: Bill,
: In my post I mentioned one unplanned and many pre-planned dumps. To clarify,
: these were wet exits and involved righting the boat, re-entering and
: pumping out. I have never experienced an undue amount of water in the
: boat. As I said, it's a matter of technique and practice. I no longer
: expect to find myself outside my boat but I practice it anyway, just in
: case. Also, my roll is still not bombproof and probably not very elegant
: but it works most of the time. I'm not advocating bulkhead free boats,
: just pointing out that bulkheads are not as essential as beginners are
: sometimes led to believe.

If you don't have bulkheads and instead have air bags or stashed gear that displaces water ... and doesen't get pulled out due to wave action when you're swimming ... yeah, I guess you're essentially as good to go as if you had bulkheads. OTOH if you have no bulkheads and no means to displace water that can enter the boat when you're swimming ... IMO you're taking an unnecessary chance.

I've had to assist in one rough water rescue of a guy in a boat with no flotation and no front bulkhead ... it was a practice session to determine how we could pull it off. As soon as the guy started simming the boat completely filled up and went into a Clopatra's Needle ... and from then on the rescue was a B to pull off with 2 people in boats assisted by the swimmer. Once your boat needles ... I don't see how you can pull it off unassisted.

To each his own but ... bulkheads, well sealed hatches and float bags are your friends.

Ken