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| Originally Posted by Blair I am showing my ignorance and would appreciate some wisdom from the old hands. I use a smallish fizz boat for fishing fun - not too many miles away from land typically! It is a US built boat and came with some gear. I added a GPS/Plotter together with sounders etc and rarely even look at the magnetic compass to be honest. Given that the compass is a US-fitted model it may perhaps have been balanced for that particular compass zone and obviously not the South Pacific. I know that small handheld dry compasses are balanced according to the various zones they will operate in to stop the needle dipping significantly and catching but are fluid filled compasses similarly vulnerable?? In simple terms, if I had to rely on this compass is it OK here 'downunder' where the Southern bias of the magnetic field is higher? |
Hi,
Have you got a deviation card that came with the boat originally?
Have you got a fluxgate compass or heading info on your GPS Display?
If you are fishing the Kaipara it is pretty had to get lost at sea unless somehow you get out over the bar by accident.
If you have a fluxgate or other accurate heading reference just aim your bat along a steady course starting at say 000 until you see where the Maganetic one settles down, ten do this for several other points of the "compass" and work out what the difference is if there is not a set pattern that you can remember then you should make a note of it.
I have yet to see a magnetic compass that is easy to follow in a fizzboat so wish you luck with this.
I have Suunto handheld compass that I brought with me from NZ and have found recently that it seems to work just fine when I used it to assist in setting up a couple of SAT TV dishes in Nthn Europe.
If you want to set up your magnetic compass properly find yourself a Compass Adjuster in Auckland and get them to do you a proper survey and deviation card.