While you certainly can cut ports in the hulls to fix the soft spot, you don't absolutely have to. There is also a method of injecting epoxy into the hulls, specifically "git rot" epoxy. I did this on nearly the entire length of my starbord deck over a year ago and it has held up fine over the last year. Still rock hard. And I've probably been out on lakes/sea over 35-40 times since I've done it with no problems. There is a lot of info on this over on the hobie forums. The method is suggested by Matt Miller in the FAQ section.