Amazing luck. In the picture below, the teak/holly floorboard has a circular cutout for the saloon table support. The table has an aluminium socket on its underside which accepts an aluminium tube which in turn fits into a similar socket on the floorboard. Voila, a table. But, Dinah’s table is long missing, leaving a useless hole, a trip hazard, in the floorboard.

At the right is one of the ballast tank baffles with a circular cut out. The cut out was traced from the lid of a storage jar from the kitchen. It wasn’t measured from a compass, it was simply traced from the handy lid. No idea or interest in its size, just a useful circle.

Amazingly, the waste from the ballast tank circle is a PERFECT FIT for the floorboard!

To glue the waste disc in place, first tape a piece of acetate to the underside of the floorboard (epoxy will not stick to acetate).

The floorboard has a bit of a bow, so the toolbox serves to flatten it. The waste plywood disc, 12mm thick, has been glued in place with thickened epoxy, applied with a squeegee (old credit card) and another two pieces of acetate laid on top.

A pile of heavy books will serve as a poor man’s vacuum bag to compress the floorboard and the plywood disc..leave for 12 hours then solid!  LUCK!

Time to drill and fit the ballast tank hatches, this one is the starboard aft hatch cover, the closed cell neoprene tape (6mm thick and 25mm wide) has been fitted.

A cardboard template was made as a drill guide, the first five holes have been made, M6 bolts installed to keep it all steady.

Holes have been drilled, absent a drill press, some care is needed to ensure the holes are absolutely straight. The ballast tank panel has three coats of epoxy resin on the inside (the wet side) and two coats on the outside (the dry side). The hatch covers get the same treatment.

Next, a 13mm spade bit is used to widen the 36 drill holes in order to countersink the bolts. A bit of blue tape shows the depth (4mm) to drill.

All of the bolts have been inserted and the nuts tightened from below (thanks to a battery drill with a 10mm socket attachment). The neoprene has squeezed from 6mm to 2mm.

The countersunk bolts have been inundated with thickened epoxy resin, which, when dry, will prevent the bolts from spinning as the outer nuts are loosened or tightened. The blue tape is there to catch any epoxy overspill. If this first hatch releases okay, the other five hatches can be installed in the same way.  If not: back to the drawing board!