Ritchie Compass Repair Question

[Paul D.]

Greetings Board Members,

I have a wonderful old Ritchie SP-5 which needs assistance. I have replaced the light with a shiny new LED. It works great save for the fact that the compass is actually up to 80 degrees off. It was this way before mind you. Is this a job for a professional or can I take the thing off the boat and go through the process in Chapman's or Annapolis Book of Seamanship? Every time we are on the boat it bugs me to have a compass in such pain, it just ain't right as my Dad would say. I actually do like to navigate with charts and DR's.

Thanks so much,

Paul Danicic
CD 33 #77 Christine Lynn
Grand Marais, MN



menogyn@YMCAmpls.org

[D. Stump, Hanalei]

Captain Danicic,

Sounds like the compansation adjustment has been moved. Remove the compass shield(that holds the light, and look under the bowl. You will see two bars one running fore and aft and the other port and starboard. You didn't say what compass heading it was off on, but 80 degrees should be easy to adjust. You should NOT need to remove the compass from the vessel. If you are tied in a slip, what direction is the bow pointing? Check with other vessels at the same dock. Adjust out the error, this will get you close for a start, then follow the directions below. Also, log on to www.ritchie.com. They have a complete direction on how to take care of this and how to set your compass using a GPS heading. Hope this helps, and remember, log, lead and LOOKOUT ! !

Your servant sir, I remain...........

Dave Stump
Captain Commanding
s/v Hanalei CD-30C
CDSOA Number ONE ! ! !

Somewhere on Fisher's Island Sound..........? ? ?

[D. Stump, Hanalei]

Captain Danicic,

The web address should have been: www.ritchienavigation.com...good luck.........

Dave Stump
Captain Commanding
s/v Hanalei CD-30C
CDSOA Number ONE ! ! !

Somewhere on Fisher's Island Sound..........? ? ?

[Paul D.]

Capt. Dave,

Thank you sir! I will be viewing the website and having fun with magnetism very shortly.

Paul Danicic
CD 33 #77 Christine Lynne
Grand Marais MN



menogyn@YMCAmpls.org

[Jerry Axler]

Greetings Board Members,

I have a wonderful old Ritchie SP-5 which needs assistance. I have replaced the light with a shiny new LED. It works great save for the fact that the compass is actually up to 80 degrees off. It was this way before mind you. Is this a job for a professional or can I take the thing off the boat and go through the process in Chapman's or Annapolis Book of Seamanship? Every time we are on the boat it bugs me to have a compass in such pain, it just ain't right as my Dad would say. I actually do like to navigate with charts and DR's.

Thanks so much,

Paul Danicic
CD 33 #77 Christine Lynn
Grand Marais, MN

Don't be suprised if you find only one bar with compensating magnets. One of the brass bars fractured and ended upin the bilge several years ago on my Ritchie. It is easily replaced by Ritchie.

Jerry Axler
Shana CD36



cutter36@erols.com

[Scott Ritchey]

Here's another site (Practical Sailor) that may help.

http://204.220.138.252/newspics/charts/892compass.pdf

The 80 degree error you cite indicates something bad wrong. Assuming you don't have a major installation goof (like a speaker near the compass) a missing or a seriously messed-up adjuster is certainly the problem.

Assuming all the pieces are present, the easiest method I found is to remove the compass from the boat and affix it to a square piece of wood (so you can rotate it exactly 90 or 180 degrees). Turn it until it reads north and place a piece of wood against one edge to mark the orientation. Then rotate it 180 degrees and adjust the N-S adjuster to remove half the error (between S and the initial reading). Repeat until the 180 degree rotation makes the reading go from N to S. Then do the same thing for E-W. Finally recheck both axes. Presumably, you can fine-tune the settings after the compas is in the boat, but I didn't find it necessary.

Also, GPS is a good tool but not by using the indicated course. Use the GPS to give the magbetic bearing to something you can see (like a marker). Then point your boat at that marker and compare the difference between the GPS bearing and the compass reading. For best results pick a marker out in the middle of deep water so you can take bearings from multiple directions.

Good luck

Greetings Board Members,

I have a wonderful old Ritchie SP-5 which needs assistance. I have replaced the light with a shiny new LED. It works great save for the fact that the compass is actually up to 80 degrees off. It was this way before mind you. Is this a job for a professional or can I take the thing off the boat and go through the process in Chapman's or Annapolis Book of Seamanship? Every time we are on the boat it bugs me to have a compass in such pain, it just ain't right as my Dad would say. I actually do like to navigate with charts and DR's.

Thanks so much,

Paul Danicic
CD 33 #77 Christine Lynn
Grand Marais, MN

RitcheyVS@aol.com