Vane steering system for marine drives

Claim 1

In a steering apparatus for a steerable marine drive, including a drive unit pivotally mounted on the transom of a boat for moving and steering the boat through the water, a steering arm means operatively associated with the drive unit for pivoting the drive unit, and a movable steering control means for the boat, wherein an improved steering system comprises: a steering vane rotatably mounted on the drive unit for generating a hydrodynamic torque on the drive unit upon rotation of said vane with respect to the drive unit; a vane rotating member coupled to said vane for rotating said vane responsive to tensile forces exerted thereon; a pair of vane control cable means, each having a movable element with a first end and a second end, said first end being attached to said vane rotating member for exerting vane rotating tensile forces on said member by the movement of said element; and a lever pivotally mounted on said steering arm means at a pivot point on said lever intermediate the ends of the lever, said lever having a forward lever arm extending in one direction from said pivot point toward one end of said lever, said forward lever arm receiving the steering control means, said lever having at least one rear lever arm extending from said pivot point in the opposite direction from said forward lever arm toward the other end of said lever, said rear lever arm being attached to the second ends of said control cable means elements for coordinately moving said elements to generate a tensile force in one of said control cable means elements and a release in the other control cable means element responsive to the movement of said lever by the steering control means, said lever pivot point being positioned intermediate the ends of the lever closer to the forward end than the rear end so as to provide a magnification of about 2:1 between the movement of the steering control means and the resulting magnified movement of the elements of said cable control means, said lever having means for limiting its pivotal movement with respect to the steering arm means to a predetermined amount and for coupling the steering control means to the steering arm means to move the steering arm means directed from the steering control means when the lever has reached the limit of pivotal movement.