I was given a lovely Brunton 70p compass for Christmas and, as the weather is warming up, went to mount it in the compass well on my Boreal Baffin. No go! The square mounting plate doesn’t fit into the recess around the compass well.
Any ideas or advice?
Although that’s a great compass, I don’t see any practical way to mount it on your particular boat. I would suggest selling it and using the money to purchase a compass that may be more compatible. Ritchie has some that might work. It might be a good idea to contact Boreal for advice as to what they recommend.
Brunton’s line of compasses appears to be very limited these days. They seem to specialize in handheld compasses now.
Why can’t you trim the metal flange to fit. If you don’t have holes at the top after trimming, use an adhesive.
Trace the profile and use a Dremmel with a cur off blade to trim to the profile. Clean it up with a sanding drum on the Dremmel and attach with adhesive and screw in through the two holes in the flange that fit. Before you tighten be sure the plumb line is in line with the centerline of your boat.
See you on the water,
Marshall
The River Connection, Inc.
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Thanks for the ideas!
Problem solved: Got a 3" toilet gasket from the Big Box Store - snug around the round body of the compass. Slit it to a thickness of about 4 mm and squared off the outside edges to match the mounting frame. This allowed a straightforward, snug, mounting with 4 #6-32 machine screws.
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Sounds like you found a good solution. You might want to swap the screws for bolts, so that you can compress rubber washers under the nuts for a water tight seal, and so you do not have sharp points extending into the interior of the boat.
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Yes. I used machine screws, which are fixed in place with nylock nuts. Also a rubber washer (scrap of bike tube) on the inside against the kayak plastic and a metal washer to support the nut. All hardware stainless for corrosion resistance and non-magnetic character.
I’ll go back in (when I get around to it) and put a little sealant over the end of the assembly for scratch resistance (even though the machine screw/nut assembly isn’t very pointy…) and added resistance to water penetration.
Sounds good to me. Got a pic?
So, here’s a pic of finished compass mount.
Hardware used (in order of appearance…):
¾” oval head #6-32 stainless machine screw,
#6 stainless finish washer
[plastic plate and brass fitting that came with compass]
Trimmed 3” rubber toilet gasket
[kayak deck]
Rubber washer (bike tire tube scrap0
#6 stainless washer
#6 stainless locking nut
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