A Swamping

A small open boat can easily be swamped, either through leaking, capsize or waves breaking over the side of the boat. Boats then vary as to how serious the swamping can be.  

A classic story of a swamping is that of Webb Chiles, who was sailing a Drascombe Lugger across the South Pacific. At one point he pitchpoled (went head over heels) in the rough sea. 

Webb Chiles took this photo of his swamped Drascombe Lugger

The boat was righted but as quickly as he tried to bail out the water, it kept coming in through the centreplate case, a fault found in some dinghies. 

His small inflaable

To keep dry he launched a small inflatable and he moved between his waterlogged boat and the inflatable, eventually drifting to an island and using the inflatable to row to the shore. The comparatively warm water and his inflatable dinghy had saved him. Webb Chiles went on to complete an epic 20,000 mile voyage in the same boat.

In the cold water off the English coast, a swamping can be dangerous. Recently, a remarkable 93 year old sailor capsized his eleven foot dinghy in the sea off the entrance to Chichester harbour, with the same swamping difficulty as Webb Chiles. A fishing boat spotted him and by the time the lifeboat arrived he was suffering from hypothermia. Hats off to this sailor for his adventurous spirit.

The dinghy that was swamped off the the entrance to Chichester Harbour as rescued

 (From the Yachting and Boating World)

PicoMicroYacht fortunately cannot swamp because it immediately drains, but it is low in the water, so could get very wet in a rough sea.

A Laser Pico being sailed across the English Channel by Dave Birch in 2016

Pitchpoling: An example in a racing dinghy