Compass repair, Help

[Nereussailor]

Has anyone used a company called Island Compass South out of South Carolina?
I'm beginning to wonder if it's a legitimate company or not. On their website www.islandcompass.com they seem to be a legit company, but their business practices are pretty lame. Before I sent the compass, I called to see if they could fix it. Asa (the Owner) said send it in and he'd take a look at it and get me a quote. I sent my compass there over a month ago. I was never contacted about whether they had recieved it or not. They did receive it, He finally returned a call after I left multiple messages. and said that he got it, but that was it.
I still haven't heard a quote from them, which I expected within a few days. At this point, I'm not going to say whether anyone should use them or not, but let you make your own decision.

Dave

 

[Tim R.]

On the other hand these guys are great http://www.vikingoptics.com/compassrepair.html

They also require you to send in the compass for an estimate. They called me a day after they received it to give me an estimate and a few days later it was shipped back to me. It came back like a brand new compass for half the cost. Very satisfied. Total turn around time was less than 2 weeks.

 

[Bryce22345]

if its a Ritchie compass I wouldn't send it anywhere but Ritchie in Pembroke MA. http://www.ritchienavigation.com/
my Navigator compass rebuild was 1/3 the cost of a new one. they have a flat rate repair price and my turnaround was less than a week.

 

[Tim R.]

Mine was a Richie SP-5 and I can tell you that Viking was recommended by one of the most respected compass turners in Maine. He used to rebuild them himself but no longer has the time.

 

[CATNAP]

I sent my Ritchie to Cape Compass in West Falmouth, MA (a Ritchie authorized rep). A pleasant fellow named Jeffrey Kaufmann. $135 to replace all moving parts and the blown diaphram (that evacuated the oil into my aft cabin. Grammer frabbin grosser-markels!)

 

[PKFK]

Canadian Repair Options

For those of you in Canada, I had excellent service from Brewers Marine:
http://www.brewersmarine.com/

They repaired a Ritchie Globmaster (worth almost 800 CDN) for about 150 bucks - new dome, replaced fluid, etc....

I was happy with the work, price, and turnaround time (about a month). This was in off-season - I guess if it was in July I would prefer a couple weeks turnaround !!

Anyways - being in Canada is always a PITA for getting stuff, or getting it fixed, so I thought I would share the web link for a Canadian Ritchie repair service.

Paul