Just a few additional thoughts on the pump installation. Lots of good data so far. Foot pumps are great ways to empty a kayak quickly and efficiently --- good to see you installing one.

Mounting a footpump on a good, solid bulkhead is still your best bet if the boat design allows this. Don't think I'd try having the shaft going through the bulkhead, though. For the reasons you cited.

You do want to minimize the amount of hose you run and the bends in the hose that you use, but not using a scavenger hose of any sort will leave a lot of water in the boat --- to the point that you may still be unstable. A half inch clearance at the bulkhead means much more than a half inch of water at the pump, and at least an inch more where most of the water is --- under you at the lowest point in the boat. Brit boat designs, which pretty much started this trend, use a hose which comes back and terminates in a strum box --- looks sorta like a vacuum cleaner attachment for getting into upholstery, except it's open at the side instead of the end, and the side is placed against the bilge of the boat at the keel --- and the strum box is usually located under the seat.

For overboard venting, both the footpumps I've seen --- Guzzlers and Hendersons --- have a three part valve which pretty much keeps water out. You don't really need another valve. More weight, more complexity. If a little water gets badk in through the pump, it won't be any more than comes in around the cockpit coaming. Pump it out! As to location for the vent, traditional wisdom --- the Brits again --- says either at the side above the water line or out through the deck is best. I'd never locate an overboard fitting below the waterline, and certainly not on the bottom. Either the corrogated or reinforced hose will work, but the corrugated is not as prone to collapse when used as a pickup hose as the reinforced is. And corrugated hose does bend nicely. If you need a 90 degree bend, however, you're better off with a fitting. There's a lot of friction and back pressure generated when you bend any of this hose in a tight radius.

Personal experience is with Hendersons, but the Guzzlers should work fine. I have a Henderson in my VCP Pintail ("British Heavy") which has served me well for about seven years of year 'round paddling; I've also recently installed another Henderson as I was building a CLC North Bay with good result. The small volume and very small bulkhead in the North Bay (20" beam) makes the somewhat smaller Henderson a viable option to the Guzzler.

Good luck with the project, Jack. Keep us posted on your progress, please.

Jack Martin