I think that even folks with electric or foot pumps generally bring a hand pump with them. At least they should. Never know when the other stuff will fail. And like you said, you may have to pump out another paddler. In salt water especially, things fail. Hostile environment and all that stuff. Backups are important.

Matthew

: I've thought about this for almost every boat I've built and talk myself out
: of it for these reasons as well as the thought of adding weight to carry
: every time I take the boat out. It's worse if you have several boats as
: they tend to sit alot between uses and would certainly result in dead
: batteries just when you needed them. Yet another downside is if you use a
: pump just for your boat you won't have one to pump out someone elses boat
: if they dump. Always nice to have safety equipment to help out your
: paddling buds if they get in trouble.

: Bill H.