"About 6 years ago now, I [solved] what I saw on Aragorn as a conflict between our two uses of the boat, racing and cruising. Racing headsails and spinnakers always filled the V-berth and if they stayed aboard when we went cruising, there was really no good bunk for two people elsewhere but unloading and reloading those racing sails was too much of a pain.

 "I was having some deck repairs done over that winter and I decided at the same time to do some "surgery" down below to improve the sleeping situation. I had the boatyard cut off the outboard end of the aft dinette bench and the outboard end of the port aft bulkhead (cutting both of them in as far as the front of the icebox and stove cabinet). Then I had them join what was left of the aft bench to the forward dinette bench, thus creating an "L" shaped settee. My cushions were a hideous red/white/blue plaid which really dated the boat and since a few new cushions were needed anyway to fit the new configuration of benches, I re-upholstered everything inside (including the V-berth) with a more conservative fabric. (Surprisingly, the 22-year-old foam itself was in great shape!!)

"My solution to creating a queen-plus bed athwartships was to build a bulkhead-mounted drop-down table. At the lower drop-down level, it fills the gap between the upper edges of the port and starboard benches to make the bed.  A combination of some old and some new cushions covers the table-top nicely between the two settees to make up the bed in an area about 5' X 8'. With practice, 5 minutes makes up or stores away the bed.

"At the higher drop-down level, the new table serves as either a half-sized table in front of the port settee or with the second leaf raised, it's a full-sized table in front of both settees. We can seat 6 round that table for card games.

"The extra bonus in the new configuration was a tremendous change in the interior appearance of the cabin. It seems so much roomier below without the dinette."