So near and yet so far

Having picked up the footblock about lunchtime it should have been a simple matter to replace it.Note that is, "should have".

The first of the three fixing bolts came out easily. The second two were simply turning in place. Having no idea how they were installed made the task a little trickier.What exactly was under the deck - nuts and a backing plate one presumed,but couldn't be sure? The remaining two bolts just turned in place , were they stripped perhaps? After three years of "discovery", nothing is beyond the realms of possibility.

To hopefully resolve the question I 'phoned a friend'  who I hoped might know or be able to find out the answer,
Clearly this simple replacement of like for like wasn't going to be easily achieved and we were probably going to need bits and pieces we didn't have.
As most of the industrial area is the north of Hobart we decided that the easiest place to head for was the Prince of Wales Marina, so we would be able to access whatever we needed to do the job.Unfortunately it was Friday afternoon and not much was going to happen now until Monday.

The silver lining to this unfolding scenario was that we were now alongside and so over the weekend Jo and I caught up with one of our cousins and his family. Bonus!

Monday morning and back on the phone to enquire about  the simplest way to remove the deck liner in the cabin below the deck section in question, without damaging anything. Progressed up to a point - following instructions, I  disassembled the Ocean air hatch fitting , turns out it wasn't actually necessary to the task at hand , but I know how to do it now ! We proceeded to the point where I didn't feel at all comfortable about going any further in case we damaged the deckhead liner, so called a local shipwright to assist. He removed the liner and assessed the job.

https://youtu.be/Hdje7jho9fY

The precise problem that we had,was that the only bolt extracted up to this point didn't actually fit the new block, so it appeared that new holes in the deck were going to be required. That in turn meant first the existing holes would need to be filled and new ones drilled. It all seemed very odd as it is an exact replacement block


Whilst waiting for the shipwright to return, Peter fiddling around with the new block and the old bolt,had a breakthrough moment when it became apparent that the fixing point sleeves in the block had been drilled out during installation in Vietnam to take a larger imperial fixing bolt than the 6mm size that the block manufacturer has designed! This was confirmed by email later on from the boat builder. Sure would be handy to know these things before wasting a week and blowing all possible chance of making the rally!
Conundrum resolved and another item for the ever increasing 'how should this logically work/why is it so' memory bank. By the time I finish my sailing days I reckon I will probably have witnessed the majority of the boat in pieces for one reason or another . Wish I knew more about the actual construction of the boat as it would make life so much easier!