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This Changes EVERYTHING!… Turning Our Bed Into a King | DIY Sailboat Refit
April 5, 2026 · 20 min · 10K views
What this video covers
On a 1989 Liberty 458 named Antidote, John strips all cabinetry from both port and starboard sides of the aft cabin to convert a queen-sized berth into an approximately 80-by-80-inch king-sized sleeping platform.▶ 0:02 Only 31 Liberty 458s were built, and John documents that at least one left the factory with this exact layout; fellow owners Jake and Jackie confirm 51 inches across the stern is enough to sleep comfortably lengthwise.▶ 8:38 A seven-inch foam mattress, which can be rolled or compressed for installation, is calculated to achieve that 51-inch minimum at the transom.▶ 9:09 John addresses headroom loss — currently six to seven inches with no mattress — and plans to raise the platform height to gain width at the hull's narrowing stern.▶ 9:09 Storage concerns drive several design decisions: full-extension drawer slides will replace the buried corner step-boxes, small benches on each side will substitute as steps into the bunk, and a gas-shock lift-up platform over the steering gear is under consideration to open the large under-berth space.▶ 12:22 Curved teak trim pieces on the transom, bedded in 5200, are removed with heat and a knife; one section reveals a quarter-inch wedge gap indicating a poor original fit.▶ 14:40 Raising the mattress platform height is the key variable controlling both usable bed width and remaining headroom in a tapered stern.
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