in a main remote control device of the boat, arranged to transmit a command signal on the basis of a boat operation command from an operator to the engine side ECU; and a communication line connecting a node of the engine side ECU and a node of the main remote control side ECU; wherein the engine side ECU and the main remote control side ECU each include: a confirmation data storage buffer in which communication status confirmation data is stored to confirm whether or not communication between the nodes can be performed by communicating between the nodes; and a broken wire detection device arranged to monitor communication time of the communication status confirmation data and determine, as a result of the monitoring, that the communication line connecting the nodes, for which communication is not confirmed, is broken if communication of the communication status confirmation data is not confirmed between the nodes within a predefined period of time; wherein the broken wire detection device of the engine side ECU determines the result when the boat control system is started; and the broken wire detection device of the main remote control side ECU starts determination when the communication status confirmation data is received from the other node.