All the boats have internal flotation blocks as a safety measure. I'm not sure what happened to the ones in your 16 - did it have deck ports? Someone could have removed them.
I wouldn't remove the flotation blocks. Yes, the boat would be lighter, but in the event you are holed, the hull would sink and turn an unfortunate incident into a recovery/rescue operation.
Anyway, since you've cut ports in, you can leave the covers off to let the foam dry out. On my old 17, I took an old kitchen exhaust fan and mounted it in a piece of round duct, then placed it over one of the ports to get the air moving inside the hull. That dried it out really quick.
If the block is in the way, you can usually slide it out of the way to get better access to the wing tube.
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