It is now mid boating season here in the north east, and a good time to look over your bilge pump.  The bilge pump can be all that stands between your boat, a few good rain storms, and a rolled or sunk boat.  A quick check can save you a lot of problems. Spend 5 minutes now and check these things:

1. Use the dash switch in the manual position to make sure the pump operates.   Listen to the pump.  It should be a low, steady hum.  An spitting, grinding, skipping, or screeching sounds are cause for alarm.  If you hear something, find the problem, and/or replace the pump.  Most bilge pumps do not last that long before they need to be replaced.  They are just not that well build these days.
2. Put the dash switch in the automatic position, and then reach into the bilge and activate the float manually.  The pump should turn on immediately.   While you are looking at the bilge, make sure there are no hoses, wires, or other debris that may obstruct the movement of the float.  Something keeping your float from moving will either prevent your pump from evacuating the bilge water, or burn out your pump motor.
3. Remove the pump from the base and make sure the impeller area is free of debris.   Bilges are often full of sand, rocks, fish scales and broken bit of god knows what.  These bits can jam the impeller or if they are smaller, break the blades of the impeller so it can no longer move the bilge water.  If your bilge is full of gunk, you should take the time to clean it out before it ruins your pump.
4. Check the electrical connections, both at the pump and at the switch.  If there is corrosion, take the connection apart and clean it with a small piece of sand paper.  Even a little corrosion will cause a significant drop in the voltage available to the pump.  Low voltage will cause your pump motor to fail prematurely.  If you have a multimeter ( as a boat owner you should), check the voltage at the battery and at the pump.  If the difference is more that 2%, you have a problem somewhere and need to find it and correct it.   It is a good idea to use a little dielectric grease or something similar when you reassemble the connection, to keep it clean in the future.  If the metal of the connection is really badly corroded, replace it with a new connector.

As with most boating things, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.  You may not give much thought to your bilge pump because it is hidden away, but when you need it, you need it working right!

We get a lot of questions about how to fix gel coat damage, so here is brief overview on patching damaged areas.

We start by sanding the damaged area with 36 git first.  The goal here would be to dull the entire surface with a consistent scratch pattern.  You also need to sand an inch or two into the undamaged  gelcoat so you will get a good bite with the fairing compound.  Next, apply a fairing compound(like Bondo, only better) to the damaged area to fill it to the unsanded level.  We use Polyfair F26, http://www.atc-fp.com/product.aspx?id=13, as it is easy to work with and bonds well.   Apply thin layers with a plastic spreader, sanding between passes.  You will likely need several passes to get a good flat  surface, with nice radii.  A common problem at this point is to put thick, messy layers down, thinking it will save time.  It really does not, and ends up wasting material too.  Take your time and do a good job.   It is best to do a rough sand while the polyfair is still a little rubbery,  what we call green.  This is usually about 10 to 25 minutes, depending on temperature.  Use a good sander with 80 grit.  If you don’t have one,  use a flat piece of wood and stick the sand paper to it.  You should use long strokes in the same direction, changing the direction with each layer.  This will allow you to see what each fill is doing, and also level out the surface.

For the rough sanding, do not try to get it perfect.  The goal is to get the fairing compound close, while it is rubbery and easy to sand.  Wait til the compound fully hardens to feather your edges and finish things up.  This is often several to 24 hours after application.  Sand up to 220 grit.

Once you have your fairing done to your satisfaction, clean up all the dust from the sanding, especially on the surface.  Vacuums and compressed air work good here.    Mask off anywhere you do not want overspray.   We use regular, unwaxed gelcoat of the correct color to cover the fairing compound.   If you have one of our boats, call us and we send you enough of the correct color.  We mix the gelcoat with up to 10% patch aid, which thins the gelcoat to make it sprayable, accelerates the cure, and adds a surfactant to insure it fully cures(Gelcoat has an air impeded cure).   http://www.ccponline.com/products/prod_total_CM.html  (see 970 series).

We use a cheap Harbor Freight gravity feed spray gun to apply the gel coat.  The one we use is about $14 and purple.  You need to dial down the pressure as low as possible and still get gelcoat to spray.  Turn off the forming air (This is the adjustment that make the fan pattern).  It should not be a fan, rather a circle.   The gelcoat should almost spit out of the gun in little blops.  Apply a thin coat, then let it cure off to the green phase; again, rubbery but not super hard.   Apply two to three more coats in a similar fashion, then let everything harden fully.  This usually takes overnight, but is dependent on temperature.  If you do not have an air compressor, you can do this in the same fashion with a disposable chip brush, but it is a lot more work.

Once the gel coat has hardened, you can start sanding.  I start with 220 wet, and go up from there, usually 200, 400, 600, 1000.  Again, sand with long smooth strokes, changing the direction of your scratch pattern. Use lots of water, as it keeps the sandpaper working longer.  I use silicon carbide paper, as it cuts the fastest.  Be sure to remove the previous grit scratches before moving on the next grit. We alternate the direction of the sanding strokes so we can see when we have sanded enough to remove the previous grit scratches.

We buff out the gel coat first with 3M Super Duty  buffing compound with a coarse buffing pad, and then use 3M Finessit II with a fine buffing pad to finish.

Good luck with your repair, and call or email if you have any questions.