Ted, it helps to know if you are comparing apples to oranges on this stuff. I could see some flexible glass hulls having a slightly higher prediliction to stress risers with a rigid bulkhead compared to others. I met one fellow with a S&g kayak that had cracks right in front of the aft plywood bulkhead from heavy use while fully loaded. Then again I've got some white stress marks on a s&g kayak that aren't near the bulkheads and are near the minicell bulkheads. Seems to me that if you are antcipating use where the possibity of crunching the hull is going to occur then you should be glassing the hull accordingly regardless of the type or existence of bulkheads. In other words some kind of hull crunching that give rise to a stress fracture concentrated at the edge of the bulkhead might just as well manifest itself as a longer less concentrated fracture in the same area. one more opinion to toss in the circular file,