Go ahead and stand on it! We're talking about a Hobie 16 here, a fun boat that you don't need or want to coddle like an "A" Cat. If it gets soft there's lots of real easy ways to fix it.

I bought my boat new in 1982. It's seen 20 years of very hard sailing and considerable deck-standing, lying upon, and other things we won't mention here. It's still competitive and very solid.

The biggest thing is to never store it with water in the hulls and with the drain plugs in. This is the primary cause of the delamination which results in soft spots. I made this mistake several years ago but it was easily fixed, and now a linebacker could jump up and down on my decks without denting them a nanometer.