Compass ring Install

[Craig Weis]

Hi, I noticed by you post that you mounted a compass on the bulkhead without
going into the cabin. What compass did you use and how did you mount it.
Thanks
John Suncat "Wanderer"

Hi John good question.
From my Frappr view, might be larger in Frappr...[This was an e-mail to me from John. I sent a picture but can't upload it here sorry]

As can be seen the Plastico Saturn Compass is mounted to the port side away from the electronics on the starboard side. The compass is fitted with a red lamp. And the wiring, both pos and neg were held in a vice and an electric drill was used to twist the two wires together. This negates the magnetic influence on the compass when the red light is 'on' when I switch 'on' my navigation LED lights.

Com-Pac 19 XL's have a fiberglass liner 3/8" away from the outer cabin shell both port and starboard. XL's are easily identified by looking at how far the port holes stick out from the cabin. Older C-P 19's have almost no ports sticking out as the difference is made-up of inside teak cabin surrounds. Both boats have a tapered bulkhead that goes to nearly an inch at the cabin top to about 4 inch at the bottom of the bulkhead at the cockpit settee level. On this bulkhead is where my compass is mounted.

OK, to mount the compass without going into the inner cabin liner...with the back of the compass one must find a goodly sized piece of teak bigger in dia then the compass's outer size and drill a hole in the center. Put a gig saw blade through the hole and cut out the center to the inner ring size of the compass. The compass will drop-fit into the ring. The teak ring must be deep/tall enough to pull the compass just barley off the inner bulkhead wall if you want to mount the compass as high as I did. About two inches thick I'd say. I'll have to measure.

Now cut trim file and sand the ring just a tad bigger then the compass. Make it look nice. When happy with the fit, hold the ring up to the bulkhead where you want to compass to go.

A piece of sand paper between the ring and the bulkhead can be used to 'profile-curve' the back of the ring to fit the curve of the bulkhead. This is a worthless useless step. But I did it anyway.

Anywhere near the top of the compass hole in the wood ring drill a small exploratory hole, but don't go clean through into the cabin. Measure the distance with a piece of wire or philips screw driver and do some cyphering.

Include the void to the backside of the inside cabin wall, and the thickness of the cabin fiberglass. Write it down. Don't worry about any slope of the bulkhead, the compass will
won't care.

Now pencil draw the inner circle of the ring onto the bulkhead and see if all will fit.
The backside of the compass is going to fit into this penciled in hole, but not intrude into the cabin liner.

~Here is the trick. From ACE hardware buy four fasteners having a wood screw on one end and a machine screw on the other end with flat washers, and ss nuts. The distance measured of the void plus the fiberglass thickness is the maximum length  of the machine screw.

The wood end will be predrilled, super glued and screwed into the backside of the teak ring. I used 45 degrees off 'north south, est and west'. Now you have wood donut with four machine screws sticking out of it that the compass will fit into it. I think my machine screws were sized #8. Rather small and stuck out about a 1/2" or 5/8". Long enough to stick out past the fiberglass but not too long to bottom out on the inner bulkhead wall.

~Trick two. On each machine screw end dab a bit of paint onto the ends and wood ring and hold the ring up to the bulkhead where the ring should go. Just touch the bulkhead with the painted ends once. Drill out the painted spots for a #8 machine screw and place the ring back onto the bulkhead. Redraw the hole/compass circle and cut that fiberglass circle out without blemishing the inner bulkhead of the cabin. I used a million little drilled holes and 'connected the dots' with a handheld jig saw SHORTENED blade. Then filed he smooth.

With this hole now in the bulkhead, one will be able to work through the hole and put the flat washers and stainless steel nuts onto the machine screw threads and spin the on. Tighten a wee bit with a dollop of 3-M 5200 slow set  sealant. Be careful, not too tight with the nuts or you may pull the screwed in wood screw ends out of the soft teak.

Now put the compass in the hole, noting up and down for the incline indicator at the bottom of the compass [is the boat level?] and use four wood screws to secure the compass to the ring using the compass gasket supplied.
Buy a plastic cover for the compass, but you'll need a four tiny little pieces of Velcro, loop and hook to hold the cover onto the compass. They never fit right.

One last thing. The Saturn Compass is offered in white or black case. And with or without a vertical compass rose in addition to the standard 'look-down-at' compass rose. But the compass that has both as it is easier to read when sitting at the tiller.
And I think I'd like the card in red/black, not white/black.
skip.