Those of us that learned to navigate the Great Lakes with a compass and a paper chart, and did so for 30 years, would never use a boat without a decent compass properly mounted and dialed in. Sure a GPS coupled with an auto pilot takes all the guess work out of navigating, but in rough seas I am going turn off the autopilot and handle the helm. When you can not see the shoreline over the curvature of the earth, or if you can it is just a blur in the distance, I want my compass and rely on it. And if the GPS fails, my chart and compass will get me where I want to be in a relatively straight line. I have only crossed Lake Michigan twice when you drive for hours without sight of land but both times my compass got me right where I wanted to be, thank you. When I was a teenager we did a trip to Isle Royale, in Lake Superior, in a dense fog for about two hours with a compass bearing from a road map because the chart store was closed. Never saw the Island until after we saw the buoys marking the harbor entrance.