Water pump system and method

1. A water pump control system for a marine internal combustion engine, comprising:

a water pump in a watercraft, the pump having an inlet, an outlet, and a rotatable impeller, said water pump operable to receive water at the inlet of the water pump and to move that water to the outlet of the water pump, said outlet fluidly coupled to a cooling circuit of the internal combustion engine;

a clutch having a driven portion mechanically coupled to the internal combustion engine, a driving portion connected with the water pump, and an engaging portion activatable to mechanically couple the driven and driving portions;

a sensor operable to sense the presence of water and generate a water presence signal indicating the presence or absence of water which is indicative of whether the watercraft is in or out of the water; and

a switch connected to the clutch, said switch operable to be set to an activation mode in which power is provided to the engaging portion to mechanically couple the driven and driving portions if said sensor senses the presence of water indicative of the watercraft is being positioned in water, and said switch operable to be set to a deactivation mode in which power is not provided to the engaging portion to mechanically decouple the driven and driving portions if said sensor does not sense the presence of water indicative of the watercraft being positioned out of water.

2. The water pump control system of claim 1 , further comprising a control module in a communication path between the sensor and the switch; wherein,

if said sensor senses the presence of water indicative of the watercraft being positioned in water, said control module is operable to provide an activation signal to the switch causing the switch to operate in the activation mode; and

if said sensor senses the absence of water indicative of the watercraft being positioned out of water, said control module is operable to provide a deactivation signal to the switch that causes the switch to operate in the deactivation mode.

3. The water pump control system of claim 2 , wherein the control module is an engine control module (ECM) or engine control unit (ECU).

4. The water pump control system of claim 1 , wherein said clutch is an electromagnetic clutch.

5. The water pump control system of claim 1 , wherein the water pump and the clutch are integrated into a single component.

6. The water pump control system of claim 1 , further comprising an alarm signal generator that activates an alarm signal when the engine is running and said switch is in the deactivating mode.

7. A method of operating a marine internal combustion engine in a watercraft, said internal combustion engine including a clutch-controlled water pump fluidly coupled to a cooling circuit of the internal combustion engine, comprising:

sensing for the presence or absence of water indicative of whether the watercraft is in or out of water;

with presence of water sensed indicative of the watercraft being in the water, providing power to the clutch to mechanically couple torque from the internal combustion engine to the water pump; and

with the absence of water sensed indicative of the watercraft being out of water, preventing power to the clutch to mechanically decouple torque from the internal combustion engine to the water pump.

8. The method of operating an internal combustion engine of claim 7 , wherein, the method further comprises:

generating an alarm signal with the internal combustion engine running and the power is not supplied to said clutch.

9. The method of operating an internal combustion engine of claim 8 , wherein generating an alarm signal with the internal combustion engine running and said power is not supplied to the clutch only occurs after one of:

elapse of a predetermined time period; and

at least one engine component has reached a temperature exceeding a predetermined threshold value.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the clutch is a variable speed clutch, and the method further comprises:

sensing at least one parameter of operation of the speed of the internal combustion engine; and

controlling the clutch speed based on the sensed parameter value.