Hi Mark,

we never made a hole in the tramp to fit the Silva compass. A simple fiberglass plate with a small fitting for the compass was sewed (can you say that in english, sewed?), to the trampoline with double thread. When we removed it, we just cut the stitches. The whole fitting was made in three short evenings in my basement.

We did the same thing when we wanted to stretch the spi downhaul to the aft beam. Two small fiberglass plates was holed, sanded, and sewn to the tramp with some extra rubbered fabric between the plates to catch any strands wanting to slip. Then we cut the hole in the tramp.

How did your patch over the center sheeting hole come out? I guess the tramp had stretched a bit around it? If the holes can't be patched in a nice way, I would have bought a kit for a new trampoline from Sailrite and buildt a new one. Alternatively, used a very large patch, perhaps even from hull to hull.

As the Tacktick is expensive, we have tought about getting a cheap digital compass while waiting for a new budget year, and seal it well with silicone. Hopefully it would last for a season that way, but we have not found a useful model yet.