Outboard motor

An outboard motor, comprising:

• an engine;
• a propeller shaft that is provided below the engine and extends in a front-back direction;
• a drive shaft that extends in an up-down direction between the engine and the propeller shaft, and is configured to transmit power of the engine to the propeller shaft;
• a gear device that includes a drive gear configured to rotate with an axis of the drive shaft as a rotation axis, a forward gear configured to rotate with an axis of the propeller shaft as a rotation axis and transmit rotation of the drive shaft to the propeller shaft to rotate the propeller shaft in a positive direction, and a reverse gear configured to rotate with the axis of the propeller shaft as a rotation axis and transmit the rotation of the drive shaft to the propeller shaft to rotate the propeller shaft in a reverse direction;
• a shift device that is configured to select an either the forward gear or the reverse gear as a gear for transmitting the rotation of the drive gear to the propeller shaft and set a rotation direction of the propeller shaft;
• and
• a case that accommodates the gear device and the shift device, wherein
• a gear chamber accommodating the gear device, a shift chamber accommodating the shift device, and an oil circulation mechanism configured to circulate oil in the gear chamber and the shift chamber are provided in the case,
• the oil circulation mechanism includes an oil passage that communicates with the gear chamber and the shift chamber with each other, and through which the oil flows from the shift chamber to the gear chamber,
• a circular recessed portion includes an opening portion having a circular shape, accommodates the drive gear, and is formed on an upper wall surface of the gear chamber,
• a rectangular recessed portion includes an opening portion having a rectangular shape, communicates with the circular recessed portion, and is formed on a portion of the upper wall surface of the gear chamber adjacent to the circular recessed portion,
• the rectangular recessed portion includes a first side wall surface facing a side surface of the circular recessed portion, a second side wall surface located on a reverse side of a rotation direction of the drive gear with respect to the first side wall surface, and a third side wall surface located on a side of the rotation direction of the drive gear with respect to the first side wall surface, and
• when the upper wall surface of the gear chamber is viewed from below, assuming that a point at which an edge portion of the circular recessed portion intersects with an edge portion of the second side wall surface is a point P, a circle passing through an outermost peripheral portion of the drive gear is a circle Q, and a tangent to the circle Q passing through the point P and being located on the reverse side of the rotation direction of the drive gear with respect to the point P is a straight line T, at least a part of an outlet of the oil passage is located on the first side wall surface at the reverse side of the rotation direction of the drive gear than the straight line T.