Here's one way that is quite simple and conveniently groups the column endings for each line in an array:

    #!/usr/bin/perl

    use warnings;
    use strict;

    while (<DATA>) {
        my @columns = do { my $s; map $s += length, /(\s*-+)/mg } ;
        print "@columns\n";
    }

    # Output:
    #
    # 13 40 50 56 83 90 96 109 122
    # 14 22


    __DATA__
       ----------  -------------------------  --------  ----  --------
+-----------------  -----  ----  -----------  -----------
       -----------  ------
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Cheers,
Tom