Three years later, after many attempts to compensate it, several lost contests because of bad positioning and plenty of reverified chart corrections, it became a conversation piece. He was taking bearings on a charted tower. None of his bearings crossed within a mile of our obvious location, which we verified by another technique. Otherwise, I have had excellent results with my hand bearing compass on sailboats and my current 21 foot outboard sport fisher. I recommend compensating and trying before you buy.
Relative bearings are angles relative to a boat's heading measured clockwise from dead ahead.
This measurement is usually made with a pelorus, which can be purchased or easily made at home. If your boat has a hardtop, you might consider a periscope pelorus. I have seen government surplus periscopes mounted on hardtops but don't know about their origin. Knowing the boat's heading is important when taking a relative bearing, as you must use the deviation for the boat's heading when converting the bearing to true before plotting. In my opinion, the second most useful navigation instrument after a compensated compass is the basic plastic sextant.