Skip, Mounting a compass is even more complicated than what you propose. One must be very careful not to mount a compass near electronics or even iron or steel which could affect its ability to read accurately. Concerning a gimbaled compass, there are many available that have the compass card suspended in an oil bath which causes the card, or ball in this case, to always read level. I use a handheld oil bath compass on my boat. The advantage of the handheld is that it is always where you are and most are easy to mount somewhere. I use mine only as backup to my GPS, but when in use, it mounts on a console I made on the lower hatch board. I have a Garmin GPS76 Map and IMHO it can't be beat. It more than replaces the compass, but I keep the compass for backup. With the GPS one punches in some waypoints (long/lat destinations) and takes off. A pointer, on the screen, always points to the waypoint showing you where to steer. In my view the best advantage of using a GPS in that the unit always knows where you are, so steering errors, leeway or effects of current are always being compensated for by the unit. The pointer is always pointing to where you need to go. With the old system (compass) all these factors throw you off course. That's why dead reckoning is very important if you are relying on a compass. So, I say get a GPS. Even a simple inexpensive one is much easier to use than a compass. And keep a handheld compass as backup. Electronics can break, batteries go dead and I think that extreme cloud cover can block the satellites needed for GPS operation. Yours for a fair tide, Rick Langer

Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2006 17:48:09 -0500 From: wcampion@aol.com Subject: M_Boats: Traditional Compass vs GPS To: montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com Message-ID: <8C8F2A00E1EF505-1200-845D@FWM-M37.sysops.aol.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

This is a general questions to all who care to share.

I was considering purchasing a traditional compass for my M15. Of course, I would need a nice gimballed compass which would need to be mounted in a location that is visable and out of the way. These requirements appear to be mutually exclusive, however, I don't want to be kicking it or knocking into it while I'm moving around in the cockpit. And mapping a course seems to require a degree of education or experience. I was also thinking of the advantages of a GPS. It doesn't have to be gimalled. Mounting should not be a major deal and a GPS seems to be more user friendly and more versatile than a traditional compass.

I am looking for some feed back and thoughts from people who are currently using either a compass or a GPS or both.

Thanks in Advance, Skip Campion M-15 #201