soft area in front of sliding door

[paulga]

the deck in front of the starboard side sliding door is a recessed area (with steps on both sides), it is visually soft, has highly elevated moisture levels and sounds soft when percussion testing. The moisture may be coming from the sliding door track screw holes.

I heard soft spots is common for old trawlers. Here the concern is there is a steel fuel tank right under the deck area, so water may get to the tank and rust it.

Is it sufficient to reseal the sliding door track?

 

[Comodave]

Not really. That is a first step to help stop the bleeding. You really want to get the soft core out so the moisture stops damaging more core. It seems to me that with your bow pulpit/deck core issues it would be good for you to learn how to repair deck coring. Buy the needed tools and do some studying on how to do it. Boatworks Today has some good videos on how to do this. There are probably many more on Utube too. If you learn how to do this work with the needed repairs on your boat that you have posted already you will save yourself $10K or more in repair costs. And there may be more areas that need to be repaired . There are usually more than you think that have wet core. It can be hard physical work but not too difficult technically. And you absolutely want to do everything possible to protect the steel fuel tanks.