: I suppose I could see something like this in the cockpit just
: behind the forward bulkhead. When we dumped the water, he lifted
: the nose with my help. It all took literally a matter of seconds
: to do, although in reality, as I've since learned with our
: particular boats, even when rolled they don't take on much water
: at all. We probably could have forgone the dump and gotten him
: right in the boat with an inch or two of water. We simply did
: the dump because that is what I had been trained to do in
: assisted rescues.

You did the right thing. An extra 2-3 seconds spent emptying the boat can save a lot of arduous pumping, or make the boat stable enough to paddle without pumping.

: My experience with a loaded boat is that they tend to be much more
: difficult to roll, but they are much more stable. I can see this
: as being a must have safety device for expedition length trips
: with long crossings in open water.

That's true, but only because the weight is secured. Water in a boat sloshes around and makes it unstable. It's particularly interesting with SOF boats, as after rolling or edging the boat hard, water can get hung up on the chine stringers and make the boat difficult to right.