Do you have a compass??
 

Ok I am getting some slack about not having a compass on the boat!! So I am taking a poll.

I am not any kind of great navigator but I do at least make sure that I have a course to for steer home or at least stay out of danger in mind if had to do it without electronics in a fog.

plain and simple, a compass doesn't need batteries or electricity, just be careful where you put your flashlight.
PS, its also easier to figure out when you've had a few, I allways make a point to write down my heading on the way out, usually with a eraser pen on the dash panel or windshield

I agree with Spare. A compass is a must have on any boat. I use my GPS always but it's a nice secure feeling of knowing the compass is there as a backup. I find myself looking at my compass more so then my GPS at times, just because it's easier.

When i started boating(76), a compass was all you had. then i got a loran c and it had no compunav. you had to run compass headings. i have been out and lost all power to the dash in thunder storms. the good thing about living on this part of the gulf is you just run north & turn right or left..

For the most part we just have to run to the east out, just follow the sunset coming back till seeing land then try to figure which water towers you can recognize and find the channel or markers. This is at about 3 miles out, sandbar flats go way out!! Using the flasher type depth finder was a lot of help too.
Only problem depending on the compass would occur when letting someone drive that couldn't keep a straight heading. Normally you could expect to be within 1 1/2 miles either way when comming back from 20 miles offshore. One event left my father and another guy (who owned the boat and was driving) 15 miles off from the intended return point.
Since GPS became economical, a dash mount combo unit and a hand held backup have been my norm. With extra batteries and hand held backup VHF radio.
If a total failure were to occur, would have to rely on the above.
No compass, till you mentioned it I haven't missed it. Do remember the old days of nothing else but it, the flasher depth finder and a VHf radio. Just leave from a given location or buoy, run a certain rpm for a determined amount of time at a certain heading and hope for the best. Return trip, do a 180 on all headings!
Seems better to have one than not, currently I can't justify one.

I always head out of the marina at a certain heading, cause I know if I head at 185 degrees it will take me to the first bouy 1 mile away with no running aground issues:beer:

When GPS 1st came out, it gave you the compass heading and that's what you followed...it's changed now, but I still watch the heading on the compass...

Yep, I have a compass. And it is the MOST important navigational tool to have. NO boat should be without one! Wether it's just a handheld in your tackle box or a fancy $400 RITCHIE, it is the #1 thing a boat should have. I also have LORAN C and a GPS, but BOTH of them have quit working in dense fog before. The compass got me home.

I have a compass, don't normally use it, I have a fixed gps and a handheld gps that goes with me everytime I go out. Both of mine are elect hook-up but have a battery back-up.

I've got a Ritchie mounted on the helm.....don't think it's a $400.00 model but it got me back to port one night. The launch started out "misty" but we still had a couple hundred ft. visibility. Two hours later you couldn't see five feet beyond the bow. My friend [not the saltiest of fishermen]was becoming increasingly nervous.... shining my 2million candle power spotlight all over the place into the dense fog. I told him to shut up, turn off that damn light and sit down. I knew I had to head ENE and at "some point" south. Keeping an eye on the water depth and compass, finally, and hour and a half later my friend says ,"look you idiot....it's the Connecticut shoreline!!" That was my clue to head south,180*. [Rob had sighted the oil rig platform for the Long Island lighting co. and thought it was Conn.] Turned south and in port 1/2 hour later. If I didn't have that compass I would have just set the hook and waited it out. I would have had NO clue, none- what-so-ever, on which way to go in fog like that.

When your in dense fog or black dark and have to go slow, the compass in your GPS will be of almost no use to you. When you get into the nasty stuff one time, you'll see how important a compass is to have. Also remember that one electrical spike or lightning strike near you can DESTROY ALL of your electronics in a flash. You compass will still work to get you home.

Here on the arm pit of the country, I just say go west, you will hit land at some point!!
Well I no have a compass at all, so I guess I will have to get one, so I at least no were West is! I can remember when GPS first came out for boating, I got lost twice, cause I knew better then GPS, I would not trust it! Now I depend on it for every thing!

where i fish there are so many oil rigs and obstructions in the water, rocks, jetties, etc, that if my gps failed following the compass in the dark would land me into somthing hard. also you can see the lights at the port and the flare for a good ways out. better than compass

My V came with an old Ritchie compass that has lost its oil. It still seems to work but I plan on replacing it someday. I mostly run in the Chowan river so I really dont need it .

"Yes and I use it!"

I ran the PD for many years with only a compass, and later just a compass and depth finder. I kept notes with headings from ICW marker to marker to help get me home when conditions got thick.

Must be the Boy Scout in me that keeps saying "be prepaired".

From my scouting daus, orientiring was mandatory,
so a compass is second nature to me.

I like my GPS, but the compass and a map never lie.

Hey cfelton,

My V came with a Ritchie Helmsman compass. I had the same problem as you with the compass fluid leaking out. I went on the Ritchie website and downloaded a manual and the parts list. The manual was very general. There are 2 o-rings and a diaphragm to replace to stop it from leaking. The diaphragm is for expansion and contraction of the compass fluid. The 2 o-rings are for the fill screw and the top globe seal. The globe seal o-ring is the diameter of the top globe and is reached by taking out the retaining ring screws (about 8) on the top mounting flange. I didn't try to replace the top globe seal because if it was bad you would see the leakage. The leak was in the rubber diaphragm which is accessed by opening the bottom of the compass. All in all, it was a very easy job to replace these parts. When I opened the bottom of the compass, the problem with the diaphragm was old age, and the rubber was a gooey mess. The Ritchie compass fluid is available from West Marine and was about $15.00 a pint. A pint completely fills the compass. I used an ear syringe to shoot the fluid into the compass. The total to overhaul the compass was about $30.00. I use the compass so it was money well spent. To have a compass repaired professionally, I got estimates from $75 to $100.

Geek

If you are really worried, get ten $5 compasses and squirrel them around the boat . . . just in case your 2 GPS's and the other 9 compasses break. :)

I personally think having 2 GPS's (fixed and handheld) is enough, but that's my own personal preference. If both went out which has never happened to me (and I believe has an extremely small chance of happening) . . . a $5 compass in your ditch bag or on a key chain will work just fine. If all 3 failed . . . I think you'd be smart enough to find your way home. Sun rises in the east . . . you have an anchor and a cabin . . . to wait out the fog. If you're offshore 30 miles that might be another story, but 95% of the time you're close enough to land (in shallow enough water to throw anchor) if both GPS's and the $5 compass were to fail on a foggy day.

On the V-20 I hava GPS and a compass.
Generally I use the compass but, I've been in weather that would be hard to tell which way I was going w/o the GPS cuz the compass was spinning around. Clouds rain and waves in the dark made it impossible to otherwise know the way back.
Sure is nicer than the ol'RDFs.

In my neck of the woods you cannot do without a compass.That is of course the south west of Ireland,{check it out on google earth}so many islands and rocks.If you get stuck out there in fog or poor visability and you have no compass you are up the perverbial creek!!

I checked it out on G'Earth. Looks like a nice place for boating, Lotza protected water. I can imagine in a thick fog it'd be hard not running into something.