Cheer Men PT38 bilge

My 1981 38 foot Cheer Men sedan has a glassed in 'false floor' under the full length of the forward cabin sole. It appears when the boat was built this was intended to keep any water out of the lowest point of the boat and level it up with the space between the engines via one small limber hole.
I noticed last month that the space is full of water, in fact it was 1/4" above the false floor. So I used a hole saw to cut through the floor and extract the water. Clearly it has been wet there for many years as the plywood under the layer of glass is mush and the water was stagnant. Next spring I'm putting a bilge pump down there and that will deal with the water building up.
Any other forum user with a similar boat with the same strange floor in the bilge compartment? If so have you taken it out? I'm not keen on tearing up the cabin sole in the companion way and forward stateroom to cut it out completely but the two small access hatches are useless for that task.
Maybe on a related note [or not] now the boat is hauled I pulled the drain plug from the aft end of the keel [lowest point] and a small amount of water came out, had glycol in it too from winterizing the Lehman's, I seem to have sand in there or bits of fine concrete. Is that what they ballasted these with?

Thanks folks - I've only owned wood boats before and while we love the Cheer Men the Taiwanese construction is a puzzle some times.

Greetings,
Mr. 2d. Could you possibly connect the "two small access hatches" and replace with one larger hatch?
Regarding the sand/concrete...We used to have a Marine Trader that was ballasted with concrete so, yes, you could have some aboard as well although in our case the whole keel was filled (sort of) with concrete. There was a large-ish void in the keel (picked up on the initial survey) filled with garbage (empty soy sauce packets and chopsticks) that we had repaired before delivery. Puzzles? You want puzzles?

no chicken bones in the bilges?! - we were thinking of renaming her "Dinner for Two" now it seems even more appropriate. All my prior wood boats had floor boards the length of the cabin [what a concept]. I'm just concerned about getting a nice clean saw cut as the parquet floor is in mint conditions. If I do any thing it might be with a 6" or 7" hole-saw spaced out in three or four locations and fit with stainless twist out inspection ports.

thanks for the reply -

Greetings,
Mr. 2d. Get yourself an oscillating multi tool Oscillating Tool | Princess Auto
There are a good variety of thin blades whereby you can possibly slit between the joints on the parquet minimizing the "damage". Just make sure it's running before you start your plunge cut.

Boy!, does your '81 Cheerman PT 38 Europa share a lot of detail with our '84 FuHwa 38 Europa!

Here's a pic under the forward cabin. The vertical sides of the space are the stringers that run the length of the boat. The angled sides are the inside of the hull (duh!). I assumed that the flat bottom was covering whatever is inside the keel. That flat bottom extends aft and drops down a smidge to form the bilge sump.

Look anything like yours?

The area we have is flat and at least the width of the companionway sole. looking at your picture they would have placed 'the floor' across the width to be higher than the vee'ed sides you have in the picture. OR is this photo below the mystery floor not just the sole.

@dboat, the sole is carried on the white transverse beams that cross the stringers.

Pic taken by blind shots through the hatch in the sole. This one's looking aft/port. Plastic holding tank and its vent Love how the sole floor beams don't seem to be resting on anything. Don't know why the members framing the hatch are not painted like the rest. Certainly do not know how they got the holding tank in there, nor do I like the rusty steel clips 'holding' it there.

thanks again. I'm thinking of getting a cheap USB camera with a bright light of go exploring. I guess I've been spoiled- my prior boats were built by guys who understood how to build boats. to be fair I shouldn't be too harsh, the boat is 35+years old and the teak decks don't leak the windows don't leak and the interior teak has no water stains, I guess the stuff you can see they did right. Plus, the John Norek designed hull is excellent in rough conditions.