Hand pump?? Wow, I thought those were a "break glass in case of emergency" item! Gee, MJ, how old are you anyway?? ;)

Having a self-bailing boat, to me, is a must. I was coming back into Ponce Inlet down in Fla and ran into 5 foot standing waves (wind and tide clashed). I never buried the bow, but I did get a large amount of water in the cockpit and was sooo relieved to watch the 'pit drain quickly. I also have 2 bilge pumps...one auto and one switch controlled at the helm. As I have an I/O, I feel the redundancy is a necessity. PLUS, I carry a hand pump for those "just in case" times.