This is the first of the Tech Talk style of articles I promised in THIS previous posting. Many of you have been asking for a more in depth and technical look at the What, Why and How of all the various major systems required for an XPM boat such as Möbius. And not to worry, I will continue to do the weekly progress updates and then as my time permits, I will also post these Tech Talks for a bit of a change of pace and a different look at these boats.
Note that there is a tag in the blog for Tech Talks so you can filter on this whenever you want to have just these articles show up on your screen. These Tech Talk articles will also be a bit different in that I will update them if things change or there are other additions or edits to improve them so much like your author here, these will be a continuous work in progress.
As with all my writing on the Möbius.World blog please keep in mind that the context for all my writing and all our decisions is always and only, what is “just right, just for us” as we are living on our all aluminium XPM78 eXtreme eXploration Passage Maker. As in our past boats, this will be Christine and my full time home as we double-hand** our way around the world’s most remote locations at all latitudes from polar to equatorial with equally eXtreme degrees of Safety, Comfort, Efficiency and Low Maintenance.
** We were both formerly single handed sailors until we met, fell in love and married in our 60’s and are now about to set off “double handing” our way around the world on our new XPM78 Möbius.
If you would like to learn more about our use case THIS previous post has the full explanation.
And before I go any further please keep the following in mind about all these Tech Talk articles:
These are NOT recommendations on what YOU or any other boat owners should do or what equipment you should buy.
I am NOT suggesting that our choices are “the best” I merely hope to explain OUR (Christine and my) logic and why we believe that these are the Goldilocks “just right, just for us” choices in the design, installation and equipment aboard XPM78-01 Möbius.
I am NOT an expert nor do I have any qualifications or certifications in any of these topics and while we have enlisted the help of true experts, engineers, designers and naval architects throughout the design and build process please only use the information provided in these Tech Talks as additional information to assist you in developing YOUR OWN opinions, ideas and designs.
· These Tech Talk articles are intended to generate lots of questions, suggestions, and ideas. I hope to learn as much as you do by writing these Tech Talks and more so by responding to your comments and provoking more good discussions.
· In doing so we can all contribute to the wealth of information and knowledge already out there for all of us to access and learn from. Indeed this is the primary purpose and value of these articles, so don’t be shy and please add your contributions to the “Join the Discussion” box below. I only ask that you keep the above notes in mind and of course keep the discussion respectful, polite and on topic as you always have.
As mentioned in our use case overview and in many previous posts, we have four fundamental principles or priorities which we have used throughout the entire design and build process to guide our decisions. These are Safety, Comfort, Efficiency & Maintenance. We strive to keep the first three as high as possible and the last one, Maintenance, as low as possible. I will therefore add a “SCEM Review” section for each system’s Tech Talk and summarise how each system contributes to each of these fundamental priorities and principles.
All right, with all that out of the way, lets dive into the details of the What, Why and How of the XPM Electrical System.
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM OVERVIEW
The Electrical System on our new boat can best be described as a DC Battery Based electrical system meaning that ALL of the electrical power consumers on the boat, both AC and DC, get their power from the large 24 volt “house” battery bank. This is in contrast with many other boats that could be characterized as “AC Based” boats because their systems are optimized for AC inputs from onboard generators and shore power. Both models work well and the question is not which system is “best” but which system is best for a given boat, owner and use case.
Given that by design and use case there is no generator onboard Möbius and shore power is rarely available as we live on anchor almost all the time, a DC Battery Based boat is the just right, just for us solution.
Our large 24 volt 1350Ah battery bank is charged from either the +5kW bank of 14 solar panels and/or via the two large alternators, 250A @ 24V each, 12kW total, driven off the main engine when on passage.
This is very much a “world boat” so all four of the most common voltages are available onboard at all times. 24V DC and 220V 50Hz AC are the primary voltages we use and 12V DC and 120V 60Hz AC outlets are located throughout the boat as well for devices and guests which require these voltages
There will be shore power connectors at the front and rear for those infrequent occasions when the boat is hauled out for maintenance or to leave for extended times for trips back to be with our three Grandkids and other family and friends. These shore power connections come aboard through a Victron Isolation Transformer primarily to ensure we have no connection from the boat to shore side grounding wires and gives us the significant advantage of being able to plug into any shoreside power from 100-240 Volts @ 50 – 60Hz.
BASIC ELECTRICAL SYSTEM COMPONENTS:
House Battery Bank: 18 FireFly Carbon Foam L15+ 450Ah @ 4V batteries connected in three 24V banks 6S3P (6 Serial 3 Parallel) = 1350Ah @ 24V = 32kWh
220 Volt Inverter/Chargers: 3 Victron MultiPlus 24V 5000W 120A
120V Inverters: 2 Victron MultiPlus 24V 3000W 70A
DC-DC converters Victron Orion 24V to 12V 70A
Engine Alternators: 2 Electrodyne 24V @ 250A = 6kW each = 12kW total output.
Both with remote rectifiers and remote “smart regulators”
Battery Monitor: Victron BMV 712s for monitoring each of the 3 battery banks and the overall DC electrical system.
Augmented with Maretron monitoring
Solar Panels: 14 each 96 cell 360W = 5.04kW peak total
Engine Start Battery: 2 FireFly G31 110Ah Carbon Foam batteries in series 110Ah @ 24V
I hope you have found this first of my Tech Talk articles to be of some value and I would be most appreciative of any and all comments and suggestions on ways I can improve them. With this Electrical System Overview done I will next dive into each of this system’s components and I think it is appropriate to start with the true center of or Electrical System; the House Bank batteries and then progress through each of our Charging Sources which are solar and engine alternators.
Please add your comments, questions and ideas in the “Join the Discussion” box below each post.
Well, the Cabinetry teams led by Ömür and Ömer clearly led the way progress wise this past week on XPM78-01 Möbius as many of the other team members are still being pulled away to help finish Legacy, the boat you saw being launched in last week’s posting. However the other teams were able to contribute to the week’s progress with more wiring, plumbing and aluminium work so let’s start with them and finish up with all the cabinetry work.
Exciting new development up in the Master Cabin as Mummy got busy with the installation of the rigid EPS foam to insulate the finished floors from the aluminium tank tops. 10mm / 3/8” marine plywood will You’ve seen the white epoxy coated wood framing go in a long whiles back and now you can see how the floor system will work with the 50mm blue EPS foamboard filling in the spaces between the 50mm high boards. Mummy makes quick work of this jig saw puzzle of foam making sure they all fit nice and tight so there isn’t any gaps for air to circulate. They put in construction plywood walk ways to keep the foam clean and flat and next step will be to cut the grooves for the PEX tubing to be pressed into which will cary all that lovely warm water to heat these floors when we are in colder climates. Same process is repeated in the Guest Cabin area aft. If you look near the top of this photo (click to enlarge any photo) you will see the yellowy epoxy that has been poured into all the lower channels between the welded tank tops to create a flat level surface for the foamboard, and then the white 50mm high wood framing around the edges of each tank access port. Same thing happening here in the corridor outside the Guest Cabin where Wayne’s Workshop #2 will be against the Port hull on the left. I’m standing in the WT doorway into the main Workshop and Engine Room behind me looking forward to the stairs leading up to the SuperSalon.
Entry into the Guest Cabin on the right. Peeking back into the Guest Cabin we find Yesim and Ömer and part of Hakan’s back on the far right, working through some construction details for what will be Christine’s Office Desk mostly out of site on the far right. Hmmmmm, what do you think this strange looking assembly is?
Some kind of chair for Goldilocks to sit in? Curiouser and curiouser! The back folds down and the bottom pulls out?? Will it help if you see this photo from the back as Ömer was building it? Or this close up of how the slides work?
You certainly get full marks if you guessed that this is a mock up of the pull out Queen Bed in the Guest Cabin. When pushed in and folded up it is in “couch mode” as you see on the left and then when pulled out the cushions unfold into the Queen sized bed. It is an idea I’ve had for a long time and this is the perfect application and we are all eXtremely happy with the way this is going to work. Stay tuned as Omer builds and installs the real one! Ömür and Selim have also been eXtremely busy working on the cabinetry for the Galley which is very eXciting to see. This birds eye view of the SuperSalon will help orient you to this space with the Galley in the upper right corner. Looking across out the Starboard/Right side windows let’s you see how the Galley cabinetry will look and help you make more sense of the following photos of these being built. This is the end face of the cabinet on the right in the photo above with these beautiful big radiused corners made out of solid Rosewood. This is how those corners are made by arranging three 20mm / 3/4” thick Rosewood around a solid Beech core. Just to make Ömür’s life even more difficult he has to machine the tops of these corners to create the built in hand holds that run throughout the boat and just below the countertops in the Galley. The bottom edges have to be machined out as well and then the corner columns are glued to the flat side board with biscuits along that glued edge for added strength. Once the glue has dried and clamps removed this end assembly is flipped over to be cleaned up and prepped for next stage of being joined with another similar side of this cabinet. This is showing the bottom floor end of the cabinet to show a bit more detail of the inserts between the 3 pieces of Rosewood. Standing upright now, Ömür has attached the inner wall of this cabinet end piece which reveals the inner workings of how the handgrip area wraps around the outside and the solid edged plywood forms the inside of the cabinet where the drawers will slide in and out of. We have no above countertop cabinets to take advantage of the 360 degrees of glass in the SuperSalon and all below countertop cabinets are all various size drawers. Elsewhere in the Cabinet shop hundreds of other pieces begin their journey to becoming the Galley and SuperSalon furniture. These are interior connectors inside the drawer cabinets made from strips of the super lightweight marine plywood being used for all the interiors and now laminated with Beech veneer. Some of their cousins are a bit different with solid Rosewood being laminated to the plywood backing and being “gang clamped” o the thick board below to ensure they all stay perfectly flat. Still in the family on the next bench over some of the miles of Rosewood veneer is out of the heated lamination press ….. ……… and ready to have their solid edges trimmed and shaped. Like this. Down on the floor, reminding me a bit of underwater coral gardens I’m missing so much, we find this group of panels having their solid edging glued on prior to shaping and being laminated. For a bit of added colour, look what was waiting outside my door when I finally got home from the yard on Monday night. This is the all glass hand painted sink that goes into our Master Cabin to compliment the matching oval shaped one you might remember seeing a few weeks ago. Wait till you see what these look like set onto the luxuriously varnished Rosewood! Hilmi our electrician managed to get away from working on Legacy long enough to complete the wiring of this other junction box in the Guest Cabin which connects all the DC circuits for lights and DC outlets. And Cihan was similarly able to get enough time to install these hot and cold water manifolds on the Starboard side of the Guest Cabin. Very nice arrangement that keeps all these ball valves in once easily accessed place behind the slide out bed you saw the beginnings of above. Each of the red handled PVC ball valves makes the transition from the larger PPR/PVC supply lines which are now fully encased in thick black EPDM foam insulation, to the black 15mm / 5/8” PEX connectors for each individual consumer such as sinks, showers, toilets, etc.. Feeling a bit neglected, I gave Mr. Gee our Gardner 6LXB main engine, a bit of attention and will be doing much more in the next few weeks. Right now I am measuring him up for the new serpentine belt pulley systems I’m designing which will drive the sea water pump that cools the various heat exchangers for the Gardner’s engine oil, fresh water coolant, Nogva CPP gear box and then the wet exhaust. Not to be forgotten or outdone, Uğur and Nihat were busy as usual this past week on aluminium based jobs such as finishing up the stanchions. As you’ve seen the stanchion posts are all made from thick walled 40mm / 1.5” AL pipe with their bases captured in Delrin lined AL pipe sockets which are through welded to the beefy 10mm / 3/8” thick Rub Rails which run along all the outer corners of the deck. Now they are busy adding the AL through pipes that the Dyneema lifelines will slide through. Then the tops of each stanchion are capped off with these spherical end caps. Which will be welded in place and ground smooth to be very easy on the hands. These two shots looking aft from the bow area let you see how we combine stanchions with railings.
Tops of the railings and stanchions are unusually high at 1m / 40” for added safety and once the Dyneema lifelines are all in place it will create a fully enclosed deck area that will be very safe to walk around in any conditions. However we have also setup the boat’s systems such that there should never be any need to be out on the decks in rough weather as everything can be looked after from inside either the Pilot House or SkyBridge. These four stanchions keep the aft Swim Platform similarly safe when we are on passage, though again, rarely any need to venture out here when conditions are rough and it is best to stay up on the Aft Deck.
You can see the swim ladder in the middle and the lifelines between those middle two stanchions will have pelican hooks to serve as a gate. Additionally all four stanchions are also removable so when we are at anchor we can take them all off for even easier access when diving off the Swim Platform or boarding from the Tender. To keep the very aft end of the Aft Deck very safely enclosed this handrail sets into the same Delrin lines sockets as the stanchions. For even more safety and rigidity of this aft handrail, this short connector was added to join the railing to the side of the doghouse entranceway into the Workshop. We bolted it on so that the handrail can be easily removed if there as ever the need to load large items on/off the Aft Deck.
And that’s the week that was September 23-27, 2019. Hard to believe that tomorrow is October first already!
Captain Christine is in Florida for the rest of the month and I’ll be flying back to join her, Dincer and Baris there for the Ft. Lauderdale Boat show and most importantly for some Grampa time with our grandson Liam and later a quick trip out to LA to get time with Blair and Brynn our two Granddaughters there and a real quick trip up to Vancouver to see our son Skyler and other friends and family in BC. Until then though it is just Ruby, Barney and I holding down the fort and they now come to work with me each day at Naval. As you can see from the past week every day and most evenings are VERY full and busy and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Thanks for taking the time to join me here and please do keep all your comments, questions and ideas coming by putting them in the “Join the Discussion” box below.
I finally got back to Antalya from the Cannes Boat show on Monday night so only had four days in the Naval Yachts yard and onboard the good ship Möbius but everyone else on Team Möbius put in a very full week though much of their time and attention was diverted to the 27m steel yacht “Legacy” that has been sitting in front of us all this time. I will show you what this was all about in this week’s Progress Update as well as the new work and new equipment that showed up this past week as well. Lots to cover so let’s jump right in.
Let’s start with the “Out with the New” part of this week’s title and a question for you; What’s missing from this picture??
Does this view help?
Correct! There used to be a big boat in that big space in front of Möbius and you can see that it has now been moved out onto the road outside the Naval Yachts shipyard ready to make its trip over to the launching ramp and finally into the water where all ships belong. This is the newly and massively renovated motor vessel Legacy which came into the yard as a 24m/78’ all steel and double ended bare hull and is now leaving as a fully finished 28m yacht ready to take on charter guests throughout the Mediterranean or wherever her owner wants to go. True to her name, Legacy has a very long story which along with all the work that Naval has done, I can barely summarise here. She was originally built in the Netherlands back in the 1990’s but only got as far as the steel hull and superstructure when the budget ran out and it sat outside for 20 years until her current owner who runs a shipyard in the Netherlands bought her. In spite of owning his own shipyard the new owner contracted with Naval to have them do a complete makeover including lengthening the hull by 3 meters and transforming the original canoe stern to a traditional squared off one. So he had the boat loaded onto a cargo ship and taken as far as Izmir and then she was towed the rest of the way into the Antalya Free Zone and moved over to the old Naval shipyard.
When she arrived, the interior was completely void so an all new interior needed to be designed and installed along with new engines, generators and all systems from electrical to hydraulic, plumbing, navigation, aka EVERYTHING!
Given the enormity of this project and the owner’s wish to have her completed and ready for charter ASAP, he enlisted the help of the design company that did the original design as well as his own team of engineers to create a very large collaborative project involving almost 100 people in total.
Unfortunately for Möbius this often included them borrowing some members of Team Möbius to help out including these three you might recognize from previous postings; Mummy (left), Uğur and Nihat who have been busy all this past week getting Legacy ready for Launch Day. Once outside, they needed to set her down to reposition all the lift points so she was properly supported for the journey to the launching ramp in the Free Zone’s harbour which is about 10 blocks over. I was busy working on Möbius and didn’t get down to the launch ramp in time to photograph the transfer from the big yellow wheeled boat mover to this white railway launcher nor the tradition breaking of a bottle of champagne but you can rest assured we will capture ALL of this launching process when it is time for the launching of XPM78-01.
The transfer is quite simple, they set the boat down straddling the rails and supported by the splayed out build stands left welded to the hull same as you can see in some of the photos above when they first moved her out of the shipyard bay. Then the yellow mover drives out from underneath and the white mover moves in to take its place. A large series of hydraulic cylinders lift the hull up off the stands which are then removed and she is ready to head for the sea. First kiss of sea water on the hull! Once floating and with plenty of people onboard checking for any leaks or problems inside and a diver below to check that things like the stabiliser fins cleared as she floated up and off the lift, Legacy was finally floating free and spent her first night tied up to the behind and to the left of this picture.
As you can imagine, this all served to heighten our excitement and anticipation of when it is our turn to launch Möbius and this only served to reinvigorate us to get back to work getting our new home ready for this major milestone.
Which brings us back to where we started with this big empty space in front of what appears to be a very tiny Möbius. The plan as I understand it is to move Möbius into this space with her bow right at the sliding doors so they can put one of the new projects in our space in the back. Some of you have asked to see some overall shots of the outside and so with Legacy gone I was able to get this nice long shot of the whole Port/Left side. You can some of the more recent changes such as the bow thruster tube and fairing with one of the sea chest openings just behind, the pipe “pulpit” railings up at the bow, stanchions running down the side deck and if you look closely and way up high you can see the upper end of the Paravane A-Frame on the far Starboard side. The large aluminium assembly in the lower right side is the roof over the SkyBridge which should be going in place in the next week of two.
With our Aluminium team MIA working on Legacy the other teams were able to make good progress with cabinetry, finishing, plumbing and wiring so let’s go check that out.
The Master Cabin has been “gutted” as all the cabinetry you’ve been seeing has been moved out and up to the Finishing Department where they are being sprayed with many coats of polyurethane varnish and paint which we will see a bit later. Back in the aft Guest Cabin, Ömer and his team continue to do the mounting of all the interior walls and furniture. This is the entrance into the Guest Cabin and the Head/toilet will be on the left and the shower on the right. Stepping into the Guest Cabin looking back at that entrance they have Christine’s desk and bookshelf fitted and these will soon be headed for the Finishing Department as well. Turning around to look forward towards the Galley up above, we find some of Hilmi’s handiwork with the installation of this electrical junction box for all the DC lighting in this Guest Cabin as well as lots of Cihan’s work on the many fuel, sanitation and venting hoses in this area. Cihan was also busy up in the Master Cabin putting in these drain lines from the removable floors in the shower on the left and the Head on the right. He fabricated this aluminium manifold to connect both of these drains to the pump on the other side of this Forepeak WT Bulkhead that will move this water to either the Gray Water tank of overboard via the exiting Sea Chest. Immediately above are these two water manifolds, cold water on the left, hot on the right and the drain from the sink in between covered in foil tape to keep the dust out. These manifolds convert the larger 25mm/1” diameter PPR/PVC supply lines to these ball valves with 15mm PEX push on fittings, one for each of the 4 consumers in the Head; sink, shower, toilet and towel warmer. All these valves can be easily accessed through the removable backs in the cupboard that mounts to the white grids. On the diagonally opposite corner of the Master Cabin Hilmi has finished mounting and wiring this junction box for the DC lighting circuits. This box is located in the back of the large wardrobe on the right as you walk down the steps into the Master Cabin and can be easily accessed by removing the plywood back if you ever want to add or change any of these circuits. Those of you who have worked on electrical systems on boats or houses will appreciate the value of having EVERY wire and cable clearly labelled like this. Labels are printed on adhesive lined tubes that are shrink wrapped onto each cable with a heat gun. Each circuit has both a unique name and number that corresponds to the wiring schematic and will make it SO much nicer to work on over the life of the boat. With the WT cover removed you can see how the connectors for each circuit are mounted on the metal DIN rail behind which makes for super quick and easy mounting. Each connector is modular and simply clips in place with two end plates sandwiching them in groups of any size you like. The junction box is purposely oversized to allow for more circuits to be easily added in the future Meanwhile, off the boat and up in the Finishing Department, Ömer is showing how the cabinets in the Master Head/Bathroom will work. He is holding one of the doors on the lower front of the sink cabinet that goes against the Port/Left hull. The sink will be set atop the counter that now has the upper cabinets and shelves sitting on it. Stepping back to show the rest of the components of the Head. A bit confusing as those triangular cupboards are upside down but will be set into the wall with mirrored doors to access the shelves you see laying in front with their fiddles or edging to keep their contents all inside.
For those wondering, all these surfaces will be completely sealed with many coats of white PU paint so Ömer has laminated all the marine plywood surfaces with a special inert composite material that creates the perfect flat, smooth surface for the paint. Hence this unique colour you see. This is a time consuming detail but the resultant glass smooth and very tough painted surfaces are worth it.
Off to the far side this is the fully dismantled Master Cabin bed and drawer assembly, now fully finished and bubble wrapped as they await their return trip to the boat for final installation. Several rooms over these doors from the Master Cabin have received their first of five coats of clear PU and are now off to the sanding room to fully flatten all their surfaces for the next coat.
The lighter wood is a type of Beech which is what we are using for surfaces on the insides of cabinets, drawers, doors, etc. Very hard, sands and takes finish well and the lighter colour both contrasts well with the dark tones of the Rosewood and provides more light inside closets and drawers.
Neşet is our master of the spray gun and is deservedly smiling as he stands beside this upside down hanging locker from the Master Cabin. The bureau of drawers in the Master Cabin, laying on its back here, has 3 of the 5 coats on it and you can see how the multiple sanded surfaces are filling in the grain very nicely to create these flat even surfaces. The long narrow Rosewood strip on the right is the toe kick and the dado/groove above it is where the indirect LED lighting strips will go to provide the added safety of well lit floor areas at night as well as what I think is a very lovely look as the soft and dimmable light is reflecting off these Rosewood surfaces throughout the boat.
On the far right you can see that same bureau of drawers standing right way up this time with its upside down neighbours. In the middle is the wardrobe that goes on the far right of the bureau of drawers and hiding on the floor on the far left is the medicine cabinet that goes above the Vanity sink. Wondering about the “In with the New” reference in this week’s title?
Well, this box arrived from Jefa Rudders in Denmark with all the components for the massive self aligning rudder bearings. A closer look at one of these bearings shows how they work. If you peer through the plastic (click to enlarge any photo) you can make out the black vertical roller bearings and then by my thumb you can see how the white roller bearing race is convex spherical and fits snugly into the matching concave spherical outer housing. The black roller bearings allow the rudder shaft to turn easily and the spherical housings ensure that the rudder shaft is always completely aligned with these bearings. While not needed under normal circumstances when (never if) we manage to hit something with the bottom of the rudder blade even if the force is enough to momentarily bend the rudder shaft it will not bind and we will maintain full steering. This sample photo from the Jefa.com site will help you see how these work. In our case there is a large 200mm / 7.9” ID aluminium pipe that is welded vertically into the hull and then one of these Jefa roller bearings is installed top and bottom to support the massive 127mm / 5” solid AL rudder shaft.
We have changed the tiller arm details but this rendering will help you see how the two redundant hydraulic steering cylinders mount on the rudder shelf just inside the transom wall there the Swim Platform begins outside. Under the rudder shelf you can see the vertical 200mm AL tube with the rudder shaft inside with the top and bottom Jefa Rudder bearings fitted at each end. The top of this rudder tube is about 525mm / 21” above the loaded WL so no need for any seals.
In discussion with Thor, the extremely helpful and expert rudder design engineer at Jefa Rudders, we added this white PETP thrust ball bearing and the black aluminium lock ring to the setup. This will sit on top of the upper rudder bearing and deal with any vertical thrust that might occur in a grounding or just the natural flotation of the rudder which can put a bit of upward thrust on the rudder shaft. Simple and effective solution that will ensure a lifetime of very smooth steering.
Why go to all this trouble some might ask? Well, if you’ll allow me a small technical diversion, there are several reasons and I’ll highlight just a few. (Feel free to skip down to the next photo if this doesn’t interest you)
These Jefa self aligning roller bearings are made of PETP (also known as Arnite, Ertalyte, Sustodur & Ultradur), so it doesn’t consist of any metals and has zero absorption. In addition to providing excellent bearing surfaces this also keeps our all aluminium rudder completely electrically isolated from the rest of the hull and also no possibility of any corrosion due to dissimilar metal contacts.
Given such a massively oversized rudder shaft it would probably have worked fine to do what most boats do which is to make the rudder bearing a simple solid bushing made of Delrin or nylon or another type of plastic impregnated with self lubricating material, which is then press fit into the rudder tube and bored out to slightly oversize for the rudder shaft to slide smoothly inside and usually with some grooves cut inside to allow a grease to be inserted using a zerk fitting and grease gun. I had this type of setup on my previous all steel sailboat and due to having never been greased in the 12 years before I bought it, this seized up as I was making my way down the west coast of Mexico. Made for some interesting manoeuvrings as you can imagine but once I was able to make it to a marina and get hauled out it was a VERY long and arduous job to press out the seized rudder shaft, then press out the bushing, get a new one machined and installing the new setup. I added two additional grease fittings to this new setup and must say it worked very well for the next 10 years as I sailed her long and hard throughout the Pacific and is still working well for the new owners, who I encouraged to be very religious about greasing at least once a year.
However with this being a skeg hung rudder, meaning only supported above the rudder not below, and being the second lowest underwater part of the boat, there is always the danger of hitting something with the bottom of the rudder that we thought long and hard about as we designed the whole rudder and steering system. And of course with Murphy’s Law ensuring that such an event would most likely happen at high speed contacting something very solid at O’dark Thirty some stormy night, there is the possibility, however unlikely, that the rudder shaft could bend or arc, even if for just a short time of the impact. With a solid bushing or even fixed bearings this would cause the rudder shaft to bind against the bushing and if severe enough to seize and thus cause loss of steering. Even more so on a power boat than a sailboat where you can use your sails to help steer, this is a scenario we want to reduce to as close to zero as possible and so we have done everything we can to design and now build a rudder and overall steering system which is as bullet proof as possible.
As you might guess, this is not cheap, easy or fast but this is yet another example of how we design in a large SWAN or Sleep Well At Night factor into these XPM boats. After much discussion with the super helpful people and expert engineers at Jefa Rudder Systems, thanks Thor!, we were able to design what I think is one of the most robust and trouble free rudder systems in any boat I know of. Now that I have all these parts in my hands I could not be happier and I will show you the whole installation process as that happens in the coming weeks.
OK, sorry for that technical diversion but there are not too many other systems more critical than our steering system so I thought some of you would appreciate some of these details. Now back to our regular programming ……………..
There was one more VERY large, very heavy and very exciting shipment that arrived at Naval Yachts while we were away at the Cannes Boat show last week.
Some of you may be able to guess what is in this crate but I have blanked out the give away label in the center here to keep the rest of you guessing just a wee bit longer until I have time to complete the full Tech Talk article on what this is. So stay tuned for that and I hope to have that article up within the next week.
Oh, one more thing …………………….
They often don’t get the attention and thanks they deserve so I snuck in this photo of some of the people on Team Möbius who spend most of their time hard at work and hidden away in the main Engineering Office.
Apologies for the poor photo quality as I shot this through the glass window in the hallway so as not to disturb them but if you look closely (click to enlarge) you can make out Yusuf the head electrician in the red shirt at the desk on the far left, Enver the Chief Engineer and Shipyard Manager standing in the far middle and the top of Yiğit’s very smart head sitting behind the monitor.
Seated in the left foreground is my Beautiful Bride and Captain Christine working closely on Galley layout details with Yeşim our incredible interior designer and unfortunately just out of site on the far right sits Buse who looks after purchasing and scheduling for Project Goldilocks.
Sadly for me, Christine flies off to Florida on Monday morning and will be gone for over six weeks looking after everything from a big author’s conference, updating her 100 Ton Captain’s license, fixing up the condo in Ft. Lauderdale and most of all getting in some serious Gramma time with our grandson Liam. I will join her and them at the end of October and in the meantime I’ll be holding down the fort here in Antalya and will do my best to keep you fully updated each week as Möbius gets closer and closer to hear launch date.
Thanks for joining us and please add any and all comments, questions, ideas and suggestions in the “Join the Discussion” box below.
Dincer, Baris, Yiğit and myself are in Cannes all this past week and now weekend looking after the Naval Yachts booth at the Cannes Boat Show and soaking up what’s new and interesting in the boats and companies here at the show. However the rest of Team Möbius are hard at work back in Antalya and thanks to the photography talents of my beautiful and talented Captain Christine I am able to bring you this somewhat abbreviated weekly update of all the progress on XPM78-01 Möbius. Let’s jump right in and see what’s been happening this past week ……
We will start off the boat over in Naval’s Cabinetry workshop where we find Ömer busy building the desk to go into Christine’s Office in the Aft Guest Cabin. To refresh your memory here is an early rendering of the Guest Cabin looking aft to show Christine’s desk on the aft right side. We have since removed the door to the right of the desk and made other changes to the interior but this is the same layout. Conveniently deleting the walls between the Guest Head/Bathroom and Shower enables this view looking directly Starboard to better show both the desk, printer cubby, Pullman berth folded into the upper wall with the couch below that folds out into a Queen bed and upper bookcases on both sides. Here is a slightly different perspective and colour of materials looking forward and Starboard/right side of the boat. The wall between the right side of the desk and the Guest Shower has been removed here to show more of the full Guest Cabin. Zipping back to reality aboard Möbius Ömer has the desk with its drawers and printer shelf set in place for final fitting. Back to the Cabinet shop to catch Ömer and Selim busy putting on the solid rosewood edging onto the panels which go above and below the glass walls in the Master Shower. They have also been busy prepping these plywood pieces from the Master Bathroom and Shower to receive the fiberglass panels what will soon be laminated on top. Rather than build a mold for a one piece bath/shower room enclosure they are going to do this fiberglass work inside the boat by laying up sheets of fiberglass over the plywood and glassing in all the corners. This will end up creating a seamless interior of walls, floors and ceiling that will be completely waterproof and easy to clean. Back on board and down in the Basement, Christine was able to find more evidence of Cihan’s handiwork putting in more and more plumbing. In this case the two upper black EPDM insulated PPR white PVC pipes carry the Air Conditioner chilled water to each of the Air Handlers in each cabin. The two pipes running up through the ceiling lead to one of two Air Handlers in the SuperSalon.
The bottom EPDM insulated pipe is the hot water loop that circles the boat to provide immediate hot water to every tap. Christine also managed to catch Hakan our resident 2D cabinetry drawing Master and Yesim our talented Interior Designer, conferring in the Guest Cabin, working out some details for this stepped transition on this side of the forward wall of the Guest Cabin and……. …… this Galley side view where their discussion with Christine continued. Not to be outdone, while they did get called away to work on another boat in the yard this week, Uğur and Nihat were able to knock off a few new jobs such as this section of the handrail on the Starboard/Right side stairs leading up from the Swim Platform onto the Aft Deck. They also quickly completed the fold up ladder off the aft end of the Swim Platform. This will make it very easy and safe to get in and out of the water when swimming, snorkeling and diving. As we try to do with many features on Möbius the swim ladder will serve multiple purposes so it is made to be easily removed by using two fast pins as hinges which allow the ladder to be quickly removed and moved to a matching pair of hinge plates at the side deck gate for times when we are docked to the side of a low dock and need to climb up/down the side of the hull. Here is a fish eyed perspective looking up at the ladder to show how the U tube brace holds the ladder vertical and away from the end of the transom plate. This is what you might see when swimming up to the aft end of the boat looking for a handhold to help you climb out. We have sized the ladder such that the bottom rung is an easy first step to get your foot up onto when in the water.
There will also be an additional pair of vertical rails running up parallel to the outer pipes here to provide an uninterrupted hand hold when you are climbing in and out of the water. That’s it for this week. The boat show ends on Sunday and I’ll be back in Antalya on Monday evening and back in the shipyard Tuesday morning as we all continue to make good progress towards the end of the year launch date.
Thanks for joining us and please be sure to add any and all comments, questions, ideas and suggestions in the “Join the Discussion” box below.
After several holiday shortened weeks we had a full 5 day work week here at Naval Yachts and Team Möbius took full advantage to make great progress in the cabinetry, aluminium and plumbing work aboard XPM78-01. Let’s go take a look and see.
Starting with our primary Aluminium team, Uğur and Nihat were busy with several different projects this past week. They continued working on the remaining handrails such as this one that will be mounted ……… ……… in the middle of the very aft end of the Aft Deck directly above where you see it here. Like this.
The WT door on the right is the entry into the Workshop and Engine Room areas and the smaller one on the left is the HazMat locker that is fully sealed off from the interior of the boat. Möbius is a single fuel boat so no propane or gasoline onboard but this sealed storage provides the safest way to stow hazardous substances such as engine oil, diesel fuel, paints and any other potentially flammable, poisonous or dangerous materials.
As you can see the Swim Platform and Aft Deck areas are shaping up very nicely with the symmetric stairs on each side, the super strong double post cleats and now the handrails. They also finished up this additional handrail which creates one of the entry gates used when boarding from a side tie dock or when boarding to/from the Tender in some situations where there is too much motion to board safely on the Swim Platform. With these side gates much closer to the center of the boat there is much less differential between the motion of the boat, the Tender and the water and makes for safer boarding. We modified the intake Sea Chest in the Engine Room a bit to position the large dual strainers closer to the ER walls to add a bit more clearance when walking around the Gardner engine so Yiğit quickly modeled up the changes and Nihat and Uğur soon had this version 2.0 all tacked up.
With such eXtremely large integral tanks capable of carrying up to 15,000 L / 3800 USG of fuel and 7100 L/1900 USG of water the position of the Waterline WL varies at different parts of a passage but always sits above the top of the these two supply pipes to keep them filled with water at all times.
The round top flange is about 50cm/20” above the WL so its Lexan cover can be removed at any time to clean out any debris that might be sucked inside and also makes cleaning the insides very easy while still in the water.
Each of those short vertical inlet pipe will be threaded for a 50mm/2” ball valve that connects to one of these large Vetus strainers pictured below which then feed into a common manifold where all sea water consumers draw from.
Having two independent sea water supplies if the active one should ever be clogged or otherwise stop working it is fast and easy to simply turn the other one on with a turn of the ball valve. This Intake Sea Chest feeds consumers such as the various heat exchangers for the Gardner’s coolant, engine oil, CPP oil and then the wet exhaust. Moving up to the Guest Cabin area we find more evidence of Uğur and Nihat’s handiwork as they cut open the stairs leading up to the SuperSalon to provide easy access to the various pipes and hoses using this area to join up along the Port hull side and through the WT Bulkhead into the Basement.
BTW, For those wondering, the red lines are from the laser level.
They welded a flat bar flange inside all the edges and then drilled and tapped a series of holes to refasten the cut-out stairs. It would be rare that I need access to this area but you never know and so we make sure that all systems and equipment is readily accessible in the future. Up on Aft Starboard deck the newly machined black Delrin bushings are being pressed in place ready for the solid pipe handrail assembly to be installed next and provide super strong and safe protection to this area and when moving up/down the stairs to the Swim Platform. The 670L / 175 USG Day Tank is back in the Workshop laying on its side to show these new mounting tabs, Which connect to matching tabs welded to the side of the ER Enclosure and along the back side to the three vertical WT Bulkhead stiffeners. The neighboring portion of the Workbench is temporarily bolted in pace to make sure it all fits well with lots of clearance. The top and front of this Day Tank will soon be sprouting a set of fuel manifolds and ball valves which manage the various fuel supply and return lines from each of the 6 fuel tanks, the Gardner engine and Kabola diesel boiler.
Switching to wood cabinetry and moving into the Guest Cabin we find Omer and his team continuing to make great progress there. They have the white epoxy coated grid all in place on the WT Bulkhead of the Basement and have just brought over the wall resting on its side here that will separate the Cabin from its Head/Bathroom. This closeup of the bottom of this wall shows its hollow foam filled core construction which dramatically reduces the overall weight of our cabinetry. The marine plywood is also a new super lightweight product which Naval has found and yielded the greatest cabinetry weight reduction.
A few of these vertical voids are used to run electrical wires down to switches in the wall and the rest are filled with foam for added acoustic insulation.
Seen from up in the SuperSalon level looking Aft and Starboard provides this perspective. If you look closely in the bottom right corner near the first stair tread, (click to enlarge any photo) you see how one of those walls above is now being test fit in place. Stepping Starboard this angle shows the other wall as well which separates Christine’s Office desk area on the left from the Guest Shower on the right. Cihan was too much of a moving target for me to catch in a photo this week but if we look closer at that Aft Starboard corner of the Galley we can see that he is busy installing the flexible insulated aluminium ducting which extracts the Basement air out to the Starboard Wing Box on the Aft Deck. A bit later and back down outside the Guest Cabin we can peek through the doorway created by those two walls into the forward wall of the Guest Cabin to see how Omer now has the white epoxy coated 8mm plywood skin glued and screwed to the underlying grid of that upper stepped grid transition between the Galley cabinetry and the Guest Cabin. Along with the two stepped aluminium frames you see in these last four photos provides a very stiff and strong platform for mounting the cabinetry that attaches to both this Guest Cabin side and up in the Galley.
Turning 180 degrees to look across at the Aft Port corner of the Guest Cabin, Omer is showing Yiğit and me how the the bookshelf he has temporarily hung overtop where Christine’s desk will be, fits against that wall with the Guest Shower on the other side. We were working out how the leather covered panel will snap into that light coloured upper half of the wall and fit around the bookshelf. With those details all worked out Omer soon has the grid on that aft cabin wall all sheathed in plywood and he now prepares that inside corner for mounting Christine’s desk. Lastly for today we find Ömer and Selim up front continuing to make great progress in the Master Cabin. In the upper left background you can see that they have the wood grid in place along the Port side of the hull and they are now custom fitting the plywood cover for it. Fits great and along with its matching lower panel and they provide a very solid substrate for mounting the cabinets, countertop and glass separator. There will be similar cut outs in this upper panel as in the lower one to provide ready access to any pipes, wires and hoses running along the hull sides. With the wall panels in place they quickly assembled the insert for the raised flooring to provide space for the drains under the shower and bathroom floors. The floors themselves will be two removable teak panels that are slightly convex so that water runs over all four edges onto the fiberglassed floor underneath and then out drains which to either overboard via the exiting Sea Chest or into the Grey Water holding tank in the Forepeak. The two “missing” walls in the foreground will be made with two plates of floor to ceiling etched glass.
This angled plywood panel was cut and test fit in place and will now be used as a template to send out to the glass supplier. This triangular glass half wall will separate the shower area from the counter and wall cabinets on the far side in the Head. Standing in the bathroom area looking up you can see how the divider glass panel is positioned just below this big hatch so that all those fresh breezes and light can flow into both spaces. Next up they prepared this aft section of the Port hull for the wood grid. The two horizontal lengths of marine ply are attached directly to the aluminium frames with bolts and adhesive to provide attachment points for the grid itself. As with the rest of the interior these wood grids provide the secure framing to attach the marine plywood surfaces and create strong stiff wall surfaces for mounting cabinets and attaching the wall panels with FastMount clips. Whew! As you’ve seen a very busy and productive week thanks to all the super talented members of Team Möbius.
Several of you have been asking about the two youngest members of Team Möbius and Dincer was finally able to send me this shot of his three boys in the nearby playground; the twins Yiğit and Mert in the swings being pushed by their big brother Demir.
Dincer, Baris, Yiğit and I will all be at the Cannes Boat Show all next week manning the Naval Yachts booth and checking out all the latest and greatest in power and sail boats at this big annual boat show. Christine the the rest of Team Möbius will be holding down the fort here in Antalya and she will be the official blog photographer so rest assured that next week’s progress update will be ready for you as usual.
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