How he dealt with the cavity aft of the lead on his designs:
"There was never supposed to be a cavity aft of the ballast I don't do that. As drawn the "cavity" was supposed to be filled with foam and glassed over to the top of the ballast, I don't like the idea of a cavity that you can't reach to the bottom. I would use some pour in place foam and glass that over as per my design. There should be a slope to the foam on top so it drains to a natural sumo forward at the aft end of the ballast. Sorry but I do not have a scanned drawing to show what I originally drew for this detail". Bob P.
That is what I did to Journey. After adding layers of glass to the bottom for strength, we used vermiculite ( available as a soil additive from home stores) coated with resin to fill. Then fiberglass closure on top. Took a few days as the vermiculite was added in lifts to prevent cooking off the resin too fast. Worked great and was good piece of mind knowing my keel was now bullet proof.
Did you fill the cavity up flush with the lead? Pictures if you have some.
My measurement was my wife's easy reach into the bilge. It wasn't to the top of the ballast. I don't think I would do that in any case as I wouldn't want whatever came off the engine to flow out forward and I did want a bilge deep enough to have the pumps go off with only a small amount of water in them.
No pictures of the bilge after the repair, but here was the reason for it:
http://www.galleywenchtales.com/2016/03/uh-oh-haul-out-surprise.html
Thanks for the link! The deep bilge situation is something we'll have to deal with next year. The vermiculite/epoxy followed by foam route will be the solution for AMITY.