Patent ID: 7357120

Claim:
A marine vessel running controlling apparatus for a marine vessel which includes a propulsive force generating unit having an engine with an electric throttle as a drive source to generate a propulsive force to propel a hull of the marine vessel, the marine vessel running controlling apparatus comprising: a target characteristic storage unit arranged to store a target characteristic curve which defines a target characteristic for an operation amount-engine speed characteristic indicating a relationship between an engine speed and an operation amount of an operational member which is operated by an operator of the marine vessel to control an output of the engine; a target characteristic change inputting unit to be operated by the operator to change a shape of the target characteristic curve stored in the target characteristic storage unit; and a target characteristic curve updating unit arranged to update the target characteristic curve stored in the target characteristic storage unit according to an input from the target characteristic change inputting unit; wherein the target characteristic change inputting unit includes: an inflection point position change inputting unit to be operated by the operator to change a position of an inflection point of the target characteristic curve stored in the target characteristic storage unit; and a curve shape change inputting unit to be operated by the operator to change at least one of a shape of a lower speed characteristic curve portion of the target characteristic curve located on one of opposite sides of the inflection point, and a shape of a higher speed characteristic curve portion of the target characteristic curve located on the other side of the inflection point.