When shown the compass first time quite a few sailors say they find a price of some 220 US$ a bit expensive for a modification consisting only of a couple of markers on the outside of the compass.  They believe that the pointers on the edge of the card is a standard feature of most compasses. But most of the work with the modification is inside the compass.

>Price, specifications, how to select >There is plenty to gain from wind shifts >You need a compass! Benefits of Ansar compass no:  >2 and 4 The best! >2 with the cupola upwards. >1 >3 Set up and read: >Ansar 4. Simplest! >Ansar 2 >Automatic compensation for tacking angle, Ansar 4  >A comparison with electronic compasses >How to pay, prepayment only! >Warranty. >How to mount the compass >Background of compasses >The modification takes time >Compass manufacturer Silva's site >Small scale local distributors wanted! >Back to the compass home page   Email with comments, suggestions, questions or just to say hello. Note line below! At home or traveling? Sometimes I travel for weeks and can't always respond to email. Postal address & Telephone number. Modified July 2001. Counter: . My home page magazine articles, lectures.  The world's fastest skate sail, 120 km/h (75 MPH) is another of my top performance designs.  Copyright © 1996-2001 Anders Ansar. Permission is granted for reproduction provided that the whole document remains intact.

First the liquid is poured from the compass. Then the compass is opened with a special tool. Making the pointers assembly (finally mounted on the compass card).  The pointers material is first given the curvature of the inside of the compass housing.  Then the pointers are cut to the right size. A circular transparent plate a bit bigger than the compass card is made. Using a specially made jig (took many hours to make) the pointers are mounted at the edge of this circular plate. The base of the compass card is detached from the compass housing and modified to accommodate the pointers assembly.  The pointers assembly is mounted on the compass card. First orientated, then temporarily glued. Some six minute holes are drilled and the assembly is then secured with thin metal thread.

The base of the compass card is mounted in the housing. The play between the pointers and the inside of the compass housing is checked. The base is trimmed to get small but sufficient play. This is a time consuming trial and error procedure. The compass is closed with a special tool and again filled with liquid. The movable markers are made by hand. Each consists of some two parts glued together and trimmed for appearance and size by hand. The markers are mounted on the outside of the compass.                Finally each compass shall hopefully also bear its cost of development, patents (a few thousands of US$), design patents, writing of the instruction manual, production of leaflets, selling costs and also the production of these Internet pages (the last took in the order of 100 hours).  There are also taxes to be paid. Purchase tax to be paid for compasses sent to European Community countries is 20 percent. So, altogether these compasses are relatively inexpensive.