Propulsion and steering system for boats

Claim 1

A boat propulsion and steering system comprising four jet nozzles carried by the boat hull beneath the water level and operable to direct water jets exteriorly of said hull, two of said nozzles being directed forwardly of the boat and two rearwardly, one forwardly and one rearwardly directed nozzles being disposed at each side of the midline of the boat, powered means operable to deliver water to all of said nozzles for ejection therefrom, the pair of nozzles at each side of the boat midline being supplied with water from a common conduit which is branched to supply water to the respective associated nozzles, and control means operable to deliver water to said nozzles in variable proportions, whereby to propel and steer said boat, said control means comprising: a. a pair of diverter gates disposed movably in the respective common conduits and operable by movement thereof to direct proportionately more or less of the water flowing through said common conduit to either of the associated branch conduits, b. a first diverter gate positioning means operable to position said diverter gates selectively to deliver proportionately more water to either forward nozzle and to the rear nozzle at the opposite side of the boat midline, and proportionately less water to the remaining two nozzles, whereby the boat is steered, and c. a second diverter gate positioning means operable selectively to deliver proportionately more water either to the rearward nozzles or to the forward nozzles, whereby said boat is propelled respectively either forwardly or rearwardly, said second diverter gate positioning means comprising: 1. a manually movable control member movable in either direction from a neutral position, 2. means responsive to movement of said control member to move said diverter gates, whereby when said control member is in its neutral position said diverter gates are positioned to direct equal amounts of water in total to the forward and rearward nozzles, whereby when said control member is moved in one direction from neutral said diverter gates are positioned to direct proportionately more water to the branch conduits interconnected with the rear nozzles and the boat is propelled forwardly, and whereby when said control member is moved in the other direction from neutral said diverter gates are positioned to direct proportionately more water to the branch conduits interconnected with the forward nozzles, and the boat is propelled rearwardly, 3. resilient means biasing said control member to its neutral position, 4. detent means operable to secure said control member in either its forward or its rearward propulsion position, and 5. manually operable detent control means.