Progress One Step at a Time: Weekly Progress update June 23-28, 2019

by Wayne | Jun 30, 2019 | Boat building, Hull, Interior | 4 comments

The daytime temperatures are not the only thing really heating up here in Antalya as work on mv Möbius aka XPM78-01 continues to progress in multiple shops here at Naval Yachts.  We’ve seen a few days over 35C / 95F this past week but mostly in the low 30’s so definately summer but nothing too unbearable.  What is VERY easy to bear is all the exciting new progress made this week so let’s jump right in and show you what’s been happening this past week of June 23-28, 2019.

Let’s start by walking over to the Cabinetry shop and see what Omur and Selim have been working on. 
I will use this same rendering of the Master Cabin that you’ve seen in previous posts to remind you of the basic layout.  You are standing up near the bow/front of the boat and cabin looking aft with the vanity sink behind you and the shower and bathroom out of sight on your right.

The entrance door is over in the far left corner of this shot and has a mirror on it so don’t let that fool you.

This is the bottom of the wardrobe that you can see in the far back left corner in the rendering above which will be on your right hand side as you walk down the stairs from the SuperSalon and enter the Master Cabin. 

Now they are putting together the foam filled door you see on the floor here by gluing in the solid Rosewood edges prior to applying the Rosewood and Beech veneer.

In this shot they have laid the Wardrobe on its side to fit the door into one of its two jambs.  This door jamb obviously on the wardrobe itself and then this same door will hinge open on the far side and fit into the second door jamb to close off the entrance. 
Harken on the left, our phenomenal cabinetry CAD wizard is checking the fit and going over the details with Omur. 

You may recall our interior design theme where we will have a aquamarine “horizon line” with a recessed hand hold running horizontally throughout the boat about 1m/3ft from the floor and then everything below this is Rosewood and everything above it is either glass, leather or upholstery.  Hence the door above has Rosewood on the bottom half and then a leather covered panel will snap in place on top.

With the Wardrobe largely complete Omur and Selim have moved over to working on the next bit of cabinetry which is the large bureau of eight drawers with the 3D Möbius strip cloth sculpture beautifully displayed hanging in the special space above.

You can see a stand in white version of this sculpture in the rendering above but just wait until you see the real thing that our brilliant niece Lindsay has artfully created for us!  As per the rendering above the back of this space will have a mirror and then leather on the two side walls and the surface of the top shelf.  There will be lights above to suitably showcase this awemazing piece of art even more.

Before we leave the Cabinetry shop I wanted to show you these fabulous hidden hinges which Naval has found and will use for all the doors in the XPM’s. 
In addition to being beautiful they are strong and super adjustable in every direction using the various set screws you can see.  A jig and a palm router make it easy to cut perfect mortises into the door ……
… and sit flush and tight like this when installed.  Not cheap but Oh so beautiful both functionally and esthetically.
Let’s get out of Ömür way and walk over to the shipyard building next door and check in with Uğur, Nihat, Mummy, Mehmet and Cihan to see what the aluminum workers have been up to this week.  Trust me, they won’t disappoint!

They have been working both ends of the boat and up here at the bow we find them ………………. OH NO!!! cutting big huge holes in our hull again!

Not to worry all as intended and you will recall seeing them cut the two 300mm/1ft holes in either side for the bow thruster tube last week.  Now they are cutting in and fabricating the concave fairing section aft of the tube that will help reduce the turbulence and drag as the water flows past this large thruster tube opening.
These are the guidelines from Vetus for the size, shape and positioning of the recommended fairings.
After Yiğit did the calculations and 3D modeling for these fairings Uğur has transferred the complex shape from paper templates to 15mm / 5/8” plate and then built a jig in the hydraulic press to create these inserts.
Which are then fitted and tacked into place in the hull.
Sezgin heeds the call and completes the deep penetrating welds ….
…. on the outside ……
… and the inside.
Sighting down the hull across the thruster tube on the Starboard side of the bow you can see how these fairings will help catch the flow and “stick” it back onto the hull as it continues smoothly aft.

Now we wait for the big thruster to arrive so it can be fitted to the thruster tube and then it will be similarly solidly welded in place and we’ll have an eXtremely water tight and strong bow once again.
Cutting holes in the hull seemed to be a bit of a theme this week but again all by design as Cihan installed these drain pipes for the hatch gutters to quickly carries any water that makes it in there over and out through the clear tubes you see here which connect to the newly welded drain tubes.
Moving to the outside you can see where these 20mm/3/4” drain pipes exit just below the rub rails.  Simple and efficient way to make sure that all the water stays where it belongs; on the OUTSIDE of the boat!
Speaking of hatches, the sample I ordered for the edge seals for the hatches finally arrived and I was able to test fit them to make sure they were just right for creating an eXtremely water tight seal when the hatch lids are closed.
These are relatively common industrial seals used in many applications from RV’s to boats to automobiles and have a lower U shaped PVC covered aluminium to securely grip the 8mm/ 5/16” thick aluminium edges of our in house made hatches and then has a 16mm / 5/8” diameter hollow EPDM bulb which is compressed 50% when the hatch lids press down on them.
Before ordering the whole roll of this edge seal I wanted to test fit them to be sure they were going to fit around the radiused corners and that they would “squish” just right when the lid was dogged down.  They fit perfect, gripped the 8mm edges very firmly and squished down in true Goldilocks fashion, not too loose, not too tight, just right!
More aluminium progress as Uğur and Nihat started fabricating the Dorade Boxes that will go up on the foredeck to provide lots of dry fresh air into the Master Cabin even in driving rain and on passages.  This is upside down showing the edge that will be welded to the deck and will have a series of slots or scuppers cut in for the water to drain out.
This quick render shows where those four Dorade Vents will sit on the foredeck with the aft two being on either side of the King bed, the center one being right above the vanity sink and the Port side one bringing fresh breezes into the head and shower area.
Uğur is testing out the initial prototype of these Dorade Vent boxes as he lowers the tacked up vent box over the vertical standpipe which has already been welded through the deck plates.
I didn’t do a good job of explaining how these Dorade Box vents work in last week’s update so hope this diagram will help.  Simple with no moving parts as air enters the scoop or cowl and is turned 90 degrees down into the vent boxes that you see in the photo above.  The air then flows up overtop the vent standpipes on the right here which you saw being welded into the hull last week, and then the fresh air rushes down into the interior space below.
Any water that comes into the cowl from driving rain or large bow waves ends up flowing down onto the deck plate on the inside of the Dorade Box and then drains out through the many slots or scuppers around the bottom perimeter of the box. 

I received some questions about how to clean inside the Dorade Box and that is very easy to do as the cowl is fasted at its base by a threaded collar so they are easy to remove and give you a large hole to easily reach inside of for any cleaning and repairs that might be needed.

To further ensure that NO water ever makes it inside we also add these adjustable mushroom caps with fly screens to the top of those standpipes which allows us to reach up from the inside to control the air flow or shut it off entirely.  We are VERY serious about having an eXtremely well ventilated boat and keeping all the water OUT.
Speaking of vents the Vent Boxes for the fuel and waste water tanks got finished up this week as well.  We are super happy with how these custom designed vent and fill boxes have worked out.  This is the Fuel Vent box on the Port/Left side of the coaming at the aft end of the side decks and the three U shaped 40mm/ 1.5” pipes are where the 3 big fuel tanks on this side vent to. 
What’s new this week are the two vertical vents on the right which are for venting the Black and Gray water holding tanks.  A flat plate cover with slots on the top will bolt in place to cover this all up flush with the outer aluminium plates and makes for a very clean and highly functional venting solution. 
Just aft of the Vent Boxes are the similarly configured Fuel Fill Boxes and here we see them fitting out the prototype door to covers and seals this space.  I don’t have a photo handy but inside these Fill Boxes they boys have also added the pump out pipes for the Black and Gray water tanks, similar to the new vent pipes you see above.

Both the Vent and the Fill boxes also have drain pipes in their bottoms which in the case of the Fuel Fill Boxes returns any diesel spills or overflow back to the fuel tanks and in the case of the Vent Boxes the drains take any water that gets through their vent slots back out onto the deck to drain overboard.

Down in the Basement this is the aft most of the three large compartments that will hold the three banks of batteries that form the House Battery Bank and they all had their floors and lid frames welded in this week.
Looking forward here are the other two battery compartments which lie right on center with the massive Keel Bar running right down the middle underneath these floor plates.  The corners are cut out to help with air circulation as each compartment will be sealed up with a gasketed lid bolted to those new inverted L-bar frames. 
There will be a intake air vent pipe welded into the upper left corner of the front compartment that takes fresh air down to the very bottom of the hull plate below the floor plates and then on the diagonally opposite corner there will be an exiting vent pipe so that the air will naturally flow through via convection.  This air venting is primarily to help keep these boxes nice and cool though they are all below the waterline so they will pretty much always be at the ambient sea temp.

And yes I am going to keep you hanging for another week as to what type of batteries we will be installing here.  They have not arrived yet and I have not had time to write up the whole post about the whole battery and DC system so you’ll need to wait a bit longer.  But please do keep your guesses coming as to what type of battery we have decided to go with and why.  While these batteries will stay nice and cool as you’ve seen above, some of your guesses have been getting hotter and hotter.

While we are down here in the Basement let’s check in with Cihan our Master Plumber for an update on his work this week.  Cihan has been busy all over the boat and you saw his work above putting in the Hatch drains.  Now he is down in the Basement fitting and installing the supply and return pipes into the integral fuel and in this case a Gray Water tank. 

Here are three of these supply/return pipes and some of the elbows all laid out ready for fitting in their respective tanks.
This close up of the top end of these supply/return pipes shows how they are fastened in place using an SAE5 standard flange and bolt pattern to seal them to the tank tops.

And this is a shot of the bottom end of these supply/fill tubes.  They are carefully cut at an angle to match the slope of the hull plates which form the tank bottoms and will sit a few millimeters above with additional holes to assist with the fuel flow in/out of these tubes.

And YES! I am fully aware that this is contrary to the popularly held misunderstanding that supply or pickup tubes should be kept well off the bottom so they do not pickup any of the dirt or sediment that might be resting on the bottom.  BUT, think about that for a moment and this means that you will be setting up a very nasty situation where you will allow any debris or water to stay down on the bottom waiting for just the right time to get stirred up and suddenly sucked up in larger quantities with no warning and right when you least expect it with full assistance by Murphy’s Law.  Not on my watch thank you!  The right way to deal with this IMHO is to purposely put these pickup tubes on the very bottom to ensure that you are ALWAYS removing any debris or water down there as water and debris is heavier than diesel so sinks to the bottom.  This means that your filtration and/or polishing system can be easily removing such nasties in small quantities as they form.

I believe this myth of keeping pickup tubes off the bottom of tanks comes from the automotive and gasoline world which typically has very minimal fuel filtration systems and mostly quite clean fuel AND they have drain plugs on the bottom of their fuel tanks should you ever want to drain off any water or dirt that may have accumulated over the years.  But boats operate under very different conditions and are mostly diesel based and often as in our case have tank bottoms which are below the waterline so you can’t drain them and would not want to have such drain holes in the bottom of your hull in the first place.  Even in cases where we have something like the Day Tank which is all above the waterline we will still run the pickup tube to the bottom of this tank for the same reasons noted above.

Most cruising boats have very good fuel filtration systems on them which can do a very good job of “polishing” or filtering their fuel in multiple stages.  In the case of our XPM boats we step this up significantly by having an Alfa Laval centrifuge system onboard which is capable of removing particles down to sub micron levels using centrifugal forces rather than filtration material and can separate out ever drop of water.  This provides us with a significantly greater capacity to keep every drop of our precious diesel fuel crystal clear and clean even if we somehow take on extremely dirty fuel or have some huge failure and have a large volume of water get into a fuel tank.  Both scenario highly unlikely but we are building this boat to be fully “ready for the unexpected” and so we go to such lengths to ensure that we can always get where we want to go safely, efficiently and comfortably. 

OK, rant over for now and I’ll be back in future updates to cover more details of our overall fuel system with the multiple levels of fuel cleaning and management as we are installing them.

Moving on to what was THE best bit of progress this week for Christine and me was the completion of the circular stairs leading up from both sides of the Swim Platform to the Aft Deck.  When we left off last week Uğur and Nihat had cut out the upper corner where the vertical Transom wall connects with the Aft Deck plates and had started fabricating the first bottom step.
Uğur carefully laid out the step locations as per Yiğit expert modeling of these steps.
Each step was tacked in place on both sides ……
…. and Voila! the stairs make the transition from 3D images on our computer screens to this beautiful aluminium reality.
Sezgin sets up the MIG welder and maps out his strategy for laying down all the full welds to complete each staircase. 
As soon as all those welds have cooled, the ever present Mehmet is in there with his trusty rotary wire wheel to clean up all the welds and the finished stairs are a sparkling beauty to behold.
Speaking of Beauty and sparing no expense I called in my Beautiful Bride and professional staircase model to show off this latest triumph of Team Möbius and be the first to try out these stairways to heaven.

Since then Christine has not been the only one to be grinning and appreciating having these stairs in place as all the rest of us can now finally use these stairs to get on and off the boat rather than having to go all he way through the Workshop or climb up and down that 1.5m transom.

Be sure to check out the short video at the bottom of this posting so you can take your own trip up and down these stairs!
Here is the view from the top.

Mummy our insulation wizard also got right to work inside the aft Workshop area to put in the 50mm/2” EPDM foam insulation on the newly added aluminium treads and risers where the stairs were cut into the top corner of the Aft Deck.
Last but certainly not least a brief update for all you Gardner engine fans that I also found a few hours this week to work on getting him fully rebuilt and restored to better than new condition. 

Cylinder block in the foreground has all the new cylinder liners pressed in place and honed and the head surface machined perfectly flat. 

Behind lies the massive crankshaft ready for new dampener plates to be installed in that large disc on the right side.

With the help of my handy dandy hydraulic hoist I was able to lift the massive cast aluminium engine block up off the floor and get it sitting upside down on the sturdy steel framed table.
This put it at a much more comfortable height for me to work on finishing the disassembly, here pulling out the camshaft as I finish stripping it back down and prepping it for sandblasting.
More details on all that in the coming weeks and I’ll leave all my fellow gear heads with this final shot at what a REAL set of main bearings ought to look like!  And I’m not even showing the cross bolted rods that go through each main bearing block to really solidify this bottom end.
Here is a very short but hopefully fun video of the aft stairs going in and you can experience some of the joy of going up and down these stairs.

OK, that’s it for this week folks.  You can see what I mean about this being a very hot week for progress and weather.

Thanks as always for coming along for this latest adventure and please add any and all questions, comments and suggestions in the “Join the Discussion” box at the bottom.

Hope your projects are proceeding as well and I’ll be back with another update next weekend.

– Wayne

Still More Firsts Week of June 17-21, 2019

by Wayne | Jun 22, 2019 | Boat building, Hull, Interior | 8 comments

Another busy and productive week here at Naval Yachts in the Antalya Free Zone as work continues on building their first eXtreme eXpedition Passage Maker XPM78-01 and our new floating home mv Möbius.  As you have seen in the previous blog posts work has been branching out from what was previously all focussed on building the all aluminium hull to now including interior design, electrical wiring, plumbing, cabinet making and finishing.  As per the title of this post, with all these new aspects of the build we continue to experience more firsts and we’ve got lots to show you so let’s get started.

What better first of these “firsts” to start with than this impromptu group photo of all the staff we could round up to pose in front of the new building now that it is finally sporting the Naval Yachts logo!  There are many who we couldn’t take away from their jobs but this will give you a sense of the size and scale of both staff and building.  These are the people who are responsible for all the great work you see featured in these blog posts and without exception each one of these people are highly skilled at what they do and a true joy to work with.
Moving to the large Cabinetry workshop which is in its own building behind the main shipyard building you see above, we get to feast our eyes on this next first; the first wardrobe cabinet to be made.

This is the wardrobe cabinet which will be on your immediate right as you walk down the stairs into our Master Cabin and you can see it in the back left corner in this early rendering.
This side will go up against the side of the WT Bulkhead wall and shows very clearly how the sides of the hull near the front section slope in towards the centerline as they go down to the waterline level before they turn the curve over to the keel bar under the tank tops/floor. 

The top half of this cabinet will be used for hanging clothes and then there will be shelves in the bottom half.
This is our first door jam to be built and this rabbet or cut-out on the left side will be where the wardrobe door latches and then special hinges on the right side allow this same door to serve double duty as the Entry door into the Master Cabin by swinging over to a matching door jam on the inside edge of the entryway.  This is a surprisingly simple feature to execute and is a brilliant solution to the typical “duelling doors” that you often have where two doors are right next to each other.  We learned how incredibly well this works from the one in our previous boat and bring that lesson learned to this new boat.
Ömür and Selim, our talented two cabinetmakers worked their magic shaping the outer corner of this solid Rosewood door jam into this big beautiful radius merging flush into the outer side panel.  This is a theme you will see repeated throughout the boat as all the cabinetry starts to show up.
Another feature which will be repeated throughout the cabinetry is this raised front lip or fiddle on each shelf which helps to keep the items inside from sliding off the shelf and into the closed door.  One of the countless important details you learn from years living aboard a home that REALLY moves at times as we Rock ‘n Roll our way around the world’s oceans.
I’m attempting to show how this other first and rather unique feature works which are these solid hand hold rails that run about 1m/3’ above floor level throughout the boat on all the walls, stairways and tall cabinets.  Having good solid handholds to grab anywhere and anytime are another important feature on a moving boat so we plan for these early in the design. 
Most boats have their handholds overhead on the ceiling and we will have some of those too but Christine and I have long noted that these are too high for the more “vertically challenged” amongst us and children in particular so we wanted to come up with a good alternative.  We expect to have our three grandchildren onboard as often as we can “kidnap” them from their parents so this became an especially high priority for us.

As these I will be able to show you better in the coming weeks as these elegant handrails emerge from the cabinetry workshop but for now the section in the bottom right of this detail drawing shows the basics of how they work.  “Massif” is “solid” wood in Turkish and you can see how the fingerhold in the photo above works.

Another feature I will be able to show more in future posts is the “Plexi” insert which runs behind these handholds and creates the aquamarine “Horizon Line” running throughout the boat.

One last detail for my fellow “Chippies” and woodworking fans is this new lightweight marine plywood product that Naval has just brought in.  Weighs less than half what the regular marine and Baltic Birch plywood and this is also the plywood that will be used to build the foam cored doors which reduces weight even further.  Saving weight in ways such as this allows us to “spend” some weight in other areas such as solid marble countertops and we’ll be revealing more about that in future posts as well.  Gotta keep you coming back for more right?
Switching from wood working to wood finishing, the boys up on the third floor in the finishing shop continued to apply their skills and were able to finish finishing all the parts that make up the King sized bed in the Mater Cabin.
Each layer is hand sanded to create a super flat and smooth finish before the next layer is sprayed on.
This is what the Rosewood surfaces look like just after the 2nd coat has been sprayed on and if you look closely (click to enlarge any photo) where the light is reflecting in the foreground, you can see that the surface is not yet completely flat.  Sanding with progressively finer sandpaper as each layer is sprayed on creates the lustrous final finish. 
As you can imagine this takes a LOT of time and skill to finish every one of the hundreds of wood components but when you see the final results I think you will agree it is a very wise investment that pays off high dividends.
Some of the many drawer frames after their 2nd coat.
Some of the more challenging of the tens of thousands of decisions required in building these boats is the selection of all the interior materials.  We started by deciding on the Rosewood which you’ve been seeing for several months now and sitting under that is one of the vinyl flooring planks and a small swatch of the leather which will be used to cover the upper walls above the Horizon Line.  Yet to be decided is the material choices for the ceilings and upholstery so stay tuned for those.
Moving into the shipyard floor beside Möbius we find Uğur testing out Sezgin’s welding on the Day Tank after he completed all the welding and they bolted in the gasketed access ports.  The assembly on the end of the black rubber hose is a pressure gauge and air valve which enables them to fill the tank with compressed air for a few hours to see if there are any leaks.
Leaks are easily found with some soapy water sponged onto the welds and hatches but none was needed this time as it held air overnight and is now ready to have the flanges welded in for the various tank level gauges, supply & return fittings, drain valve and sight glass.

Up on the Swim Platform we find Uğur with his laser line level intently studying some drawings of another one of this week’s firsts ……………….
……. the spiral side stairs leading up to the Aft Deck! 

Yiğit has done a masterful job of detailing these challenging stairs and fitting them into the overall space available and now the “virtual reality” of his 3D models can be transformed into the reality of welded aluminium.
As you can see in the rendering above the top two stairs are let into the corner where the aft deck plates meet up with the transom wall so first step was to cut out that opening on the Starboard/Right side.
There will be a mirrored set of stairs on the Port/Left side so the same shape was cut out there.  This will reduce the volume of our HazMat locker a bit but only the upper corner and we still have plenty of space below for storing any hazardous or smelly things like spare propane tanks for the BBQ,containers of diesel, engine and CPP oil, antifreeze, etc. and still have lots of space for other items that will be handy to grab when you are on the Swim Platform.
Uğur and Nihat were also working on the three big compartments for the three large House Battery Banks which are down in the Basement inside some of the integral tanks alongside the thick Keel Bar running down the whole length of the hull.
The compartments themselves have been in place since last year as the hull itself was being built and now it was time to put in the floors for the batteries to sit on and the L-Bar frames up on top for the gasketed lids to bolt to. 
Once Uğur and Nihat had the floor flanges and the lid frames all tacked in place Sezgin came in to do all the finish welding.  Next week the floor plates will be bolted in place and the lids will go on later after the batteries are all in place and wired up.

We have some exciting news about a recent change we’ve made to the batteries that we’ll be using in Möbius but I’ll keep you in suspense a bit longer and do a detailed explanation of what the new batteries are and what led to the change.  Just to tease you, they are NOT Lithium, Gel or AGM.

Up forward in the Master Cabin Cihan has been making lots of progress installing the many different hoses and piping for all the liquids we need to move around from domestic hot/cold water, water and fuel tank fills, vents, supply & returns and bilge hoses.  As you can see the wall spaces are starting to fill up and there are still lots more to come.
Some of you had been asking about how the integral flush hatches would drain and you can see most of the answer here.  Two AL elbows are welded in one on each side to drain water out of the gutters surrounding the hatch frames welded into the decks.  The hose you see here is Tee’d with the one on the other side and then runs out to a short pipe welded through the hull just under the Rub Rails.  Simple but important system to make sure any water that collects in the gutters around each hatch can quickly drain back overboard.
This is the aft Port/Left corner of the Master Cabin is a good example of many of the plumbing Cihan is kept busy installing. 
The four clear lines at the bottom are supply and return fresh water lines from the two large aft water tanks under the bed area.  Above where these water lines run through the WT Bulkhead the other clear hose is the return line to the Port Forward water tank, the supply hose will go above it.  The bluish clear vertical hose is the fresh water fill for the Port Aft water tank.  The PPR pipe wrapped with black EPDM is part of the Hot Water circulation loop which runs through all three living areas to have almost instant hot water at every sink and shower.

Up at the forward Port corner the three clear/blue hoses are for the Fill and Vent lines for the Port water tank.

The white horizontal line at the top is a compressed air line going up into the Forepeak and lower down is more of that black EPDM insulated hot water loop line.

Zooming in on the opposite Starboard corner shows the same arrangement with the two fill hoses for Fwd/Aft water tanks attach to AL pipes welded through the WT Bulkhead frame into the Forepeak.  To the right is single Vent hose which if you look at the left of the photo above, is Tee’d so it Vents both Water tanks and then goes through the penetration tube through the upper corner of the WT Frame where it simply vents into the Forepeak.

Stepping back diagonally this shot of the whole forward Starboard corner of the Master Cabin shows the whole collection of plumbing that Cihan has installed so far.

Lots of good progress as promised and much more to come in the following weeks and months.

Here is a short video collection of snippets from this week which will give you a bit different perspective on some of these areas and the work going on.

Thanks SO much for taking the time to read and watch these blog posts and special thanks to those of you who have added their comments, suggestions and questions in the “Join the Discussion” box at the bottom of each post.  Please keep that input and feedback coming as it is all very helpful and very much appreciated.

– Wayne

Transfer Time: Wood, Water, Fuel & Air

by Wayne | Jun 15, 2019 | Boat building, Hull, Interior | 14 comments

We are all back after a wonderful week off for the big Eid-ul-Fitr or Ramazan Bayrami n Turkish which is the “Festival of the Breaking of the Fast” that occurs as soon as the new moon is sighted at the end of the month of fasting.  Well rested, well fed and filled with gratefulness and appreciation for all we have, progress ramped up quickly on the good ship Möbius on lots of different levels and materials.  The title is in reference to the theme of transfer which prevailed this week including transferring the completed Master Bed cabinetry to the finishing shop, transferring to prepping the Master Cabin to have all its cabinetry mounted, and then lots of work with other transfers such as Dorade Vents for transferring fresh air into the interior spaces and transferring water of all forms (Black, Gray, Potable, Sea) to and from their respective tanks.  Whew!  That’s a LOT of transferring and too many words so let’s jump right into the show and tell for this week of June 10-14, 2019.

Starting with the transfer of diesel fuel the Day Tank was back in the spotlight as it was completed and prepped for installation onboard.

Nihat on the right here and Uğur provide a good reference to the size of the Day Tank which holds a total of 667 L / 178 USG which is enough for about a day and a half at 10 knots.  We “polish” all the fuel going into the Day Tank using our Alfa Laval centrifuge which I’ll detail in a future post when we get to installing it.  This ensures that all the fuel going into the Day Tank is super clean and that we are assured to have enough fuel for at least a day and a half on passage.

Following the “belt & suspender” type of redundancy we insist upon for all critical systems, just to be sure the fuel has no dirt or water in it, we have the round drain pipe you see here as the lowest point in the tank to trap and hold any water or debris that may have somehow made its way into the Day Tank.  There will be a 3/4” SS ball valve on the bottom so I can easily pull and test a sample of fuel from here.

Peeking further inside you can see some of the baffle plates which prevent the fuel from “sloshing” from one side to the other as the boat moves.

The fuel goes through another series of multi stage fuel filters as the final steps in guaranteeing that nothing but clean fuel is being fed to Mr. Gee, our single main Gardner 6LXB engine upon which we are so dependent for propulsion.

There is this additional access port in the top just in case I ever need to access the inside of the fully baffled tank when it has lots of fuel in it.  Uğur is tapping the holes in the access port frames for the threaded studs that will hold the gasketed lid tightly in place.
With all the access ports and baffles all welded up the tank is closed up by welding in this last side.  You may recall seeing this type of slot welding when the hull was being built as this is how you are able to weld a plate where you have no access to the inside.
With the Day Tank fully prepped, Sezgin our Master Welder then gets the call to finish welding the slots and perimeter of this last side and then …….
……. lay down the finished continuous welds and fully seal up the drain sump and both access ports.
Looking down through the top access port down to the one on the bottom, you can see more of the baffles which minimize the weight transfer as the fuel moves about when there is lots of boat motion.

Next week Nihat and Uğur will wrestle this completed Day Tank into the Starboard/Left side wing of the Workshop and fasten it into its full time home up against the WT Bulkhead. 
Making sure we keep Mr. Gee VERY happy and running well we we also need to feed him cold clean air and that is what Uğur and Nihat are working on here in the Engine Room.  That long rectangular aluminium duct will carry fresh air from the Port/Left Vent Box up above on the Aft Deck down to the floor of the Engine Room.
Outside looking at the Aft Deck this quick rendering shows how the two Vent Boxes provide additional height and a protected place for the mist eliminating vents that will be on the inside of each Vent Box.

These Vent Boxes will also serve as our outdoor Galley with a BBQ in that aft cut out of the far Vent Box and a sink in the nearest one.
This isolated render of the Vent Boxes in Red and their respective below deck ducting in Purple will hopefully help you see how they direct air into and out of the ER as well as air into the Workshop and the Guest Cabin.

The tall purple duct on the left takes the intake air down to floor level in the ER while the smaller purple ducting on the far side pulls the hotter air out of the ER up and out through the upper demister grill outlined in Green.
Back to the real world, here is that tall intake duct you saw above as it extends up through the aft deck plates.  The vent box sitting in the top right corner will eventually be fitted overtop of this duct and the air will enter through a demister grill on the inside surface of the Vent Box.
Back down in the Engine Room looking up at the ceiling on the Starboard/Right upper forward corner we see where the hot ER air exits.  There will be 24V fans to assist with pulling the heated ER air out and creating a slight vacuum in the ER to make sure none of the fumes and heat are pushed out into the Workshop.

The large radius duct all the way forward penetrates the ER enclosure wall and feeds fresh air into the Stbd/Right wing of the Workshop.
Mr. Gee isn’t the only one who needs to be fed lots of clean fresh air, we do too!

When we are on passage and most often can’t have the hatches open we bring fresh air into our Master Cabin with these four Dorade Vents seen here on the Foredeck.

Dorade Vents are a very tried and true way of bringing fresh air into a ship while also keeping rain and sea water out.  Very simple principle, a tall vent pipe such as the three you see here (forth hiding behind orange welder) set up about 150mm / 6” above the deck and carry fresh air straight down into the cabin.
I’m determined to have a zero leak boat so I have a zero tolerance policy for any penetrations through the hull.  For example yes of course these vent pipes are welded to the deck top and bottom! 
These vent pipes are then fully covered by the Dorade Box which Uğur has mocked up a prototype of and is lowering in place here.
These aluminium Dorade Boxes will be welded to the deck with generous scuppers/slots all along the bottom edge to allow any water that gets in to quickly drain out of the box onto the deck and back overboard.
Then a silicone cowl assembly like this will be mounted on the top aft surface of the Dorade Box to capture the fresh breezes coming over the bow and direct them down into the Dorade Box.  The cowl can be rotated 360 degrees and the mushroom cap you can see in the bottom cutaway section helps deflect rain/sea water out the vent slots around the base and any that makes it down into the Dorade Box below drains out through the scupper slots noted above.
A side section looks like this when you put it all together.  No matter what the weather or sea conditions we get fresh air in and keep water out, just the way we like it!  If we want to really seal these off we just reach up into the vent pipe and turn that little black knob you see in the section above which lowers the mushroom cap and seals it off.  We will also have a bug screen atop the vent pipe to keep those guys out as well.

When weather and conditions permit though we prefer to have our beautiful big hatches open to let in even more fresh air and lots of light.  So our in house designed and built hatches got some finishing touches as well this week, having their Hinge Boxes all welded up inside where they join the inner deck plate surfaces and tie into the support stringers. 
Still looking up at this hatch frame we see one more example of how we make sure lots of fresh air gets in while keeping water out with this drain elbow that carries any water that collects in the gutter around the hatch frame out through a hose into an exiting sea chest.
Continuing with our transfer theme and moving to the Guest Cabin area you can see the black fuel hoses at the bottom of the Starboard/Right side of the hull.  Two of these hoses will carry the diesel from the integral tanks under all the floors to and from the Day Tank which will be mounted on the other side of the WT bulkhead on the far right of this photo.

As you can see the hull walls are starting to fill up with more hoses and electrical cables. 
Looking a bit like tentacles of some stowaway octopus these hoses are being fed through their respective through holes in the frames and through the welded in penetration collars where they pass through a WT Bulkhead.  Trays similar to the white wire trays you see above will be mounted horizontally to aluminium flat bars that are hiding under the vertical strips of black EPDM insulation you can see on the right but for now they are being routed throughout the length of the sides of the hull.
Each different type of fluid needs to transferred using a different type of hose specifically made and approved for each purpose.  In this case these clear 19mm / 3/4” ID hoses are for transferring any bilge water which might collect in the gutters running down each side of the hull where the tank top margin plates aka floor, intersect with the side hull plates.  With all integral tanks for fuel and water filling up all the area below the waterline the only place where we have a traditional bilge is below the main engine.
Moving forward into the Basement area you can see these clear bilge water hoses coming through up near the top of the WT Bulkhead, black fuel hoses on the bottom and the white/blue hose which is for transferring Gray Water from sinks and showers out of the integral tanks below the floors to either an Exit Sea Chest or a shoreside pump-out station.

The black & red pump is one of 18 Johnson SPX Power 16 diaphragm low level bilge pumps which we use to suck up any water that collects in those margin plate gutters along each side.  One of the many benefits of using diaphragm rather than the more common centrifugal bilge pumps is that diaphragm pumps can be located high and dry and they are also able to pull up all but the very last little bit of water.  This is a HUGE improvement and keeps the boat dry and odor free.

Another example of the specialised pipe and hoses showing up onboard is this white PPR tubing which we’ll be using for the main hot water loop that supplies hot water to all our sinks and showers.  This 25mm / 1” ID pipe will create what will essentially be a large hot water manifold that runs the length of the boat with a very small thermostatically controlled circulation pump which keeps the water at a set temperature.
Each length of PPR is fully wrapped with this EPDM foam insulation to keep that heat in and increase the efficiency of our overall water heating.  This is the same type of EPDM foam which we have at least 50mm / 2” of covering every interior aluminium surface to create our live in Thermos bottle. 

Our water is heated by a variety of sources, primarily from the Kabola diesel boiler and then supplemented by a heat exchanger off the Gardner main engine when it is running or from electrical coils when the solar panels have already fully charged the house bank batteries.
There will be T’s coming off this main hot water loop with short runs of equally well insulated 15mm PEX tubing carrying hot water to each individual sink and shower tap.

What all this does is provide near instant hot water to each sink and shower and eliminates the all too common waste of our highly valued fresh water from our watermaker when you turn on the hot water tap and wait and wait for it to get hot.
Hey!  What happened to our beautiful King bed??
When we last saw it just before we all left for the holidays it looked like this!

Oh!  More transferring you say?  Right, the bed all comes apart so it can be moved aboard through the available openings, got it!
Omur and Selim first finished off the base for the mattress with the two removable hatches to provide access to the two large storage areas not filled up with drawers.
We are loving the contrast between the light coloured Beech being used for these kinds of areas with the dark Rosewood everywhere else.
One last detail was to route in these slots to provide more ventilation below the mattress and now the whole bed is ready for the next exciting stage; applying the final finish!
But before we leave the Cabinetmaking shop one more detail I thought you’d enjoy seeing.  This is an example of how to reduce weight onboard.  These are not for Möbius but for another boat Naval is now finishing up and these are the interior doors. 
Frames are all made from laminations which ensure they are very rigid  and stay flat with no warping.  Extra thickness is provided where hinges and latch hardware will be mounted.  All the cavities have lengths of extremely rigid foam bars glued in place which weigh next to nothing.   Then the door skins are glued on both sides, the whole assembly trimmed to final size and off to the veneer press to have the final layer glued down.  Strong, stable, lightweight and beautiful, who could ask for more?
Hang on!  Who let Omur and Selim out of the Cabinet shop and into the Master Cabin on Möbius?? 
Oh right!  This is where wood meets metal.  They are meticulously putting in the wood foundations that all their cabinets will set on and be attached to.  Omur is measuring out the end of the bed unit you’ve seen previously and can see the outline of here. 
Behind him is this framing around the four access ports into the integral water tanks below all the floors.  These solid wood frames are all sealed with epoxy paint, carefully leveled with the wedges you see here and then glued down to the aluminium tank tops/floor plates with Sikaflex.
Once all these foundations are laid down all the cavities will be filled with 40mm / 1.6” rigid foamboard and then 10mm marine plywood will be laid down to create the substrate for the final vinyl flooring. 

Before the plywood goes down the foam will have all the grooves routed in place to create the continuous circuits for the 15mm PEX hot water tubing to be pressed into for the hydronic floor heating that will be in all the living spaces on Möbius.

Those with sharp eyes and good memory, I wish!, will note that the walls in the Master Cabin are also filling up.  I’ll cover them in more detail in future posts but the large 50mm / 2” clear tubes are the vents and fills for the water tanks, the smaller 19mm / 3/4” tubing is what you saw earlier for the low level bilge water and the long arced pipe with EPDM black foam insulation running horizontally half way up the wall is the one you saw earlier for the continuously hot water loop/manifold.

But wait!  There’s more!

Why is Aziz, Director of all Naval’s Interior work, smiling almost as much as me? 
Because we are both up in the Finishing Workshops looking at THIS!  The first coat of lacquer being applied to all the bed unit pieces. 
Words can’t begin to capture and articulate my excitement and joy in seeing this whole new stage of the build taking place so I’ll let the pictures do all the talking.
Here is a bit of a before and after shot with the drawer faces in the foreground being the bare Rosewood and the ones in the background having their first coat on.

We have decided to use this top quality acrylic lacquer from Sayerlack which is a Sherwin Williams line of finishes for commercial cabinetmaking shops.  Lots of reasons for the choice over the more traditional varnishes but one of the big differences is the ability to have a hand rubbed finish.  I have worked with acrylic lacquers for decades in my prior woodworking and antique car restoration days and it is hard to beat the beauty of a hand rubbed finish.  A HUGE amount of added labour but as I think you will soon agree when you see the final result it is SO well worth it.

This is just the first coat and BEFORE these other pieces of the Master bed unit have been sanded smooth prior to the next coat so just wait till you see them when they are fully finished and rubbed out.

Whew!  Obviously things quickly got up to speed as we all returned fat and happy after the big Bayrami  holiday week.

With such a wonderfully diverse spectrum of interests all of you reading this have it is a challenge to gauge the just right amount of detail to provide in these posts.  I tried to cover all this progress as quickly as I can but it is still quite long so if you’ve made it this far thanks for persevering.  Hope you enjoy it and please do let me know in the “Join the Discussion” box below what you thought and add any questions or ideas you have to add to the value for all of us here.

Thanks!

-Wayne

Drawer-ing to a Close

by Wayne | Jun 2, 2019 | Boat building, Hull, Interior | 2 comments

Progress for this last week of May 2019 was all about finishing the cabinetry for the King bed unit in our Master Cabin.  The focus was on completing the construction of all twelve drawers that make up the large high base, hence this week’s title, as well as finishing the dropped overhead ceiling of the headboard.  My brother Bruce and wife Lyla flew out early Friday morning and my cousin Donna and husband Jamie flew in a few hours later from Doha in Qatar so there are still no vacant rooms at the Hodgins Bed & Breakfast and we are enjoying getting all this extended time with friends and family as we share this fascinating part of the world and all the wonderful people, culture and food.

Right now though, let’s go to bed OK?

For those who might be new to these weekly progress updates on the building of our new home/boat motor vessel mv Möbius, Welcome, and here are some of the early renderings of what the whole bed unit and Master Cabin will look like when completed.  We’ve made a few changes as you’ll see in the real life construction pictures here but the overall layout remains the same.

This is what the King bed and drawer unit will look like when you are standing near the front of the Master Cabin looking aft.  The two wardrobe doors on your left will end up being wood and upholstery rather than glass and all six slots at the end of the bed will be drawers but most else stays the same. 

You’ll note some steps to get up to the raised floor on the right/Port side of the bed to make it easy for Christine and Barney to get up and down from there and making the bed easier. 

Stepping a bit further back and looking down the centerline of the boat you can see part of the Washer & Dryer cupboard doors on the left and the etched glass cornered walls of the shower on the right.
Moving over to those steps and looking across the end of the bed towards the Starboard hull shows the large bureau of drawers with the 3D Möbius strip sculpture floating in the space above and the other full height wardrobe by the entrance door in the far right corner.
Standing just inside that entrance door on the other side of the bed looking forward gives you a good look at that glass cornered shower with the adjoining toilet forward and the Vanity sink outside at the very front.
Jumping back into reality and forward to the end of the week here is what the real Rosewood bed unit looked like.  I will rewind the clock to Monday morning now (May 27) and we can watch the progress of getting to this point.
I am holding one side of the very slick drawer slide hardware we will be using for all the drawers throughout the boat.  These are the latest version soft close bottom mount drawer slides from Blum hardware, which makes the highest quality drawer slides I know of.  Once the drawers are in place it all becomes invisible and they glide open and close like silk.
The drawers sit on top of the left rail you can see with the little finger clip you can barely make out at the far end (click to enlarge any photo) and that light grey cylinder on the right is part of the incredibly smart open/close mechanism.  When you go to open the drawers there is a spring loaded resistance for the first 50mm/2’ or so before the magnetic latch releases and the drawer slides smoothly open as far as you like in a two stage extension.  Then a light push and they slide forward till the magnet catches it and slowly closes the rest of the way and holds it tightly closed.  Perfect setup to keep all the doors closed as the boat tilts and rolls at anchor.  We then have additional latches to mechanically lock the drawers closed whenever we are on passage and the boat’s movement an become more pronounced.  They’re expensive but they are SO worth it for the smile they put on our face every time we open or close them.
Moving on to the construction of the drawers themselves, this is a stack of some of the drawer carcass sides fresh out of the veneer press after their solid Rosewood edging had been glued in place.
Selim uses this random orbital sander to smooth and flatten the drawer sides while they are easy to get at before being glued together into a complete drawer carcass or box.
Upper solid edges of the four drawer sides are rounded over and then …..
…. each matched set of drawer sides are set in their respective drawer slots under the bed ready to be fitted and glued up.
With dados/grooves and biscuits cut for the corner joints and for the drawer bottoms to slide into, Omur checks that the diagonals are equal as the best way to ensure the drawers are being glued up exactly square while Selim stands ready to clean up any glue squeeze out before it dries.
Looking at the rounded top edges of the drawer shows how the back side is set a bit lower to allow air to easily move in and out as the drawer is opened and closed.
With the drawer sides all glued up and drying, attention turns to the individual drawer fronts, seen here with their solid Rosewood edging mitre glued in place.
Before taking them over to the veneer press Omur carefully fits each drawer front so they all have the same 3mm space around them using 3mm thick shims, two of which you can see sitting atop the bottom drawer here.

Glued up drawer boxes wait patiently on the left to receive their drawer bottoms and then have the front faces attached.
Using 3mm spacers he trims each drawer front to final size.  Our eyes are very good at noticing the slightest variation in such thin slots such as between each drawer front so this requires great care and attention to get them perfectly parallel and evenly spaced.
Once each drawer front has been trimmed to final size they head off to the veneer press to have both front and back covered in matching Rosewood and once dry every corner edge is rounded over with an 8mm radius and they are ready for their final fitting.
The drawer faces are taped in place so they don’t fall out as this is all part of the dry fitting before all these parts are finish sanded and ready to head off to the finishing shop where they will be varnished and buffed to a beautiful matte finish and then assembled onboard.
If you spotted this black strip in the photo above and wondered what it was for, this is a sample of the thin coloured strip that will form the “Horizon Line” I’ve described in previous posts which will flow horizontally throughout all the cabins in the boat.  This is just a sample for fitting purposes and the final strips will be a random swirling pattern of aqua marine blues and greens to simulate the water and waves which make up the horizon line that usually surrounds us around all 360 degrees of view when we are anchored in the remote locations we most often favor.
Lest the drawers get all the attention this week, Omur and Selim also spent time finishing the dropped ceiling that sits directly overtop the head of the bed.  We have dropped it down a bit further than in the renderings above but same basic layout. 
With the 15mm / 5/8” plywood bottom of the dropped ceiling box glued in place the Rosewood edges are all radiused and prepped……
…… the ends are have their locator dowel pins installed and biscuit slots cut ready to be fitted into the headboard and vertical side posts…….
….. and temporary braces are clamped in place to do the final fitting of the dropped ceiling to headboard joints.
All this attention to detail will seem over the top to some perhaps but not to us when our eyes behold results like this! 

As your eyes naturally follow the grain patterns in each piece note how they have all been carefully chosen and aligned both vertically and horizontally to be a continuous matching flow of the original grain of the individual tree these were cut from.
We had a new four legged visitor at Naval Yachts this past week when Hakan our CAD Cabinetry detailer brought his super cute puppy “Sheila” to work with him.  This photo will also allow me to introduce one of the newest members to join Naval and Team Möbius.
Please meet Yesim who is our lead Interior Designer and master of 3DMax software which she uses to turn Christine and my visions into fully rendered masterpieces which Hakan can then use to create all the detailed joinery which in turn goes over to Omur and all the others in the Cabinetry shop for them to build things like the bed unit we’ve been featuring this week.
Speaking of Omur and Selim, no rest for them as they quickly moved from working on the bed to starting to create the panels for all the other cabinetry in the Master Cabin which you see in the renderings at the beginning of this post.

Hot off the veneer press they peel the veneering tape that holds each adjoining edge of veneer in place while it is being glued to the plywood panel.
Here are the first sets of veneered panels stacked up against the bed unit ready to be trimmed and cut to shape for things like the wardrobes and other cabinetry in the Master Cabin.

Those candle flame like parts of these panels are the matching portions of the natural grain at the transition between heartwood and sapwood of the Rosewood tree.

You will be seeing much more of this as we watch all this other cabinetry take shape.

Not likely too exciting to most of you but sure is to us as more and more materials and equipment start to arrive for the many systems that are about to be installed in Möbius. 

This pile is a small portion of the hoses that will be used to plumb the fresh and potable water systems.  The coils of blue and red hose are PEX 15mm tubing that will be used for all the hot and cold water runs to sinks, showers, toilets and bidets and also used for all the hydronic heated floor circuits that run through all the floors in each of the three cabins to keep us toasty warm and comfy in all the high latitude locations we want to explore.

Here is another pile of recent arrivals, this being some of the many diaphragm bilge pumps, domestic water pumps, ball valves, strainers, etc.
I will close out this week’s progress update with this shot of the Port side of the Master Cabin bed unit which really shows off the full spectrum of grain and colours in the beautiful Rosewood you will soon see throughout the interior of Möbius.  Go ahead, click to enlarge, you know you want to!

Eye of the beholder always applies of course and this makes my and Christine’s eyes sparkle with excited anticipation of being surrounded by this natural beauty every day we will be living aboard our newest floating home and magic carpet ride around the world.

This coming first week of June is a big national holiday following the end of this year’s Ramadan.  The month of daily fasting ends on Monday and Eid al-Fitr 2019 officially begins on Tuesday, June 4th so all of us on Team Möbius are all going to take advantage of this opportunity to get a few days of much needed R&R this week.  I may put together a post here if I have time as there are several topics I’m meaning to discuss and share and then I’ll get back to the next weekly progress update in about two weeks.

We hope you too are enjoying the start of summer here in the Northern hemisphere and that our southern hemisphere friends and family are staying warm and enjoying the change into winter down there as well.

Whatever part of this awemazing planet you find yourself, thanks so much for taking the time to join us on this latest adventure and be sure to add your questions, suggestions and ideas in the “Join the Discussion” box below.