Peter: our main bulkhead had the early square-cut jog in the port panel, plus the straight header. It was hard squeezing past the port settee, avoiding the jog, stepping over the threshold, and ducking all at the same time -- even without the mast in place! So I sprang some arches in the header, tabbed the bulkheads to the coachroof top, epoxied the whole header sandwich together (with a short piece of 3/8"t SS angle, which the mast collar is tapped into to prevent deck pumping), then broke the settee foot over at ~30 degrees so we could extend the port bulkhead straight down, eliminating the jog. It's now MUCH easier getting in and out of the forepeak.
Heh -- I'm in the middle of a big cabinet job in sapele right now: 16 sheets of ribbon-figure sapele with all kinds of fancy detail. It's less spongy than its cousin African mahogany, tho I have a bunch of that in the garage as well. Both require some patience to work with!