Deck Repair and Mast Support Concerns

[Aha may]

Hello all. With the help of my Nissan 9.8 outboard, I have been sailing my GT26 all summer without a mast. Due to crane issues, I never raised it. Regardless, my family and I have had a wonderful summer motoring about, fishing and swimming.

This is a new boat, to me, as I purchased her in the spring and until this weekend I had thought everything was perfect with her.

As I pulled up the anchor this past Sunday, I felt a very soft area on the deck surrounding the base of the pulpit. There are a number of spider cracks in that area as well.

My questions/concerns are as follows:

I have yet to search this, but how does fibreglass get soft? What's the repair here - just cut out soft stuff and somehow just patch in hard stuff? (I know it's not as simple as I made it sound)

Furthermore, this boat has a very far forward mast. Hopefully that shows in one of my attached pictures. Judging by the picture and from what I can tell the soft area is no more than 1.5 feet from the pulpit base, do you think I might have mast structure/support issues when I do actually get it up next year? The mast is forward the keel and there is no support post below it.

Anyhow, hopefully this isn't as convoluted as I typically make things.

Also hopefully, you can let me know what you think.

I am new to sailing and even boating in general, but I am eager to learn and do things on my own.

Thanks

Chris

[Aha may]

I seem to be having difficulty uploading more than 1 photo.

[Aha may]

Here is the view including the step.

[chris95040]

The fiberglass itself isn't soft. Your deck is likely a composite sandwich - the bread in the sandwich is fiberglass of some thickness, the meat is typically wood or foam. The bread is called the 'skin' and the meat is called the 'core'.

Relatively light (and cheap? maybe) core can hold the top and bottom layers of fiberglass apart a certain distance, the stiffness of the whole enchilada (err, sandwich) is related to this distance. You can make a really strong (stiff) deck this way with a lot less weight than if you tried to achieve that stiffness with fiberglass alone. Then some knucklehead drills a hole in it, water gets in over the years and rots the core, and you feel squishy stuff underfoot.

Ordinarily this isn't a big deal, (remove the top skin, scoop out and replace the rotten core, seriously bevel the fiberglass surrounding the repair and adhere new fiberglass & resin skin) but ordinarily people already know about this stuff before buying an old boat, and ordinarily it isn't soft near the mast, and ordinarily there is some support structure under the mast inside the boat (posts to bring the load down to the keel, or plywood cross-sections, aka bulkheads.)

I'd consult a professional if I were you. Also, the makers of a popular epoxy resin used in this sort of repair published a good book about this subject, i think this is it here:

Fibreglass Boat Repair & Maintenance Guide - WEST SYSTEM by ATL Composites