magnetic compass on Al boat?

[mellowyellow]

can I mount a regular magnetic compass on the Al.<br />dash of my Al. boat? will the Al. mess with the<br />magnetics of the compass?<br />thanks in advance,<br />M.Y.

 

[Chris1956]

Re: magnetic compass on Al boat?

Th aluminum should have no effect on the compasss. The items in the boat that will affect the compass are the cast iron parts of the motor, steel fuel tanks, electrical circuits nearby, steering and control cables and other iron and some stainless steel components. The effect of all these items on a boat's compass is called deviation, and is unique for each boat. The fix is to load the boat as is usual, steer a north-south course and adjust the compass magnetic N-S compensators to show as close to N-S and possible. Then steer an E-W course and do the same with the E-W compensators.

 

[DJ]

Re: magnetic compass on Al boat?

As Chris said. The boat has little, if any effect.<br /><br />Keep the compass away from guages, finders, radiosand especially speakers!

 

[mellowyellow]

Re: magnetic compass on Al boat?

thanks guys <br />DJ, how far away is a safe distance from finder<br />and VHF which are mounted right above con?

 

[Trent]

Re: magnetic compass on Al boat?

You need to keep it away as far as possible. Before mounting turn the finder and VHF on and watch the compass move as they come on. Im my industry we do what called a "compass swing". With everything on you can use a "master compass" (Boy Scout compass will work). And adjust the compass like was said in above post. How a full compass swing is done would take awhile to explain here. But normally people are using gps in boats, so a few degrees off is not really going to matter much.

 

[DJ]

Re: magnetic compass on Al boat?

MY,<br /><br />As Trent said. You may be surprised of the effect when you staret playing around with positions of items.