Hi Bullet, welcome to Iboats.
Not sure what model you have, but I have a 96 1800cc with a soft deck. You may find that the foam supporting the deck is saturated. Mine was getting increasingly slower due to the weight.
I believe most of their mid 90's models were a tub construction, where the deck is molded to the gunnels. I havent dug into mine yet, its on drydock waiting
If u try patching the area, you will need to check the foam underneath after cutting out the soft area. This can be done by tunneling a piece of pvc cut to a point and twisted down the the hull bottom to check the lowest foam sections.
After you post a few more ties, you can put up a few pics so we can see what you have.
