Compression Post Blues

[Brion Toss]

Hello there,
The surveyor did not determine a reason for the dishing? Really? Was there some conjecture that it might have been built-in as a birdbath? This is never a good thing to see, and always, it seems, directly related to mast compression, or rather the failure of the support structure that is supposed to oppose that compression.
Sometimes the deck is cored under the step, and the core slowly compresses over time. This in turn leads to cracking, which leads to water intrusion, which leads to rotting core, sometimes across the entire deck.
In other cases there is a wooden spacer at the top of the compression post that rots or sags, and in still other cases the post itself might buckle or rot. And finally sometimes it is the failure of the step that the post is sitting on. Or some combination of some or all of the above.
Recommendations? First of all, feel free to have that surveyor contact me. If there is something that makes this genuinely puzzling, I'd sure like to hear about it. If, as seems more likely, the surveyor simply doesn't understand what is going on here, I will presume to offer my opinion for their consideration.
Some posts are easy to remove -- with the mast out, of course -- by dint of a screwjack or wedge arrangement. Others are driven into place, and must be driven out, perhaps with the aid of a hydraulic jack to ease pressure. It's the kind of thing you want to learn about by working on someone else's boat, so I recommend getting good help for this one.
Finally, if we discover that the surveyor was, um, ignorant on the step issue, it raises the question: what else did they miss?
Fair leads,
Brion Toss