Along the same line of thought... I was out Sunday and I couldn't get any water to come out when I turned on the bilge pump ( the bilge is usually dry when I pull the plug anyway, so I wasn't concerned). Yesterday, I found that my bilge opening was clogged. I cleaned out the debris as best I could due to almost a 90* angle in the pipe under the gunnel. I fed some flexible wire about a foot long so into the opening and felt no further obstructions. You can hear the pump running when the switch is flipped. Is there a better way of checking out if it is working properly other than pumping some water into the drain plug hole and turning on the pump to see if its operational?