Before I actually cut the pots and pans cabinet frame or the counter I balked at what to do next and the project stalled. So I moved on to something else and started sizing up what I would do with the quarterberths, which by now had been stripped of all wood trim.  I had already planned to get rid of the smallish doors that provided access to the spaces between the q-berth side walls and the hull.  They made getting things in and out of those spaces difficult at best.  I would replace them with longer openings that did not have doors.  It just meant doing some fiberglass work and buying yet more teak.  I noticed that the straight sidewalls of the q-berths and the curve of the hull made the space in between deeper in the middle by quite a bit.  It was too bad that there wasn’t that much space at the forward ends of the q-berths.  That might have solved my pots and pan storage problem - the reason I balked at cutting the counter to put the seat in.

Then the light bulb lit!  Why not in effect move the forward ends of the q-berth walls out a bit?  I held up a piece of plywood parallel to the boat’s centerline between the aft wall of the galley counter to where it touched the inward angling q-berth wall about 24 inches back.  I measured from the middle of the plywood to the hull through one of the old openings and it was 12 inches – standard depth for overhead kitchen cabinets.  Bingo!  Cover the plywood with countertop laminate, remove the old wall section that would be behind the plywood, build in a shelf, use the doors and frames removed from the q-berth, and the pots and pans problem is solved, without impinging on the sleeping space in the quarterberth no less.  While I’m at it, why not do the same thing to the port side quarterberth? - Tool storage or whatever.  I was on a roll.  I could add deep shelves across the back of the q-berths as well.  Suddenly the quarterberth area became a treasure trove of newfound storage space!  Add expanding pockets along walls that form the cockpit well to store clothes.  Build tracks on the q-berth ceilings to store the dining table and the hatch boards when not in use.  Total space intrusion: practically zero.  Brilliant!!