I went to tune my rig and noticed that everything was looser than it should have been and the forstay and backstay turnbuckles are approaching max adjustment. This led to pulling the water tanks and inspecting where the compression post meets the keel.
After poking around a bit, this is what I've deducted. There is a solid 3.5x2" floor joist ruining under the aft half of the compression post. There are three large stainless bolts going through the joist on the port side and it looks like they are passing through the bottom of the main cabin bulkhead on the forward side of the joist. Below all this, at the floor of the bilge, is a 4x6" block running athwartships which has been epoxied to the hull.. I guess I will call this piece the bilge block?
Sitting on top of the bilge block, behind (forward of..) the floor joist is a small block of rotten wood which I'm assuming runs between the bottom of the compression post and the top of the bilge block.
Since my access is pretty limited, and I cant really see much of whats happening behind the floor joist, my current plan is to take the sawzall to the floor joist and cut out a 6" section directly under the compression post. Then ill remove the rotten block of wood. Add another block of wood to the bilge block, doubling its width so it supports the compression post completely. Then insert a fresh epoxy sealed block of wood between the bottom of the compression post and the bilge block and lastly, wedging in some marine ply between the floor joist and bilge block to support it across the section I removed.
My only real concern here is that I'm cutting the floor joist, which looks to be part of the bulkhead support, into two pieces. My rationale for this being ok is that the compression post is now directly supported down to the bilge, not just half supported by a small block, and both sides of the cut floor joist will also be supported down to the bilge as well. Laminating a new floor joist up against the old one and passing longer bolts through the bulkhead and some on the starboard side to tie it all together crossed my mind but it could also be overkill. Also drilling the holes and getting access to the far side of the bolts would be a challenge.
Any thoughts/opinions would be much appreciated as I would like this to be a solid and efficient repair, while avoiding pulling up the floor or opening up more than I need too. Cutting out the shower pan could open up some more access but I would prefer not too.
Also opinions on what wood would be best. Using starboard or some other composite is definitely a consideration.
I'll upload some photos shortly...
