Great fun to see what really holds your boat together after you've sailed it for 15 seasons. You can see a plywood patch was cut-glued and screwed in. Then the aluminum plate - drilled and cut to fit the fasteners and pulleys - was slathered and the sandwich was tightened down. This was all done in place at the boat yard(Burr Brothers). Must have taken a lot of time.

And I added a massive hardwood beam just aft of the aluminum sandwich, about 6 or 7 years ago. There's another original and stout wooden beam just forward of the binnacle. All this makes sense knowing the alternative to remove the cockpit sole and build a new one, wasn't easily available.

I've changed structure: the new base is 3/4" plywood over the original 1/2". Of course I won't need the aluminum(now eroded and pocked). The binnacle will through bolt the 1 1/4" sole with fender washers, and I see no need of such a large hole.