Upgrade Your Cabin: The Queen Berth Refit

When we bought our 1979 Cheoy Lee Avocet, one of the things that immediately won us over was her generous interior. She could comfortably host six people and swallow all their gear without complaint, a rarity for a 41-footer.

But during a family sail to California’s Santa Cruz Island, we discovered that our quarter berth wasn’t exactly the comfiest place for guests to sleep.

Originally designed as an offset double bunk for crew under sail, it worked in theory, but not for couples in reality. Hence our project to convert that awkward bunk setup into a proper (sort of) queen berth, one where a couple could actually cuddle comfortably. 

Building the Bones

We started by removing the upper bunk’s large teak beam, which acted as a lip along the top level. Knowing we wanted to reuse that beautiful piece of teak to upgrade our nav station, we took extra care to remove each bung and screw without a scratch.

Once the upper bunk was gone, my husband, Chris, had the idea to clean and repaint the lockers beneath the lower bunk with white Rust-Oleum—because if you’re already knee-deep in a refit, what’s one more coat of paint?

The next challenge involved the battery charger mounted to the bulkhead between the lazarette and cabin. It worked fine, but I hated seeing it every time I looked aft. So we relocated it into our electronics locker, which also doubles as my overflow closet.

Of course, moving the charger meant moving everything attached to it: wires, plugs and all. In true refit fashion, this “simple relocation” turned into a full-blown electrical overhaul. Chris found an old inverter plug and a mysterious fourplex wire that had no business being in a 110-volt system. We traced it to a dead end in our cabin.

And, since Chris was already elbows-deep in the electronics locker, he stripped, sanded and repainted the interior with two coats of white paint. The old plywood subfloor had rotted out from a long-gone battery leak, so he replaced it with leftover marine ply from the berth build.

By the end, the locker was cleaner, sturdier and ready for future upgrades.

Back to the Berth

To build the bed platform, we used 2-by-½-inch wood strips to support a new sheet of plywood, setting the frame exactly 12¾ inches above the lower bunk, perfectly level with the old upper bunk. Two cross members supported the span, each designed to be removable for easy locker access.

The trickiest part was designing a backrest and armrest that tied everything together and made it look “factory.” The solution was teak, of course. Using a combination of salvaged and new tongue-and-groove planks, Chris created a look that blended with the rest of Avocet’s warm interior.

The final step was comfort. We ordered a queen-size latex foam mattress online, trimmed it to fit using a sharp knife, and slipped it back into its cover. We knew that one day, we would sew a proper blue fabric cover to match the rest of our cushions, but the bed looked snug and felt even better.

When my parents came to visit, we screwed in the final piece just 20 minutes before their arrival. Their glowing review confirmed that this project was a success.

Finishing What We Started

Fast-forward four years and countless refits later, and Avocet felt more like a home than ever. With most of the big projects behind us, it was time to revisit the quarter berth and finally finish what we started.

The inspiration was our cat, Cleo. When we redesigned the nav desk, her litter box moved beneath the seat. It’s a fine spot, except the headroom left much to be desired. To give her a little “poop palace” fit for a queen, we raised the nav seat 3 inches. That simple change meant dusting off the grinder and repainting lockers.

Chris worked bare-armed in his fiberglass bubble, carefully grinding, sanding and rolling on three hot coats of our favorite two-part epoxy, Tile-Clad. I handled cleanup duty and moral support, grateful that this time, his dust-containment system actually worked.

While we were at it, we added a new shelf above the berth, a long-overdue upgrade for guests and gear alike. It holds radios, flashlights, flags and the occasional bag of chips. Chris removed the old teak veneer that had suffered from years of toe-rail leaks, painted the bare glass, and built a shelf so tidy it looked like it had been there all along. A few coats of Man-O’War varnish later, and voilà, factory finish achieved.

The quarter berth is finally finished, for real this time, thanks to patience, persistence and partnership. And like any good cruising project, it took twice as long, made twice the mess, and taught us twice as much as we expected.

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