Sedan 44 Ritchie compass error

[Sea Path 44]

Funny....I was calibrating my Raymarine ST7001 Autohelm and when I was finished it didn't correlate with my Ritchie Compass they insert at the top of the helm station. I brought out a hand held compass and away from the helm (behind the captain's chair), the hand held reading was the same as the Autohelm. When I moved the hand held close to the Ritchie compass Sea Ray installs, the hand held showed the same error as the Ritchie, leading me to believe that were Sea Ray sticks the Ritchie, there is too much magnetic disturbance with all of the electonics/gauges, etc., for the Ritchie to work properly. I guess, they put the Richie in for show? Surely can't rely on it though. Or is there someway to correct the error on the real compass they install?

 

[Four Suns]

There are two adjustment screws for calibrating the Ritchie compass. They are located on the bottom of the compass. You may want to download a manual from the Ritchie website on how to properly calibrate the magnetic compass. The dealer here never did that (nor did Sea Ray). They just installed it...