We have been using the Nautalytics Compass for the 2015-2016 Winter J/70 season and are very happy with it. The performance of Nautalytics Compass has been a real visual improvement from others I have used. Electronic compasses certainly have strengths and weaknesses, but the most important performance quality in a small boat compass is visibility. Can you see the display on sunny days, cloudy days, or rainy and bad weather days?
On the J/70 we, like most other boats, use two separate displays. One display is a GPS unit that provides current position, speed and heading all from the satellite data. The second display used by the boats is a stand alone compass that provides the actual heading direction used for head-to-wind reading and sailing angles during the race. The Nautalytics Compass is the perfect unit for our compass course heading display.
All of the different electronic compasses utilize some sort of polarized filter to help reduce sun glare on the display. Most sailors, including myself, wear polarized sunglasses to help us reduce the glare from the sun and off the water. Often, as the boat changes heel and orientation, the filter on electronic compasses interfere with the polarized sunglass lenses and can often make the display hard to read.
After sailing with Nautalytics Compass in several events, there has not been any instance where the display was affected by glare or the polarized lenses on my sunglasses. In fact, in our last event, the first day of racing had overcast and rainy conditions and our GPS unit was almost unusable when the rain on the display created a glare from the overcast skies. During the entire day of rain, overcast skies and occasional sun, the Nautalytics Compass was unaffected and easy to see and use.
Geoff Becker
