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I am getting ready to cut a 6 inch hole in the floor of the cuddy just behind the mast on my DS II, One of the screws in the mast step flange is stripped, The bolt just spins with no bite. I want to inspect and repair the support under the floor if needed.
Wondering if there is rib under the floor that I may need to avoid when cutting the hole for the inspection plate, I am pretty sure I am not the first one to install a plate here.
Thanks in advance for any feedback.

There are two double ribs, one just forward of the mast and one just behind it.

Here's the one behind the mast:

This was taken with a small camera held in one of the inspection ports just aft of the cuddy.

The one in front (I don't have a photo) looks about the same.

I don't have a photo of the one in front because there's this flotation tank in my 1980 DSII:

This was taken with a small camera held in an inspection port I installed in the forward cuddy bulkhead (camera pointing aft).

Thank you Alan,
This is better than I could have asked for. It looks like I can go about 6-8 inches aft of the mast step and miss the ribs. It also appears that the compression post is metal with a flat plate on top and maybe nut and bolt combo or tapped threaded for bolt, I can deal with either. I was thinking it was going to be wood/glass combo and I would need to cut it out and fabricate a replacement.
This could be my weekend project.
Thanks for the great photos.

So how did it come out?

Update on the mast support, Using the photos Alan posted as a guide and a little floor thumping, I cut a 6 inch hole just forward and about 5 inches to starboard of the mast step casting. Reaching into the new inspection port hole I can report that there are indeed two ribs aft of the mast support. The first or most forward rib is right behind the tail end of the casting. The rib is about 1.5 inches wide. The second or aft rib is 8 inches aft of that and is just forward of the front edge of the center board trunk housing.
There are many options for cutting a hole forward of the mast step as the forward floatation tank is well forward.
On my 1980 DS II the compression post is metal and there is a glassed in block of wood at the top. Using an ice pic as a probe I found that the wood appears to be in good condition but the threading for the wood screws is sloppy on the forward hole.
I am considering drilling two new holes, oversized and filling with epoxy then redrilling new pilot holes for the screws.
That's what I know so far.

Thanks for the info, Skippa. I've got a bilge pump that needs to be installed, and discovering the flotation tank threw all my plans out of whack because I couldn't tell exactly where it was.

Sounds like I can make an inspection hole forward, in the same location as yours, and work through it.