Ritchie Explorer Compass Dial with Surface Mount and 12V Green Night Lighting

Great little compass. Looks good on the boat. Lights up nicely and is clearly readable at night. Very easy to mount. And the price is reasonable. Recommend it.

Exactly as presented and very nice quality.

Nice compass but the directions are poor. Otherwise, I would have given it 5 stars. Had to figure out how to release the top from the base to mount it. It also didn't some with mounting screws. Hooked up the constant 12 volt wire for the light so you can see it at night. Glows green so it looks cool at night. The downside is the light is on when my battery switch is one, even during the daylight. I guess I could have hooked it to a switched 12 volt so I may change the feed. Other than that, rather easy to install but you will need to drill holes for the mounting base. Just base holes with a pencil and measure it where you want to mount it first. I will take a pic of it at night and add it to the review later. Would recommend this as a good buy.

This is my second Ritchie. Had my first one for years. It was beginning to look old and weathered . Figured it was time for a new one.

Don't work

I bought this in 2017. Worked fine until last year. Now it always point 10's of degrees off the correct direction. I know this from looking at the GPS direction on my Garmin fish finder. I tried adjusting the correction rods. Little to no effect.

This compass was a gift for my son, who placed it on his boat. He said it works very well. Actually, he had one similar to it before, but it kept coming "unstuck" from the dashboard, so he tossed it inside one of the compartments on the boat. It was in there a good while and "fried" from the heat (it also became discolored). It is my understanding that this one has a mounting that is screwed onto the boat.

Having spent time among professional mariners, I know I am not qualifed to give anything beyond a superficial review of a marine product especially a compass. The reason I chose to post is because I called the manufacturer Ritchie with some questions about mounting and positioning the compass and they were especially helpful and responsive. By contrast, I consulted the expert in my local West Marine Store, before purchasing, to help determine what compass to buy, and all I got was what seemed like a company designed spiel aimed at maximizing how much the customer spends. It appears that West Marine has no problem training an idiot if the idiot can learn to say the right thing. This compass can be adusted for deviation. Some compasses do not have that feature. Today, GPS and technology make it possible for many boaters to take their boats out and return to port, without using traditional navigational aids such as compasses and charts. I dont plan to use the deviation compensating feature. it would be wise to get some idea of what effect deviation may have on your compass. Deviation in no way refers to the CEO of West Marine.