Ariel is essentially a monocogue, ie it is the skin that carries the forces put upon it.
If you mounted blocks on either side of the opening where the 'bridge' was and pull up or sideways on them the stress is taken up instantaneously by a multitude of points strengthened by the curves and stiffened by the turns in the surface of the craft.
The force could be so great on one point it might tear out a chunk - but the essential shape can't change. Of course there could be sheer forces that might delaminate the skin.
Bulkheads keep the boat from twisting. Bamboo is an example of this construction. We have a matching set of longitudinal stiffners to insure against oilcanning - or shape changing, which really would compromise the structure. The more bulkheads, the better they are tabbed in, the less twist and canning. (I will bet that the sweet rounded form of the hull and it's thickness has never oil-canned in anybody's experience?)
The problem of the missing bridge may be that there is not enuf bulkhead there to totally stabilize the aft end of our peapod. Suppose we think of it as just an extra long cockpit. Now that the bridge is down.
That's why lifting the 'gascan' deck to make a horizontal bulkhead might help. Ribbing or flanges going up to the deck on the sides of the tilting slot may add some immobility. Altering that signature great-hatch by reconfiguring the deck back there - making it wider with a smaller hatch - keeping the look and sculpture, but only raise a center portion.
The cockpit well is not connected to the companionway bulkhead or the aft bulkhead. It's just hanging in there - part of the deck mold. I'm convinced that the cockpit must be majorly married to the lazarette bulkhead. This ought to create solid bracing and stiffness for the new open and much longer than the Commander's cockpit. It's redundant strength, and over-building and weight, paranoia, etc - because IMCO the shape won't change. Have to keep it from twisting.
Squeezed between two freighters? Sure. On a coral reef in a typoon... the boat's a sugar cube
well, that's what I feel. You'ld have to perform actual tests on the boat to produce engineering data, wouldn't you, Capt Mrgnstn.....?
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