The oft discussed outboard extra ballast revealed

[ebb]

If I might venture a guess:
Hopefully DFO laid some frp over the lead he put in there to make it more convenient to pump water out from that low point in the boat.

If that is the case, and the alteration was not serious - like filling the spaces around the lead with concrete or god forbid plastic or 5200 - then removal could be relatively direct.

Mike could advise you on this.

If I was faced with the problem, I would think how to break the encapsulating skin. Couldn't work with a chisel down in the sump. I might get an old stanley chisel, take the handle off and weld a stout rod to it, something you can cut to shorten if too long to hammer. Start chiseling at the corners, it could be a piece of cake.

To chisel frp you need a very sharp edge. You grind a sharp rough edge on a wheel as often as it dulls, no need to dress the edge. A 1" chisel might be the handiest. You've got to find out what is in the space between the lead and the hull! Hopefully it's water.

After you've chiseled the skin away:
To get the lead out that has had the rings cut off, you might get the purchase you need to lift them by drilling a hole or two in the lead of the correct size to turn in a lag bolt or two. Or a large eye bolt. And MIKE them out of that sump!

(It IS possible to get a small rightangle grinder down in there with a flat cutting disk or a small 40 grit wheel made of pieces. These make short work of frp but shoots out glass and dust into every corner of you and the boat. Getting your face and neck and lungs down into that would be daunting! Maybe later after the lead is out you would use the tool to clean up the hull, but the mess it makes can be depressing. So you think you'll find all the glass dust?)


If the lead is somehow PERMANENTLY glued in, and all avenues of removal have been explored, there is one extreme method which may turn out to be fairly simple. That is to cut it out from the side!!!