Patent ID: 7033234

Claim:
Method of steering a boat having a V-bottomed hull designed for planing, in which an outer drive unit ( 5 ) with at least one propeller ( 9 , 10 ) is mounted on each side of a longitudinal centre line (b) of the hull bottom ( 1 ), each of said drive units comprising an underwater housing ( 6 ) extending down from the out-side of the hull bottom and being rotatably mounted relative to the hull, and an at least substantially vertical drive shaft ( 16 ) being rotatably mounted in said underwater housing ( 6 ) and driving, via a bevel gearing ( 19 , 20 , 21 ) enclosed in the underwater housing, at least one substantially horizontal propeller shaft ( 7 , 8 ) mounted in the underwater housing, characterized in that, at speed above the hull planing threshold, when running straight ahead, the underwater housings ( 6 ) of the drive units are set at angles (α) of equal magnitude inclined towards each other, so that the rotational axes of the propellers ( 9 , 10 ) converge in the forward direction, and that, when turning, the underwater housing ( 6 ) closest to the centre of the curve is set at a greater steering angle (β) relative to said centre plane (b) than the other drive unit.