Anyone have advice on a good permanent mount kayak compass and source at which I can buy it?
Most of the ones I have seen are the ones that mount to your deck lines.
thanks
Matt
What kind of kayak do you have?
Do you have a compass recess, a flat spot on the deck, home built kayak? Do you paddle at night or envision yourself doing so? How is your eyesight?
Augustus Dogmatycus
MMV
Vally Aquanaut
It has a compass recess. Don’t plan on night paddling too much if ever, and my eyes are okay.
Matt
The Brunton 70P…
– Last Updated: Dec-20-05 10:54 AM EST –
... is speced for all Valley boats, and lots of others as well, I believe. It's a fine compass. I see them for $60-90 on Froogle.
As for visibility, the product description says there is an illumination option, but I've never seen one with it.
--David.
I concur with the gentleman above me
It is a great compass and allows you to paddle and eyeball your course without spinning your noggin too much. If you become a night paddler all you need to do is buy a very small waterproof flashlight like a pelican mini LED and tape some clips to it to attach to the deck lines. It can be turned on to illuminate the compass. Mine is a Princeton Tech with a red lens.
Augustus Dogmatycus
MMV
Brunton???
Thanks for the info. I did a search froogle.com (never knew that search engine existed before this post…thanks) and found some.
I found two types: one that mounts on a flat plate with screws…mounting this is obvious.
The other is round and has no flat plate. I can see how this would mount down into the round recess, but how would it be secured? The only thing I could think of is that perhaps it is glued in? Or is it screwed in from below?
I actually have a boat that I am about to sell that has one just like this mounted on it. I would love to be able to take it off and switch to my new boat if possible but not knowing how it goes on, I don’t know how to take it off. I suspect that it is probably on there for good.
Here is a link to the one I am talking about:
http://store.yahoo.com/peepersoptics/85r.html
That’s not it.
This is it, also showing how it mounts…
http://www.shearwaterkayaks.com/item_detail/chartsnav/70p.html
Sorry I misled you about the price – looks like Froogle munged a bunch of Brunton products together. I got mine from Rutabaga for $75 + shipping, but that was a sale. I doubt you can beat that, and $80 is probably the best in general. The best price I can find at the moment (via Google) seems to be this…
http://www.1sks.com/store/brunton-compasses.html
But I know nothing of that company. In general, it’s worth checking defender.com for all marine stuff, particularly nav and electronics. Good company – good prices. But they don’t seem to carry Brunton.
–David.
Matt, give Riptides & Rapids
in Mt. View a call. They will help you.
The folks at the website
1sks are fine folks. Friends of my family. I have also bought knives from them.
Compass
Take a look at this quality compass - Ritchie S-59W Kayaker.
The 70P
has been made by several companies, Nexus,Silva,
Brunton, and now my new one just purchased a few
months ago is made by ComNav. Easy to install,
4 screws…thats it.
Easy to install… well…
It’s more than just driving four screws. Ya still gotta line it up with the longitudinal axis of the boat, and for that you should use a handheld compass and point the bow precisely with it. It’s not a big deal, but worth some care.
–David.
Great to hear a personal…
… recommendation for a web site. I’ll keep them in mind.
Thanks, Peter. --David.