I made a few primitive drawings to try and help explain it somewhat visually.
I had removed all of the original sink, shelf, icebox, etc, leaving only the settees butted up against the original aft bulkhead a while back.
I cut the forward 14-16" (I forget the exact number) of cockpit footwell and footwell sides, up to the level of the seats, right at the corner between the horizontal top/seats and the footwell sides. The vertical cut runs right down along the forward seat lid drains, and the bridgedeck now extends aft to that point.
This part of the footwell included the drains, so I bored a hole in the aft end of the cockpit behind the tiller, and built up the cockpit floor so that water now drains aft, through that hole and then on out through the outboard well.
I cut out the after bulkhead down belowdecks, leaving about 4" of material along the top edge, and dropped a vertical cut 5-6" out from the hull sides. At settee level, that narrows to only about 2" of original bulkhead, cut down to & across at settee level. There is between 26-27" of height over the settee level up to the bridgedeck overhead. I am extending the settees at their original level back to what will be the new after bulkhead, this is in line with the forward cockpit seat drains, basically filling in the space where the inboard would be, over the keel sump.
The cockpit lockers will be separated and sealed off from one another, as well as from the space under the footwell. That will be it's own, sealable space for stowage, as will the areas under the settees/bunk.
I am using a telescoping ladder for access into the cabin; it extends to the forward edge of the berth when down, and can be folded up and out of the way against the companionway boards. The berth is a shallow 'U' shape, with each settee forming the "legs" - the extra bit makes for a length sufficient that either leg can be a 'downhill' sea berth when heeled over, each as long as I am tall, and also serves as seating. It would also be easy to put in a filler board in the middle of the U and have a really wide (larger than double bed) athwartships "in port" berth.
Forward of the berth/settees & up to the main bulkhead is galley on both sides, the v-berth area is the head and general stowage. To keep the heavy stuff low and centered, I have 2 AGM batteries that live under a sealed-off hump just aft of the main bulkhead; wiring goes up from them in tubes, snorkel-like to deck level then out to hull on each side before running fore/aft - so electrical should not get wet unless she sinks, that is the plan there. You step over the batteries going forward. I am going to try and put water tankage just outboard of those, under cabinetry.
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