It was nicely varnished.
As to your question, we installed it about 20 years ago before 
electronic navigation was much of a thing. We were used to steering to a 
compass heading and even after we got a handheld GPS, we would use it to 
identify the course and note our position on a paper chart and then 
steer by the compass. Now that we have the pocket trawler with an inside 
helm station it's all Navionics on a Samsung tablet and then set the 
autopilot and let it steer - but the tablet is always plugged in and 
charging while we are traveling and the paper charts and compass are 
close at hand in case of a failure. If we still had a sailboat, we'd be 
navigating electronically but still steering by a compass.

Mary Lou
ex-R22
now Rosborough RF-246  Tara

On 12/22/2020 8:46 PM, Tom Van Heule wrote:
> Mary, "that's hot"
> It looks well finished. I had imagined something "bulky"
>
> It does prompt me to ask, generally, why even mount a compass in 2020 when
> all sorts of other solar gadgets suffice?
>
> I was into one before I really thought about the application; when am I
> going to NOT see the shore and NEED this modification ? There are all sorts
> of gps device onboard,all ip68 and In Floating cases.   Seems like an old
> solution that cuts a hole in the hull.
>
> On Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 7:09 PM Mary Lou Troy <mtroy at atlanticbb.net> wrote:
>
>> Thought I would add this to the compass discussion. When we had our R22,
>> we used the compass mainly to steer by rather than true navigation. We
>> didn't want to cut a hole in the bulkhead and we liked the comfort of
>> being able to sit on the bench seats with our backs up against that
>> cabin wall at anchor. Our solution was to mount the compass on a board
>> that fit in the companionway. It was easily stowable when not in use.
>> And we mostly learned not to trip over it when moving from the cockpit
>> to the cabin when underway. It was affected by breaker panel which was
>> right below it but but because we were on the Chesapeake and knew where
>> we were that didn't matter so much. I've attached a photo.
>>
>> Mary Lou
>> ex-R22
>> now Rosborough RF-246  Tara
>>
>> On 12/22/2020 9:04 AM, Ric Stott wrote:
>>> If I had every thing in life that I really wanted I would install two
>> compasses. One on either side of the companionway, as high as possible. I
>> have trouble reading my port side compass on starboard tack. There is
>> nothing like a binnicle compass but a tiller makes placement critical.
>>> Ric
>>> Dadventure.
>>>
>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>
>>>> On Dec 22, 2020, at 8:53 AM, JeffSmith <jeffsmithphoto at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>>> ?I agree with Peter Nyberg mainly because I have had boats with bulkhead
>>>> mounted and binacle compasses and much prefer the later, because it is
>>>> easier to steer to. The compass that comes closest to a binaccle mount
>> could
>>>> be the
>>>> Ritchie Compass Ritchie Xp-98W X-Port Tactician Compass - White
>>>> Mounted below the companion way as Peter suggests works for me. While
>>>> Radiant came with a bulkhead mount, I plan on mounting the Richie  in
>>>> addition - when I get around to it.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----
>>>> Jeff Smith
>>>> 2009 R22 #101 RADIANT
>>>> Atlantic Highlands Municpal Harbor
>>>> Atlantic Highlands, NJ
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Sent from: http://rhodes-22.1065344.n5.nabble.com/
>>
>>
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