Patent ID: 7438615

Claim:
Outboard drive for boats for driving at least one propeller, comprising a gear housing, an underwater housing connected rotatably to the gear housing, mounting means arranged between the gear housing and the underwater housing for mounting the drive in a boat hull with the gear housing on the inside and the underwater housing on the outside of the hull and comprising an exhaust passage, which has an exhaust outlet opening into an exhaust inlet to an exhaust passage in the underwater housing, and power-operated means which are connected to an electronic control unit and by means of which the underwater housing is rotatable relative to the gear housing and the mounting means depending on control commands fed into the control unit, wherein the exhaust outlet is surrounded by a surface layer which counteracts fouling by organisms present in the water and the control unit is arranged so as, on a given non-steering control command, via the power-operated means to put the underwater housing in a predetermined position in which a surface of the underwater housing, which surface faces the exhaust outlet and surrounds the exhaust inlet, lies within the surface layer.