: some more thoughts, and questions. also, as the responses are a little
: convoluted in their placement, i'm not sure where best to place this - so
: i thought here.

: 1. anyone ever tried to place additional inlet pipes with switches (valves)
: so that other compartments could selectively be pumped out through the
: same pump? ( maybe that is making things unnecessarily comples)

Interesting idea, but I'm not sure how useful it would be. I guess it would be handy in the case of a lost or failed hatch cover, but if you holed the hull, you would just suck in more water as you pumped it out.

: 2. how about an additional inlet fitting (controlled with a stopcock) that
: would enable an extra length of hose to be fitted to enable one to pump
: out a buddy's boat by passing the end of the hose into his cockpit?

Another interesting idea. The one downside I can see is that you'd have to leave your spray skirt open in order to do this. If conditions were rough, that would be a serious liability.