Enyar-
See the photo below for my recommendations.
Basically, I would cut the top skin only for the foredeck according to my highlighted brush strokes. The key is to leave yourself a 2 or 3 inch border all the way around so that you have something to glass back to. Grind the gelcoat off the 2 to 3 inch flange.
Once you have the top skin removed, if it is in good shape grind off the gelcoat on the inside edge of the cut roughly 2 inches all the way around. Set it aside.
Dig out the soaking wet core. When very clean and dry, scuff up the top side of the bottom skin and place a piece of 1.5oz mat over the bottom skin. Wet it out and then use an air roller to make sure there are no air bubbles and the resin is distributed evenly. When it turns green and is starting to set up, you can bed in a new core (either marine plywood or a composite like coosa of the appropriate thickness--slightly thinner is my recommendation because you can always add more glass on top) with core bond or thickened resin. Place something heavy on the core to ensure proper adhesion. You may want to even drill some pilot holes in the core so the air and resin underneath have a place to go.
When that core sets up....now you need to determine how much glass you need to add on top of it that so that when you set the original skin back on, it is at the same height of the flange you left during the cut out.
Ideally, you would wet out another piece of 1.5oz mat on top of the new core and while that is wet, lay the original skin on top of it. The bottom of the top piece of the original skin should be clean and scuffed up. Right before you set the original skin down, you should roll some resin on to the bottom of it and then set it on the wet 1.5oz mat that you laid on top of the core.
Now, put some weight on the original skin and let it set up overnight.
When it is cured, grind any resin that overflowed out of the seam. Then cut to size (maybe 4 inches wide) fiberglass (or buy a roll of it) and wet it out and lay it over the seam that you cut in step 1. Once it is cured, you will need to grind it smooth, apply fairing compound, sand smooth and regelcoat. If you are neat and play your cards right, you will be able to save the interior portions of the molded in non-skid and the only area that will look new or different, is the 4 inch wide smooth band that you fiberglassed and regelcoated.
Obviously, this is a very, very simplified description but should get my point across. There is more than one way to do this but with some guidance, this is manageable size project for someone without a lot of experience.
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