Compression post movement

There has been about a 1/2 inch movement to starboard in the compression post on my ericson 35. The bulkhead has seperated from the hull and the whole unit seems to be very slowly moving ( 1/2 inch in 4 years). Can anyone give me some insight into why this is happening and how to fix the problem? I was thinking of slackening the standing rigging and using a small car jack to press it back in place. Then tieing it in to the starboard bulkhead with a nice looking arched brace. Does this sound like a good idea or am I right out to lunch.

Bulkhead fix???

Well I can give you some insight that may or may not apply to your boat. First, my boat is an Ericson 25+ 1979 model. None of the bulkheads were connected to the boat in any way structurally. They seemed to be just sitting there in fiberglass slots built into the boat. This concerned be greatly and I bolted the main bulkhead on starboard to the sette and the glasswork forming the cabinet in the head. After some severe cracking occured in the fiberglass under the bulkhead by the compression post and the whole area by the compression post looked like it droped about .75" or so. I put the boat on the trailer and this pushed up the area by the compression post and closed the cracks some. Ground down the cracks and glassed with 20oz cloth and epoxy the floor and bulkhead together from the compression post to the seat. To this day no more cracking or moving bulkhead. Now the dang compression post wanted to move side to side and fore and aft. Yikes, so now I took off the mast step and straigtened the compression post. Drove four long screws in from the deck into the top of the compression post. Then replaced the teak trim piece in the head that covered where the bulkhead and the compression post meet with a thicker and wider piece and screwed the whole catastraphe together. On the port side the partial bulkhead got bolted to the cabinet at the end of the sette. Ok hope this helps or maybe I am rambling. Ryan

Is this a problem that would make this not a blue water boat, or something that could be fixed and trusted?

Fix it!!!

I do not see any issues with fixing the compression post or bulkhead. I would consider tabbing the bulkhead to the hull and some kind of positive attachment method of tying the bulkhead to the compression post would be good. Good ahead and fix it. The boat will be fine afterwards. Have a good surveyor look at it or a yard with a really good glass guy. Ryan

Apparently I'm not the only one with concerns about my compression post. Here are a couple of pictures of what is happening to mine. It seems that the teak column (I assume this is teak) has a twisted grain which has developed some cracks, which I attribute to compression stresses (I am not a structural engineer, so I'm guessing). I plan to wrap two stainless 'U' straps around the top of the post and bolt them together to ensure that the crack doesn't spread any wider.

Right on guys. Im going for it!!!! Thanks for the info.