No, cutting in the shelf only gave access to scupper side. You still need to remove the hatch so that you can get to the deck drain side. For me the starboard side was harder and took 4 hours. The port side I got done in only 3 hours. I have no interest in doing this again to get to 2 hours
. My boat is a 2003 so I have to assume that yours is just as bad. My boat would have sunk!
I just asked about resealing the deck plates On another thread. Why do you say you don’t want to open up again so soon? Was the re-sealing a challenge?