will it sink taking a wave....

[talltigeguy]

Having multiple pumps in the bilge is great for pumping water out once it's in but they aren't going to be able to keep up with the amount of water that's coming in when your taking waves over your bow. I think you guys may be letting paranoia get the best of you. I know it probably goes without saying but the best insurance is to develop good operating practice to keep it from happening in the first place. As Chpthril said your boat will float with multiple thousands of pounds of water in ballast bags. It'd take A LOT of weight to submerge it. Obviously it's possible but it doesn't happen all at once. Even if you did manage to submerge it they will float just under the surface. (Not ideal, I know but certainly not a Titantic moment)
I have a tsunami pump and hose I keep on board in case one of my reversible pumps fail so I can pump out a ballast bag by alternate means. It could be used as an emergency bilge pump also. In addition, with a reversible pump ballast system you could disconnect your bag fill/drain hose and stick it in the bilge to help drain it. (Assuming your ballast is already empty)

I think you are right. If you are in a bad storm and waves start coming in, the end is probably not that far away, and all the bilge pumps in the world won't save you.

There are scenarios where you may make a bad decision or two, and get the boat nearly submerged and having 2 pumps may be the difference between sinking or surviving. I think of the biggest wave I ever took over the bow during a windstorm at Lake Mead in my 2005 24V. I was going with the wind at my back (which is way harder than with it at your front, btw), and I managed to pierce the back of the wave in front of me while the wave behind me lifted the rear. I throttled the boat into the wave, huge rookie error, but it could still happen to any of us in the right circumstance. Water was instantly 8 inches above the floorboard. Thankfully, the waves were such that I could continue along in the water and it was not enough to sink me, even with the water I had just taken on. 30 minutes of bilge pumping later, I was back to having a good time. If the waves had been worse, cutting that time in half might have made the difference. On a side note, one of the guys I was with was laughing hysterically, but I was terrified knowing that a second wave like that meant we were swimming to shore. The wave blasted me in the chest and face, and a lot of the wave splashed over the bimini and rolled off of the back hatches, I had never seen anything like it.

Wake boats do sink:

[xpjim1]

We sank a Tige in 1998 in a Lake Mead storm. 2 waves is all it took. Boat was 6 feet underwater. Towed it to shore. Everyone in the cove came over with buckets and helped bale the water out of the boat. Bilge pump never stopped pumping. Got lucky as once the boat could float the ranger towed us in to Calville Bay. That is the day I met Matt from Boats of Nevada and through the years bought 2 boats from him. Best $400 investment in insurance. Basically got a new boat bac. Insurance should have totaled it.

[TigeFamily]

Hopefully, never happens to any of us. But that is why we pay for good insurance. Long as no-one riding in my boat gets hurt....if I take on that much water that fast, let it sink. I will get another one with the insurance money. Rather total boat than have $20-$30k of repairs and have a salvaged boat that I will never fully trust anyway. I think that 95% of the time its user error, we all saw that guy sunk himself.