Marine vessel steering apparatus and marine vessel including the same

Abstract

A marine vessel steering apparatus includes a steering mechanism arranged to be operable by an operator, a steering unit arranged to turn a pivoting unit mounted pivotally on a marine vessel, a detecting unit arranged to detect if an actual pivoting angle, the turning angle of the pivoting unit, becomes equal to or greater than a predetermined angle, a locking unit arranged to lock the turning of the steering mechanism, and a control unit. The control unit is programmed to set a target pivoting angle based on the turning state of the steering mechanism and to drive the steering unit to make the actual pivoting angle equal to the target pivoting angle. The control unit is also programmed, when the detecting unit detects that the actual pivoting angle becomes equal to or greater than the predetermined angle, to drive the locking unit to lock the turning of the steering mechanism.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.