: That's good information John and I see how that could happen. What I am
: thinking now is to drill a 1/32" hole and put a small piece of canvas
: over it. The canvas on folding buckets will leak until they become water
: soaked and the weave expands and they they become water tight. So it looks
: like air would pass through the canvas equalizing the pressure until it
: became soaked with water and then it would stop the water from intering
: the compartment.

: John

Why bother??? I don't think you've got a problem here. If your hole is near the top of the bulkhead, you won't get more than a few drops in the compartment -- nowhere *near* enough to compromise the floatation it provides. You're thinking of a scenario where you capsize, flip the boat upright and then re-enter from the side, right? Thanks to your built-in floatation, when you flip the boat upright, the cockpit will only be about half full of water, right? (probably less, *maybe* a little more, depending on how much water your large cockpit opening "scoops" in as you right it, and how much bouyancy your compartments are providing. From looking at your pictures, it seems that your boat will probably ride high in the water after you've righted it after a capsize -- since you've got floatation on the sides and both ends.) So the 1/32 inch hole (which is tiny!) is well above the water in the cockpit... and even, if, worst case scenario, it *isn't*, that is a very, very tiny hole, and it won't cause the compartment to flood... because, for one thing, once the water level in the (hypothetically) fully flooded cockpit dropps below the location of the *hole* it won't be dribbling into the bulkhead compartment through the hole any more. You'll reach that point long before the level of water in the compartment equals the water level in the cockpit.

Again, try it out (with the 1/32 hole, but without bothering with any duct tape, canvas or anything else)....and, then, if after doing some capsize & recovery drills, you find there's too much water in the compartment for your liking, then you've got a problem to solve using canvas or whatever.

Good luck--

Julie Kanarr