This is the #2 boat compass installation. On the #1 boat, I found out, too late, that when the boat is set upside down on the ground (or worse, pavement!) the compass took a beating. That one at least had a sun shield, but these don’t.

So the main idea here is that the top of the compass will be below a line connecting the tip of the bow with the front of the cockpit rim, or highest part in that area for recessed cockpit installations.

For the Coho, this turned out to be fairly simple: The Aqua Meter Sailor II shown here is about $50 and locally available as well as through West Marine. It’s 4 3/16” wide at the base by 2 1/8” tall. With its high peaked deck, the Coho simply needed a 5” diameter hole cut in the deck, with a 5 ½” circle of plywood underneath it for the compass mounting platform. This arrangement takes the top of the compass below that line between the cockpit and the bow, i.e., no additional spacers are required.

The hard part is figuring out how to make the boat ‘level’ fore-to-aft, as you want the compass to be installed relatively level. I finally went with the published rocker measurements as my guide, and it seems close enough. A 24” level across the cockpit gives you side-to-side level. With a spacer to give it clearance, then, (in my case a roll of 1 ½” masking tape) a small torpedo level will get you both level directions for the mounting platform. Tack in place with a couple of smallish wads of quickset thickened epoxy where the platform touches the underside of the deck.

Go to the ‘Part B’