Today, April 23, 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the foundation of Turkey’s Grand National Assembly which essentially created the country of Turkey when the national council denounced the government of the Ottoman Empire and announced their own temporary constitution.
Children’s Day is a unique event established by the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk when he dedicated April 23 to all the world’s children to emphasize that they are successor of the future. In addition to being the Centennial of Tukey’s foundation AND National Children’s Day, this year’s celebration will be all the more unique as we are all celebrating this holiday while under the newly mandated Lockdown policy so we will all be together in being “home alone”.
However, and again in keeping with what we find to be the way of these beautiful people, when Mustafa Sentop, the speaker of Turkey’s Parliament spoke yesterday he asked “I hope to see all our citizens enthusiastically taking part in celebrations from home,” and then urged the public to sing the Istiklal Marsi, the country’s national anthem, on tonight at 9.00 p.m. (GMT1800) from their balconies and windows. “Let’s show our love t independence and liberty by singing our independence anthem in a strong voice,” he said. So we will be out on our balcony in a few hours to add our meagre voices to those of all the children and people of Turkey. Seems though that some of the children couldn’t wait that long so I just snapped these two photos above and on the left, from our balcony as I watched and listened to the children out dancing and waving their flags inside our apartment complex grounds.
And as if all THAT wasn’t enough, today is also Ramadan Feat Eve, also known in Turkey as Şeker Bayramı, the Sugar Feast, marking the first day of the month long Ramazan/Ramadan. Best of all we will help celebrate this important date with the classic Ramazan symbols of a new moon, sweet traditional Turkish desserts and a cup of Turkish coffee!
As you might guess from all of this and the title of this week’s post, this was a short 3 day work week and we are now all enjoying a four day weekend, in spite of, or perhaps because of, celebrating this “alone, together” at home.
But Team Möbius here at Naval Yachts were made the most of the three days we did get to work this week so let’s jump into catching up with all their progress.
However, Nihat was able to work with us most of the time for this shortened week and was busy fabricating some of the aluminium mounting frames in several locations.
Here on the Starboard/Right side of the aft Workshop, Nihat is fitting the frame he has just fabricated to mount the large Aft DC Electrical Distribution Panel.
We have three of these high amperage DC Distribution Panels; the Central one down in the Basement which then has two branches going to a Distribution Panel in the Forepeak and this one in the Aft Workshop. The full 1350 Amps @ 24V is carried from the House Battery Bank to these Fore and Aft Distribution Panels by dual 120mm2 / 5/0 cables which are the four Red/Black monsters you see here. Using such massive sized cables ensures less than 3% voltage drop to each panel so that the full amount of the House Bank is available at both locations. Up in the Forepeak, Nihat has this frame for the Forward DC Distribution Panel now welded in place. These Distribution Panels will soon be filled with switches, circuit breakers and busbars for all the high amperage equipment such as Bow Thruster, Winches, Windlass, etc..
ELECTRICAL WORK:
Hilmi also had a very productive three days as he continued with all the wiring aboard Möbius.
This is looking straight down into one of the three House Battery Bank compartments which are all integral to the whole hull. The massive 25mm thick Keel Bar is in the center here running down the centerline of the entire hull and the AL plate floor for the batteries is bolted to the L-bars around the four sides.
For those interested, the bottom plate of the hull you see here is 15mm / 5/8” thick AL plate.
If you look closely (click to enlarge any photo) Hilmi has now installed the little digital Bilge Water alarm (at the end of the Blue wire) at the deepest part of these battery compartments so that we will be immediately alerted on our Maretron system should water ever somehow get in here. Back on the Port/Left side of the Workshop Hilmi on the Right, is conferring with Cihan center as Selim secures some of the overhead cables to the wire trays up there. As you may be noticing, each week these cable trays running along the hull sides and the ceiling, become filled with more wires, cables, hoses and pipes as the systems start being installed. Stepping through the WT door into the Corridor and then turning right into the Guest Cabin we find more evidence of Hilmi’s wiring work filling up these cable trays running above the Black ceiling grid.
Rosewood pieces on the Left are where the door frame of the Guest Head meets the bare removable ceiling panels in the Guest Cabin. The round White sockets are the FastMount clips for the snap in place ceiling panels. Out in the Corridor where Omer now has this wall panel mounted with the access doors to the Fuel Vent/Fill Box hoses, we find this T on the blue N2K Backbone cable. This T provides the Drop Cable connection to a 6 port Multiport N2K block that will be mounted up in the ceiling of the Entry Door off the Aft Deck for all the N2K items in the SkyBridge Helm.
The majority of Hilmi’s past three days he spent putting in all these 12 and 24 Volt DC cables in the Aft Electrical Panel. If you’ve been following along the past few weeks you’ve seen him installing all the 120 and 220V AC wiring which is immediately below this. These white nylon pieces provide the zip tie attachment point for each cable as it first enters the inside of the Electric Panel cabinet. Each cable is stripped of its outer insulation jacket to reveal the individual Red and Black multi-strand tinned wires inside and then he seals off the jacket/wire junction with a short 4-5cm length of adhesive lined shrink tubing.
Hilmi uses this junction to zip tie each cable to the white nylon pieces you see in the photo above. This meets the ABYC requirement that each wire has its own strain relief and is just the right way to wire any wiring.
A length of this Gray wire organising duct is fastened in place and each wire fed through its own slot. Time now to put in the metal DIN Rail and snap in a series of these Gray DIN junction blocks where each individual wire will join up with its matching wire leading down to its circuit breaker below. Stepping back a bit so we can see the whole panel cabinet with the AC section at the bottom and the DC section up top. Circuit breakers will soon be installed on a panel in front of these. Time now to start cutting the individual wires to length, crimping on their connector ends and installing them into their junction block. Down to the last few wires to be installed. And finishing off by snapping the top cover of the wire chase in place. All ready for the next stage of mounting the outer panel with all the circuit breakers in it which will be hinged so it can swing out of the way whenever you want to access this inside area of the cabinet in the future.
Makes for a Goldilocks wiring setup; safe, secure, efficient and easy to access and maintain. Plus it looks very ship shape and seaworthy. What’s not to like?
PLUMBING:
Cihan was very busy the past three days installing more equipment in the Workshop.
We saw this monster of a diaphragm pump show up last week and Cihan was busy this week building the mounts and manifolds for this critical bit of kit.
As with much of the equipment on the XPM, this diaphragm pumps serves multiple and very critical purposes. One is to act as the high volume Bilge Pump which we hope never to need but is there in case there should ever be a breach of the hull or other situation where large volumes of sea water need to be pumped back to where they belong. The second function, which we also hope to never use, is that by turning two large ball valves, this pump can bring equally large volumes of water onboard to become our onboard Fire Pump.
Cihan is the Master of Mounting on Möbius and he soon has these mounts for the Diaphragm Pump welded in place.
You can also see some of his previous handiwork installing all the other pipes and hoses running along this side of the hull. Black EPDM insulated pipes are for things like DHW Domestic Hot Water and AirCon Chiller pipes.
With the Diaphragm Pump temporarily bolted in place Cihan makes up the brackets to hold the large ball valves and sea water manifolds that manage the different functions of High Volume Bilge Pump and Fire Pump. Hard to see in the photo but each vertical bracket has a hard rubber patch between it and the horizontal mount to reduce any vibration or noise.
Doesn’t take him long to fabricate this manifold and ball valve assembly, install all the hoses and clamp the whole system to the brackets underneath. Zooming out to see what the complete assembly looks like. With the Diaphragm Pump looked after Cihan moves on to mounting the next item on the same shelf as the Diaphragm Pump and with just a few more of the hoses Cihan has previously installed in the background.
Any guesses what this bracket will soon hold?
Hint, there are two of them………
…… and you saw them arrive last week ….. Correct!
Full marks to those who guessed this bracket is for mounting the two Fuel Transfer gear pumps!
To be continued next week………
One last little detail to show you before we leave the Workshop is how well that new flooring grid material works. It is just roughed in for now but if you look closely you will see how this small section overtop of these ball valves can be easily lifted out whenever you need to change their position.
We’ve got another simple system for securing these removable grids to their AL frames below and we’ll show you that once they are installed.
Gardner 6LXB aka Mr. Gee:
You can be forgiven for not finding this shot too exciting but its one of the many milestones for me of Mr. Gee’s journey to his new life.
This is the front end of the massive cast aluminium Crankcase which now has the ribbed Chain Case Cover bolted in place with the roller bearing for the end of the Camshaft hiding behind that dome in the center. Finishing off the front end with the installation of the lower Crankshaft end plate which also houses the large roller bearing for the extended forward section of the crankshaft on the Marine versions of the 6LXB. This bearing more than looks after any axial loads on the crankshaft from the large pulley driving the two Electrodyne alternators on either side.
The dark steel fitting on the right is the timing chain tension adjuster which will get more of my attention once the whole engine is reassembled.
Next up is this cover plate where the large shaft drive for the Fuel Injection Pump comes out the aft side of the chain case. Here I’m replacing the old felt washer with a new one. These felt rings ensure no dust or direct can get in from the outside and cause problems for the bearings inside.
I still need to prime and paint the Fuel Pump driveshaft but want to get it all fitted and do a test install into the Gardner to make sure …….. …….. these timing marks for all the gears match up precisely. The large gear is on the end of the Camshaft and the gear you see above for the Fuel Injection Pump is the smaller one behind. Here is how it all looks when it is dry fit into the Crankcase.
The PTO or Power Take Off which drove the original Gardner Generator/Alternators. In our case I’m going to use this to power the sea water pump for the heat exchanger that removes the heat from the engine’s cooling system.
Lever on the Left is the advance for the fuel injection pump.
Now it is time to install all these little soldiers to their new duties. These are the valve lifters which ride atop each of the egg shaped eccentric cams and convert the rotary motion of the camshaft to vertical motion to open/close each valve at just the right time.
When I was disassembling Mr. Gee I engraved each part with its position so I could reassemble them in the same order. Each of these lifter bodies are marked with their cylinder # and whether they are Intake or Exhaust. As with everything else on these Gardner engines, these valve lifters are simple, strong and efficient. Just one moving part, the lifter itself, which is at the bottom here and rides on top of the cam lobe.
This lifter is identified as being cylinder #1 Exhaust. Aaaaaa Tennnnnn TION!!!!!!
Soldiers all lined up and ready to be assembled. Good shot to show how these all work. Lifter bodies fit into these holes in the AL Crankcase and are then clamped down with that stud in the foreground.
Below inside the Crankcase you can see one Inlet and one Exhaust cam lobe which the lifter rides on. Here are all six cylinders with all 12 lifters now ready to be installed. Which is now a matter of giving them all a good coating of oil for initial lubrication, setting each lifter into its hole in the top surface of the Crankcase, sliding the hold down clamps in place over their studs and then tightening the nuts to their correct torque.
SUPERSALONG CABINETRY:
Omur and Selim also got a lot done in this shortened work week as they relentlessly progressed on building the cabinetry in the truly Super Salon.
First thing Monday morning, Omur picked up where he had left off with the building of the ducting for the AirCon and Hot Air vents. These ducts run along the bottoms of all the glass windows that surround the SuperSalon and will soon be glassed in with fiberglass composite to make them air tight. The boys in the Composite Shop made up these custom connectors. Which Omur soon has attached to the ends of the duct boxes where space is tight going around the window mullions. Selim (right) and Omur also picked up where they left off fitting all the Galey countertop Garages. They have made up these White templates to get the exact size and shapes for cutting the marble countertops when they get sent over to the CNC Waterjet cutter. This hole will be where the wiring comes up from below into the Garage for some light switches and AC receptacle sockets. With the countertop templates in place attention shifted to giving the Goldilocks treatment to the four big mitred corners of each Garage section. This also included fitting the Garages around each of the window mullions where the Rosewood tops meet up with the plate glass windows. Mortises for all the invisible hinges on the gull wing like doors have already been finished and await the doors and gas lift cylinders being installed. Another fun milestone as Omur and I brought the Galley Sink down from the storeroom so he could lay out its location and cut the right shape into the countertop templates. In addition to spacing it well within the width of the marble countertop we also wanted to get the location of the faucet just right so its centerline matched up with the centerline of the Rosewood panel behind such that when opening the two Garage doors they clear the faucet. Cut out dimensions for the Bosch Induction Cooktop/Hob were also laid out. Taking less imagination now to envision what a GREAT Galley this is going to be to work in with those 360 degree views outside and surrounded by all these rich materials inside. Just before we leave, lets pause for just a moment to enjoy some of Ömür’s Master craftsmanship in creating Goldilocks mirrored grain patterns like these in the Rosewood Garage fronts.
Luck us, we get to enjoy these views EVERY DAY!
GUEST CABIN:
We will finish up this week’s update with the craftsmanship that Omer on the right, and Muhammed are displaying. Here they are busy working on the liners for the overhead custom built hatches in the Guest Cabin, Shower, Ship’s Office and Workshop.
The have already laminated the inner core for all these hatches and the finished liners will slide up inside the walls of the aluminium frames of each hatch. As with all the other Rosewood components, all edges are formed with solid Rosewood which will have their corners all radiused and then flow into the Rosewood laminated onto the flat surfaces. Here they are fitting the mitred corners for the solid Rosewood edging on the top edge of this hatch liner.
Once the top and bottom edges have been fit, they are all glued and clamped to the liners. Next day they trim all the Rosewood edges flush with the liner surfaces and they are ready for to be laminated with Rosewood now. Back onboard and inside the Guest Cabin, Omer and Muhammed work on installing the FastMount sockets on this forward wall where the removable leather covered wall panel snaps in place. On the far Left of the photo above, this bit of detail was looked after where the now in place wall panel wraps around the Blue Horizon Line Handrail and needs a little solid Rosewood trim piece to finish it off just right. Over on the opposite Aft wall of the Guest Cabin they are finishing off the cabinetry on the end of the pull out Couch/Bed on the Left and the cupboard on the end of Christine’s Desk on the Right. For a bit of contrast with all the rich Ro$ewood the two little shelves have been finished in White.
Last detail for the Guest Cabin this week was lowering the bookshelf a bit to increase the efficiency of this little diffuser vent and make it easier to remove/replace the ceiling panels. It took a lot of research to find them, but I’ve been very happy with how well these plastic diffuser vents are going to work as we have almost 30 of them spread throughout the boat. The two halves fit together with a base that mounts in the ceiling panel and the finished adjustable diffuser fits snuggly into that. The diffuser has three components, the outer frame, the inner cone shaped diffuser nozzle and the center dome. By turning these you can adjust the air flow’s direction to be bent 90 degrees and run across the ceiling or more straight down into the cabin. Or it can be shut off completely.
Here is how the base will be secured to the removable ceiling panel once it has been upholstered. Then you just press the diffuser into the base. And here is what it looks like when fully in place.
Just right for us; simple, efficient, easy to maintain.
Not bad for a three day work week!b
I’ve got a New Arrival it is so cool it deserves its own post so I’ll try to get that done during the next few days to show you all about it.
Right now I need to go limber up my vocal cords to join all the children and others singing in celebration of this big Children’s Day holiday and Turkey’s Centennial Birthday. We will be doing so well isolated from all or respective balconies but fun none the less to be celebrating together home alone.
Over time, quite a lot of it in my case, I’ve learned that there is a LOT of truth to that saying that “Timing is Everything”. We are certainly seeing lots of examples of this in the past few weeks and months as the Corona virus descended upon us all with such mind boggling suddenness and speed and upended travel and most other plans. Many friends and family of ours for example did not have fortunate timing and have found themselves “sheltered in place” without their family or in places they thought they were just visiting for a short while. Christine and I consider ourselves VERY fortunate in so many ways including that we managed to make it back from London England, where we had gone for the weekend for her birthday celebration on March 15th, just a day or so before travel between the UK and Turkey was suspended. Lucky us, we are together, happy, healthy and in our lovely apartment here in Antalya enjoying another weekend lockdown which has now been instituted throughout Turkey. This started last weekend and is now in effect every weekend for the foreseeable future, so from midnight Friday through midnight Sunday only those working in essential roles are allowed to be out of their homes. Not a problem and very familiar for us long time liveaboard sailors and the weather has continued to be absolutely fabulous and warming up more every day.
During the weekdays though, while schools, restaurants, parks, etc. are all closed down, we are all allowed to move about while taking the now typical precautions of facemasks when in the presence of others, keeping the 2m/6ft distance from others and using LOTS of soap in our frequent hand and face washing each time we move from one spot to the next. This policy is allowing Turkey, for now at least, to keep most businesses which are essential to the economy up and running and fortunate again for us this has included the shipbuilding industry and Naval Yachts where we are building XPM78-01 Möbius.
Slowdowns are likely inevitable though as we have been informed that there will be new policies starting next where the Turkish government is trying to reduce the number of people in the workplace by reducing the number of hours in many positions by up to 40% and staggering those people in different shifts during the workday. These new part time workers will maintain their same regular full time salaries though as the government makes up whatever pay they are loosing from their employers with these shortened hours. Interesting idea and we hope that along with the other policies here it will enable Turkey to maintain what so far is one of the better rates of new cases and deaths. Naval Yachts will be instituting these reduced daily hours for most of their office staff so we will experience some degree of slow down with Project Managers and other staff key to all the ships being built now having 40% less time. Hopefully though, with all the “hands on” members of the build teams still working full time, most of the progress can continue and for that we are also eXtremely grateful.
(all royalty free images above thanks to Dreamstime.com)
However it was a different type of timing that Mr. Gee, as we affectionately call our Gardner 6LXB engine, was so excited about this past week and prompted the title for this week’s Progress Update. As you are about to see this was very good timing indeed.
The not so good timing this week was that several key members of Team Möbius were called away to work on other boats but with all the other very talented hands on deck their great progress continued so let’s go check that out.
Mr. Gee Gardner 6LXB Timing
I am fortunate to have PDF copies of the original Gardner Overhaul, Installation and Operation manuals which go into every detail of how to disassemble, overhaul, reassemble and adjust every single part of these magnificent works of art and engineering that are Gardner diesel engines. I will use some of these to show you what I’ve been working on this week.
Timing, in the context of internal combustion engines, both gasoline and diesel, refers to the precise timing of internal components such as intake and exhaust valves and fuel injection. Each of these must occur at exactly the right time relative to where the crankshaft and pistons are.
All of this is accomplished by a series of gears and a very heavy duty timing chain and this simplified illustration shows how the timing chain represented by the thick black line, runs around the various sprockets.
This is an illustration from the Overhaul manual showing what the schematic line drawing above looks like inside Mr. Gee. The adjuster lever on the bottom Right is used to adjust the tension of the chain to its Goldilocks point of not too loose and not too tight. This adjustment is only usually required when you are reassembling a new engine or doing a major overhaul as these four roller chains don’t stretch or wear much in even 50 years of use.
However, Mr. Gee is receiving an all new timing chain along with all new bearings so he will be good for at least another 50 years of uninterrupted service aboard Möbius. PAUSE: Speaking of works of art and engineering, pardon me while I hit the Pause button to appreciate the quality of stunning hand drawn illustrations in these old manuals such as this one above! We just don’t see this kind of exquisitely drawn and detailed illustrations anymore and even when I am holding my oil stained paper versions in my grubby little hands their beauty shines through and never cease to amaze me.
Here is a similarly artful illustration Mr. Gee’s brother the automotive version of the Gardner 6LXB…………. …………….. and how about this illustrated X-Ray peek inside……
OK, sorry.
Back to the real Mr. Gee now………..
One of the most useful original Gardner Books I have is No. 702-1 which is the full Parts Manual for the 6LXB engines. I took hundreds of photos of Mr. Gee as I disassembled every single part to begin this full restoration but even so, having these line drawings with literally every single part individually numbered, named and described is just invaluable.
As per the title at the top, these are all the various parts of the valve camshaft and chain drive sprockets and you can see how together with the illustrations and descriptive instructions in the Overhaul Manual, enable me to exactly replicate the process at the Gardner factory almost 50 years ago.
This is the front end of Mr. Gee’s camshaft which I installed a few weeks ago. The large helical gear (# 15 in the drawing above) drives the fuel injection pump and the small one #14 just visible on the Right, drives the water pump. Every component is completely disassembled down to their individual nuts, bolts, bearings and parts which are then all cleaned and scrubbed in my parts washer. Parts such as this Timing Chain Adjuster sprocket is carefully inspected for any wear, cracks or damage. All bearings and bushings are replaced with factory new ones from Gardner Marine Diesel. Then each component is reassembled with things like new bearings such as this. Apologies for not getting more pictures as I was installing all the gears, camshaft and sprockets and while it might not look like much when they are all in place it took several days to install and precisely position each one of these sprockets. As per the illustrations above, the timing chain wraps around five different sprockets and they must be in perfect alignment with each other. This requires that each sprocket assembly be dry fit and torqued into position so I can measure the distance from the front aluminium case surface to the machined edge of the sprocket. Their fore/aft position must be within 0.1mm/0.004” which is adjusted using different thickness shims, think very very thin washers. Therefore you end up installing each sprocket and bearing assembly in the aluminium crankcase housing you see here, measuring, removing, disassembling, add/remove some shims, rinse and repeat until they all measure within .1mm of each other.
By Friday I finally had them all in their Goldilocks position with the timing chain temporarily installed and tensioned to test. Next week I will finish installing the timing chain by aligning all these marks on the individual gears as per this drawing……. ….. and this one, so each are precisely aligned such that their respective components such the valves which the camshaft opens and closes, and the fuel injectors are all correctly in synch and “timed” just right.
Once that’s all done I can install the front case covers which have the outer bearings to support the ends of the Cam and Crank shafts. Stay tuned as there will be lots more of Mr. Gee’s return to factory new condition in the coming weeks.
ELECTRICAL WIRING:
Let’s leave Mr. Gee and wash our hands, one more time, so we can move on to check out what our head Sparkie Hilmi has been up to the days he was working on Möbius this past week.
You may recall that this is where Hilmi left off the week before and so we will pick up here as he continued installing the 240 and 120 Volt wiring in this Aft Electrical panel.
The Yellow & Green wires are common safety Grounding wires, Blue is AC Neutral (often White in shore applications) and Brown is AC live or “hot”. With all the Yellow-Green common Grounding wires all connected last week, Hilmi snapped the Gray connectors you see on the top here onto the metal DIN Rail mounted on the back of the cabinet. The Blue Neutral and Brown Live wires emerge out of the slotted cable ducting at the bottom and are fed into the bottom of their respective DIN Rail connectors above. These wires on the bottom of the cabinet all lead to the devices such as AC plug in wall receptacles, switches, pumps, etc. which Hilmi initially identified with the yellow labels you can see on the Right here as he was first pulling these nautical miles of cables through the boat.
Later he will connect a matching set of wires coming down from above where all the circuit breakers and supply side wires are located. Now he identifies each wire with its code numbers as per the boat’s wiring schematic and temporarily zip ties the bundles together. Once all the circuits are tested and their final locations are assured, he will go back and cut the wires to their correct length to clean up the cable duct. When every wire is in place and neatly contained within the cable duct this top cover is snapped in place to all those slotted fingers. I’ve used these slotted cable ducts in previous boats and they work eXtremely well. Easy to pop these covers off whenever you need to get at wires inside when you are maybe adding or removing wires in the future. Then it snaps back in place and creates a very safe and secure wiring. Elsewhere such as here in the Port/Left side of the Workshop, a different type of cable trays are used to organize the cable runs such as these ones running across the ceiling from the hull side on the Left into the Engine Room on the Right. You may recall from previous posts that Cihan had welded in these penetrations through the ER walls and Hilmi is now using those to get his cables in/out of the ER.
As with all other such penetrations in frames and bulkheads, these will be fully filled with special Class approved compound to make them fully watertight. More of those same type of perforated cable trays down in the Basement as Hilmi was also busy this week with more AC wiring which in this case is coming out of one of the three Victron MultiPlus 240V inverters/chargers.
Gray cables are 240V AC and the Red/Black are DC wires connecting each inverter to the Battery Banks via the high amp DC Bus Bars.
Over on the other side are the two 120V inverter chargers which Hilmi has also now wired up. On the Port hull across from the 240V inverters Hilmi continues to install the Blue N2K backbone cables and some of the many Maretron black boxes that will soon have all their sensors connected.
The clear covered box on the Right is one of two Power Drops which inject power into each of the two N2K backbones which are then combined into what the system will see as a single N2K backbone.
The Blue box in the upper Right corner is a Turk Multiport block that can have up to six drop cables connected.
The arc of Black, Gray, Green cables on the Left are various AC and DC cables coming out of the cable tray off to the Left along the hull side frames. We didn’t see much of Cihan this week unfortunately as he was busy working on another boat in the yard but he did get some time to work on plumbing the Kabola KB45 diesel boiler on the far end here with the Delfin Watermaker in the middle and the Webasto BlueCool V50 Chiller in the foreground.
Day tank is hiding in the shadows at the far end of this Starboard/Right side of the Workshop.
ALUMINIUM WORK:
We just found out that we have apparently have to be without Uğur and his brother Okan for the next month or more as they have been called away to assist another boat being built in the Free Zone which as run into problems.
However Nihat picked up where they had left off and got busy with one of this weeks more exciting new additions; the Watertight Entry Door on the Aft of the Pilot House.
This is the only door into the interior of the boat where you enter the SuperSalon with the Galley on the Right. These doors from Bofor in Turkey are incredibly well made and we like them a bit more every time we work with them. All aluminium construction other than the SS handle hardware and the beautiful big glass window. Bofor custom built these to meet our requirements for fully Watertight rated doors able to withstand a full roll over. With Uğur and Okan away, everyone else pitched in to help Nihat as needed to mount the doors in their frames and get them all aligned and then bolted in place. So Omur on the far Left and Selim on the far Right came over from their work on the Cabinetry and Hilmi whose arm is just visible in the upper middle left his wiring work to pitch in. Installing this big heavy door required people on the inside and outside to get it perfectly aligned and marked. Once they had the door fully fitted and all the holes carefully drilled, they removed the door from its frame and taped everything off before the did the final mounting of the frame into the Pilot House with sealant and adhesive as all the SS through bolts were tightened. Et, Voila! This gleaming beauty is now in place!
SUPERSALON CABINETRY:
With the door installed, Omur and Selim switched back into their Cabinetmaker mode and got to work building the Rosewood mullions to frame the new Entry door. The built the side mullions in a L shaped section with solid edging like this. Omur made quick work out of fitting it perfectly around the AL door post and the Galley Garages that they will soon be installing on the Galley countertops below. Similar construction of the mullion for the other side and they soon had them both clamped in place. Next, they turned their attention to the Galley Garages and you can see here how that Entry Door Mullion needs to fit around the AL door frame and this mitred corner of the Garage. Putting the mating Garage in that corner by the Entry door so they can fit the door mullion you see above. Another mitred pair of Garages at the Aft Stbd/Right corner of the Galley gets its final test fit. And here is the last of the 3 mitred Garage corners at the Forward Stbd end of the Galley. The L shaped Settee is on the other side of the shorter Garage. As is the case with most of the cabinetry, the Galley Garages have been built in sections or modules to facilitate moving them on/off the boat during building and finishing. Now those modules are all coming out of the Finishing Shop after receiving 4-5 coats of PU varnish that have been hand rubbed to the gleaming sheen you see here. With all four of the Galley Garages set in place to give you a sense of how they all come together to form this Goldilocks Galley. It “just right” sized with a well contained working area with solid spots to brace your hips to in rough conditions, more storage volume than any galley or kitchen we have ever lived in and 360 degrees of views to die for surrounding you. Here’s is an approximation of how the Galley will look as you come through the Entry door. The 80cm / 32” Bosch induction Hob or Cooktop sets atop the large square on the Right with the Bosch Speed Oven below. Double sink will be beside it in the upper Right corner.
Countertops will soon be covered with solid slabs of gorgeous Turquoise marble which is now out at the waterjet company being cut to final sizes and can’t wait to show you those in the coming weeks.
Last bit of Omur & Selim’s cabinetry work was spotted this week over in the Cabinetry Shop.
Any guesses what these are going to be? Gold stars for any of you who guessed that they are building some molds for the fiberglass AirCon/Hot Air ducting that runs along all the window sills of the forward half of the SuperSalon windows. As you may recall from previous Weekly Updates there is a Webasto Air Handler tucked into about the midpoint of each side of the SuperSalon; 18K BTU on the Port side and 12K BTU on Starboard, and they will push air into these ducts which then have round diffusers set into the window sills to direct air either onto the glass or into the room. You’ll see how this works as it gets installed in the coming weeks but wanted to give you an early peek as they get started.
GUEST CABIN & CORRIDOR CABINETRY:
Always impressive to see the latest master craftsmanship of Omer and Muhammed so let’s go check up on what they were working on this past week in the Guest Cabin and Corridor/Ships Office areas. Working out in the Corridor with the WT door into the Workshop behind them, they are prepping ………………. ….. this inner foundation wall panel that goes along the side of the stairs up to the SuperSalon.
We also see some of Hilmi’s electrical work with the cables for the LED overhead Corridor lights switch. The finished Rosewood lower panel is already in place and covered with protective cardboard and the finished leather covered upper panel will snap in place here with FastMounts. On the other side of this Corridor wall they have now got the Guest Head/Bathroom pretty much all put together now. The top mounted sink will be installed above the drain hole on the Right. Cihan has fitted the VacuFlush toilet and BioBidet and finished the plumbing connections, and Hilmi has the wiring in place for lights and the Bidet, so the VacuFlush can be removed now while the flooring is installed. Looking straight up at the small bit of horizontal ceiling inside the Guest Head door, Omer and Muhammed have the grid all done with the female FastMount sockets installed. You can also see that Hilmi has been here previously to run al those wires in the cable trays above the ceiling grid. If you look closely in the photo above (click to enlarge any photo) you can see how they have done the very tricky installation of this little rectangular 90 degree elbow for the extraction air vent that leads up to the extraction fan in the Wing Vent Box up on the Aft Deck. Over in the Guest Shower across the way, we find the ceiling panel is all ready to snap into those FastMount sockets with the other half of the vent going through the ceiling with a slotted cover. Checking inside the Guest Cabin the Pullman Berth has now been fitted with its SS pivots on either side. More evidence of Hilmi’s ongoing electrical wiring here as well as those cable trays start to fill up now..
This photo above is also a good example of the attention paid to keeping access to all systems readily available. Cable trays and AirCon ducting behind the Pullman. Domestic Hot and Cold Water manifolds behind the two rectangular openings behind the pull out Couch seat back. Fuel supply and vent hoses behind the book shelves, and one of the electrical junction boxes easy to access in the upper Left. One of the ceiling panels has also been removed from its FastMounts so there is ready access to all the wiring and plumbing in any of the ceilings onboard.
Here’s what it looks like most of the time with the Pullman Berth folded up. This will soon have its own Green/Gray leather covered panel snapped in place. Note too the slotted Rosewood AirCon/Hot Air vents spanning the width of the top of the Pullman. Christine’s Desk on the Right with the printer cubby above and drawers below. Stepping out of the Guest Cabin and back into the Corridor, Omer is busy putting in the foundations for the finished stair treads and risers.
If you look closely you can see that the bottom two stair treads will be removable to access the bolted in AL stair plates to provide access to the plumbing and wiring running underneath. Standing at the top of those stairs looking down the stair tread foundations have now all been glued down.
The “Ships Office” aka Wayne’s Office runs the length of the Corridor along the Stbd hull in the Upper Right of this shot. The Aft Electrical Panel we have been watching Hilmi wire is at the bottom of the stairs on the Right and one of the House/Boat computers and other electronics have their home in the cupboard on the Bottom Right. Looking up from the photo above, we see this bit of Ro$ewood beauty that Omer has recently fitted and taped in place once Omur had the Entry Door mullion clamped in place. Using one of the ER Vent Boxes on the Aft Deck as his temporary workbench, Omer is now working on the Rosewood wall panel that covers up the Fuel Vent & Fill boxes on the very far Right of this photo. This wall panel has already been varnished and needs to a bit of adjustment to be finally fitted now that the Entry Door has been installed so he tapes off this corner to protect the finish as he uses the jigsaw to trim this corner. Both wall panels now temporarily clamped in place. The two rectangular openings provide access to the Fuel Vent & Fill box hoses they cover.
NEW ARRIVALS:
More good timing for Möbius is that we had almost all the equipment already deliverd before the Corona virus started to disrupt shipping and cargo deliveries. Even still the majority of suppliers in the EU are still operating and shipping is largely still operational so we are still able to get the supplies needed for the build.
Any guesses what this latest new arrival from Italy is for? This White brute weighs in at 15Kg/33lbs and is one of two 24V gear pumps that power our diesel fuel transfer and filtering system. These all bronze Feit gear pumps with 316 SS shafts deliver a very steady 20L / 5.3USG per minute and are eXtremely reliable and bullet proof. They also self priming and have a built in bypass valve so they can maintain a steady 5 Bar/73 PSI pressure with no danger of over pressurizing the system.
Our fuel system is one of the most critical systems on the boat so for full redundancy we have two of these Feit gear pumps plumbed in parallel with …… ……… a matching pair of 2 stage FleetGuard filters on each line like this. If either pump or filter stops working it only takes the turn of two ball valves to put the second one in service.
FYI, for those who might want to know those two black Walbro pumps in the above photo are in addition to the Feit gear pumps. I’ve put these in my previous boats because they make filling new filters and bleeding the fuel system and injectors very quick and easy. Ask me how I know!
I will go into the FleetGuard fuel filtration system I’ve designed for Möbius in future articles but in the meantime the best explanation for why I’m going with FleetGuard 2 Stage filtration rather than the more common Racor 900 or 1000 systems can be found in THIS article “Marine Fuel Filtration” by Tony at SeaBoard Marine. Do be warned before you click on that link though that Tony writes excellent articles on boat systems in general so you may be there for awhile.
Along with all the fuel manifold ball valves, the Feit gear pumps allow us to transfer fuel from any tank to any other tank to redistribute the fuel for better weight balance or to just run the fuel in any one tank through the 2 stage FleetGuard filtration system.
However, for the absolute ultimate in clean fuel we have the King of Clean, an Alfa Laval MIB303 centrifugal separator that can turn the dirtiest fuel crystal clear while requiring no filters to do so. If you are unfamiliar with these centrifugal separator type systems, Steve D’Antonio did his usual great job of explaining all about them in THIS “Centrifugal Filtration” article in Professional BoatBuilder and THIS one “The Spin On Centrifugal Separation” in PassageMaker magazine, well worth the read and much better writing than mine!
As Steve notes;
“The advantages of centrifugal separators are many. As previously mentioned, they require no replaceable filter elements, they have few moving parts, and the only regular service they require is periodic replacement of O-rings and, for non-self-cleaning models, removal of “sludge,” which they can hold a great deal of (more than most conventional filters). Additionally, their ability to remove even the finest particles, as well as water in its molecular form, from fuel is undisputed. Centrifugal separators can even be used to remove soot from a diesel engine’s crankcase oil.”
Of course this all comes at a price so as Steve goes on to say;
“What’s not to like about centrifugal separators? By now, you may have guessed: the price tag. These units require precise machining and robust construction, and that comes at a cost. The smallest Alfa Laval separator that would be suited for diesel fuel polishing, the MAB 102B, lists for about $8,500, while the unit mentioned above, the MIB 303, sells for $10,000 to $12,750, depending on the configuration. Thus, questions arise: Is it worth the expense? Is a centrifugal separator that much better, more effective, and less trouble than a conventional filter? I believe the answer to both questions may be yes, depending on your needs.”
But in the end I’m in complete agreement with Steve’s parting remarks:
“Where filtration/separation technology is concerned, centrifuges often are considered the last word in removing dirt and water with the greatest reliability and the least amount of difficulty and equipment maintenance. If you have especially large fuel tanks, if you travel to locations where fuel may be of lower quality than usual, or if you simply want a bulletproof polishing system, then the centrifugal separator may be for you. It’s worth noting that because these systems are used primarily in commercial applications, such as ocean-going ships and power plants, they are especially long-lived and reliable. Many units are still in service after 30 or 50 years of operation.”
And now you know what we have an Alfa Laval MIB303 on Möbius.
If you are going to build an eXtreme eXploration Passage Maker and go to eXtremely remote places, then you really do need to have an eXtremely good fuel filtration/polishing system onboard, or two or three!
Whew!
And that’s the week that was April 13 to 17, 2020. Nothing is a given these days but hopefully I’ll be back again next week with the latest progress update on XPM78-01 Möbius. Until then please stay healthy and happy as those are the two best things any of us can do at any time.
Late last night (Friday) we received an alert that all major cities in Turkey would be under a 48 hour Lockdown starting at midnight. The ministry said that “the lockdown did not affect basic necessities” and that “bakeries, pharmacies, emergency call centres, gas stations and postal delivery companies would remain operational enabling people to meet essential needs.”
Frankly, Christine and I had expected this to happen sooner and quite welcome this increased pro-active move. We just hope that this and all the other restrictions here will be enough to keep the growth rate of cases and deaths as slow and short lived as possible. However we remain concerned that as with many parts of the world these actions have been slow to happen and the cases and the confirmed cases and deaths continue to rise. As we understand it, the decision to have a 48 hour lockdown for the weekend was made to help increase the number of people staying home and isolated when many might be tempted to get out to enjoy the warm sunny weekend weather. Remains to be seen if this lockdown is extended further so we’ll just have to wait and see.
I find that there is always humour to be found in ever situation and this was no exception given that this would all be happening on whilst other parts of the world are observing Easter and Passover. But the best chuckle we got, if you didn’t catch it in the announcement above, is that the first “essential needs” item on the list is Bakeries! Everyone here LOVES their bread and most households send someone out to the local bakery first thing in the morning to bring home the daily bread supply. Hence there is usually a bakery within a few blocks of anywhere you are and they apparently remain open for the weekend. I’m just not sure is how anyone can go get the bread from the bakery if everyone is supposed to be staying home? Fortunately, most people seemed to stock up on bread and other “essentials” on Friday and we have not observed very many people out on their daily bread run this morning, which we take as a good sign that people are observing the lockdown and staying home.
As if the Corona Virus and limited bakery runs were not enough to deal with, it seems that we now also have to deal with Pirates like THIS guy who has showed up at Naval Yachts the past two weeks!
Amongst other policies for increased sanitation and distancing, Naval Yachts has wisely instituted a policy for all of us to wear protective masks whenever two or more people need to be working together. Fortunately for me, Crafty Captain Christine fired up our onboard Sailrite sewing machine and quickly whipped up a good supply of these fashionably black face masks with removable filters inside which I have happily been wearing both while working with others at Naval and whenever I’ve been at the grocery store, where they are also mandatory.
While next week remains a bit questionable if the Lockdown is extended, this past week was another very productive one so let’s go get caught up on all the progress made getting XPM78-01 Möbius closer to her big splash.
PLUMBING:
For last week’s Progress Update, I started at the Bow and worked our way Aft so let’s reverse that for this week and start in the Aft Workshop and make our way forward.
Cihan, (standing) our Master Plumber and equipment mounting pro, was away all last week as his 3 year old son was very sick but fortunately just a temporary condition and not anything Corona related so it was great to have the always jovial and hard working Cihan back aboard Möbius this week.
Here, Cihan, Uğur (foreground) and our main man Yigit are conferring with me on best location for one of the New Arrivals you will see a bit later in this update. But you may recall seeing this New Arrival from last week; our Kabola KB45 diesel boiler, and Cihan worked on getting that installed this week.
This 24kW / 82k BTU Kabola will be our primary water heating source as these Kabola boilers are extremely efficient converting about 94% of the energy in the diesel to heating our Domestic Hot Water DHW.
I have long wanted one of these Kabola boilers since first coming across them in other people’s boats I worked on many years ago and finding that you can hold your hand in front of the outgoing exhaust gas and barely feel any heat. You can also stretch a white rag over that exhaust and it stays white while running so these units were eXtremely efficient even then and even more so with this newest KB EcoLine series.
If you are interested in learning more about Kabola boilers, Steve D’Antonio, who writes excellent articles for likes of Professional BoatBuilder and other marine trade magazines, wrote a very interesting article “Blue Flame Afloat” which you can read via that link. It was written back in 2013 and Kabola boilers are now two generations newer and more efficient but his detailed reporting of his visit to the factory and discussions with the owners and workers there makes for very interesting reading if you are curious to know more about these super efficient and quiet boilers.
The back side is where all the action is for Cihan. Primary hot water supply outlet is the bronze fitting top Right corner with the Return copper pipe next below. This is a “Combi” model which means that it has a second independent water heating circuit which are the two lower pipes.
These will connect to our Webasto Chiller which in addition to being the source of the “chilled” fluid when it is functioning as our Air Conditioning, it also works to heat the air in each Cabin and the SuperSalon when supplied with hot water instead of chilled.
The vertical pipe on the Left is a cast Stainless Steel exhaust flue with a very nicely done drainable condensation pump in the bottom.
This is the SS flexible exhaust flue gas pipe and silencer which will connect that vertical SS pipe in the photo above to the double walled SS exhaust pipe which will be mounted to the exterior of the hull just below the Rub Rails. On the Right side of the case, Kabola has this very nicely executed fuel filter setup complete with vacuum gauge which is the best way of checking the degree of fuel filtration and an early warning of when it is time to replace the filter as does its job of removing any small particles suspended in the diesel fuel that might manage to make it his far.
They supplied us with these longer SS braided fuel lines so we can mount this on the Alucobond wall behind the Kabola to keep it well out of the way. In addition to being our Plumber par eXcellence, Cihan is also a master at building custom mounts for each piece of equipment onboard Möbius which is a very important factor in making maintenance easier, reducing noise and vibration and ensuring that all the equipment stays where it belongs even in the worst case scenario of a self righting full roll over.
This is the mount he built for the Kabola…… ……. which mounts like this.
In addition to being a secure and vibration dampened mount, these mounts also keep each piece of equipment raised up about 50mm/2” above the workbench surface both for air circulation as well as keeping it away from any water or other spills which would be fully contained within the “pan” created by the edges of the workbench top. The Starboard/Right side of the Workshop is now filling up nicely with all the equipment, plumbing hoses and wiring. Kabola KB45 on the far Left, Delfin 200L/hr watermaker in the middle and Webasto BlueCool V Series Chiller on the Right.
In the foreground is one of two Accu-Steer HPU400 hydraulic steering pumps which is sitting atop the center workbench. For orientation, the WT entry door into the Workshop from the Swim Platform is on the far Right and the Day Tank on the far Left. With these three bits of kit now all mounted, Cihan turned his attention to connecting them up, starting with the Webasto Chiller on the far Right. The Red tank is the accumulator tank and the two clear hoses with White/Blue/Red stripes are the Supply/Return lines of cooling sea water for the Chiller and the clear hose in the middle is for the low pressure sea water feed to the Delfin Watermaker. Cihan soon has these all connected to their corresponding ball valves and manifolds which he installed previously.
Carbon filter for the Watermaker is on the back wall with the Blue head on the Left side. The smaller Blue plastic hose carries the “product water” coming out of the ceiling mounted membranes which will next be routed to the manifold which direct the water to one of our six water tanks which are integral to the hull.
In addition to providing us with plenty of pure potable/drinking H2O, we also use this water for ballast to maintain the trim and balance of the hull compensating for the reduced weight of diesel fuel as it is used on a passage.
Up at the front of the Stbd/Right side of the Workshop underneath the Day Tank we find more of Cihan’s handiwork putting in some of the water lines going in/out of the Engine Room wall seen here on the Left side. A close look reveals two hose penetration collars welded into the ER wall, one up high with the four clear water hoses going through and another larger one with six hoses that is partially hidden under the newly installed floor grating we will see later on. Up on top of the Day Tank, Cihan now has the fuel hose lines connected up to their respective SS ball valves for fuel going into the Day Tank from both the fuel transfer pumps and the return lines from the Gardner engine and Alfa Laval fuel polishing centrifuge. We are using these Blue & Red anodized aluminium aircraft hose fittings which are the best quality fittings I’ve ever used. They seal perfectly all the time and their special press on barb system enable me to build new hoses on the boat as needed with no special tools, no hose clamps and no leaks! Not cheap but such a great return on investment over the years of running and maintaining this boat. The two round AL bosses or flanges on the far Right are where the Maretron submersed tank sensors and the Hart Tank Tender fittings go to measure fuel level in the Day Tank. We use the same dual tank level indicating systems in ALL tanks aboard for fuel, potable, Gray and Black water.
Cihan also installed these two 40mm/1.6” hoses into the Engine Room where they are plumbed to the very bottom of the Bilge in the ER for the High Water Bilge system. These are found throughout the boat in all compartments and are one of those systems we hope to never use like many of our SWAN systems which help us Sleep Well At Night.
Having almost our entire hull be integral tanks means that we have almost no “bilges” and instead have these “gutters” where the Margin Plates of the tank tops bend down to intersect the hull plates perpendicularly. This also means that even were the hull to be breached/penetrated, it would only affect one relatively small tank area. With the tops of the tanks at about the same height as the waterline, there would be very little water able to flood the boat. However, we still need to allow for such catastrophic events and hence this very high capacity “bilge” water pumping system. And of course we have a small volume bilge pumping system with smaller diaphragm pumps throughout each compartments gutters which can keep these gutters dry and gathering nothing but dust.
ALUMINIUM TEAM:
Cihan wasn’t the only one busy in the Workshop this past week as out Dynamic Duo of our Aluminium Team Uğur and Nihat, got busy cutting the very cool composite flooring grid material you first saw last week.
With Yiğit’s help using his model nesting software, they have laid out a series of these 1 x 4 meter sheets of this special composite grid material and laid out all the wood templates ….. …… they created in place in the Workshop to easily replicate the exact size of each floor grid piece the need. This composite grid material which Yigit and Buse stumbled over in their research, is working out to be another Goldilocks just right find. It is impervious to pretty much everything from wear to chemicals being an epoxy like material fiber reinforced throughout. Super stiff so when you stand on wide spans only supported on the edge it doesn’t flex at all even if you jump on it with all your might.
Easy to cut and work with just regular woodworking tools. This all makes for an ideal floor material in places such as the Workshop, Engine Room and Forepeak we want to have the space below be open for visual checks and air circulation. As some of you noted in your comments, there is the chance that if you drop small items, each grid square is about 30mm/1” square, they can fall through but the panels are very easy to remove and in places where I’m more active I will put down some of those spongy foam floor mats made to be more comfy for your feet and reduce my “dropsies” a bit that way. Nihat and Uğur had previously welded lengths of L-bar to frame the outer edges and provide support which finished them off nicely. This is the Port/Left side of the long workbench in the Workshop with the WT door into the Guest Cabin at my back and ER wall on the Left. A few steps forward and you can see how well the flooring grids fit together and butt up against the ER walls, Aft frame and the inside edges of the Prop Tunnel framing. It worked out just right to keep the floor all on the same level and just have those thick AL frames above the Prop Tunnel exposed but not in the way with the center workbench located around it which will later be filled with tool and storage drawers. Prior to Cihan mounting the Webasto Chiller, Uğur and Nihat had been busy installing the Alucobond panels they had cut and bent to size a few weeks ago. Alucobond is another fabulous just right material that we are using to cover all the walls and ceilings in the Workshop over the EPDM foam insulation. Alucobond is made from two thin sheets of power coated aluminium on the outsides sandwiching a composite core in between which makes for a just right surface in these areas that is easy to clean, makes the areas very easy to light and adds to the fire rating. It is also creates eXcellent surfaces for mounting brackets and holders as it readily holds rivets and threaded inserts. The printed surfaces are there to protect the finished surface underneath and peel off easily when we’re finished. The crowing touch which makes these panels easy to remove is this clever hardware Naval is using with a SS self taping screw which are installed through these threaded brass washers and then have the round silver caps threaded on for a super neat finish look.
These might sound like minutia to some but these “little” things” and attention to detail make ALL the difference when this is your full time home and you are the guy who has to maintain and live with this every day!
One other job they got to this past week was cutting these two holes for the powerful extraction fans in the Aft wall of the Pilot House. The camera is inside the SuperSalon here pointing Aft through the upper corner wall into where the two pipes of the Arch come through the upper Wing Box. On the outside of that wall you can see the slotted plate in the bottom of the Wing Box where the air being extracted from the SuperSalon exits outside. Back inside and looking Aft along the Port/Left side windows you can see where these eXtraction fans are located. And on the opposite side you can see how this fan in the Upper Aft corner is above the Galley and will work so well to keep fresh air flowing through. We have designed these Aft Wing boxes to work both passively when the fans are off so turning the fans on will only increase the natural convection and flow of fresh air coming in up front and flowing Aft.
ELECTRICAL WORK:
Hilmi, our resident Sparkie or Electrician, also had a very productive week spending most of his days wiring up this Aft Electrical Panel where most of our 120 and 240 Volt circuit breakers will be installed.
This shot is looking forward along the Corridor outside the Guest Cabin on the Port/Left side of the hull. The WT Door from the Workshop is at my back, Ship’s Office (aka mine) on the Left, Guest Shower on the lower Right, Guest Head/Bathroom across from it and Hilmi is sitting on the steps leading up to the SuperSalon.
For those interested in such details, this is what these shielded cables have inside when you remove the outer insulation sheath. The individual Brown/Blue/Yellow-Green wires have are wrapped inside a braided copper sheath which acts as a kind of Faraday Cage to reduce electrical “noise” and external magnetic radiation from nearby wires.
Each wire is tinned multi strand copper.
Let’s follow along with Hilmi’s progress as the week progressed ………….. Here is what it looked like when Hilmi started on Monday with all the cables pulled through ready to be stripped of their outer insulation, labelled and then fastened to the plywood backs with the zip tie strain relief each wire is required to have.
In the lower Right corner (click to enlarge any photo) you can see how Hilmi has begun the process of stripping the outer insulation off to expose the individual Blue/Brown/Yellow/Green wires and finished off that spot with a length of heat shrink adhesive line tubing where he zip ties each cable to the Beech plywood back support. Most of these lower cables now stripped and attached. The Black tube on the wires in the middle here is the heat shrink tube before Hilmi slides it down to cover the end of the insulating outer layer below and then a heat gun is applied to melt the adhesive lining in the tube as it shrinks and fully seals this joint. As is common practice, we will use these very handy slotted Gray PVC wire raceways to help hold and organise all the individual wires and cables inside our electric distribution panels. The sold top piece snaps in place and when you have all the wires laid out and is easy to remove for future additions or maintenance. Here is an example, not ours, of how these slotted raceways are typically laid out around to frame the outer edges with the electrical components such as circuit breakers clustered on the inside. Makes for a very neat and tidy panel that is easy to work on in the future. Here is how that all starts as Hilmi attaches the first slotted raceway horizontally just above where he had zip tied the individual cables. This is a close up of a short length of the copper grounding bus bars what we are going to use to attach the common grounding Yellow-Green wires to. Which Hilmi fastens just above the PVC raceway using nylon spacers to ensure this grounding bus bar is fully isolated electrically. The galvanised DIN Rail goes in next and will hold the individual DIN Rail connectors such as the ones Hilmi has snapped in place on the Right end of the DIN Rail
DIN Rail systems are the “Bees Knees” to me as they make it so quick and easy to install and connect wires, circuit breakers, switches, timers, relays and more in a this well organised and easy to maintain setup so we will use them throughout the boat. The Yellow-Green safety grounding wires are first up to be connected to the Grounding Bus Bar and you can start to see how these slotted raceways help to organise this spaghetti like mass of wires through each slot.
Labeled tubes are just loose for now until the individual wires are connected to their respective connectors, circuit breakers and switches when they will be more permanently labelled. Here is what this Aft Electrical Panel looked like by Friday and you can compare this to the first photos up above at the beginning of the week to see how the work progressed. I wasn’t able to catch many of the other spots Hilmi worked on this past week but did get this shot of the LED work lights he has installed on the ceiling of the Basement. They sit up out of the way and really flood this cavernous space with lots of light as it reflects off all the aluminium foil lined ceiling and wall covering.
GUEST CABIN:
Our Guest Cabin team of Omer and Muhammed never cease to awemaze me with the work they do and how much they get done each week so let’s go check in with them.
A lot of their focus this past week was in the Guest Head and where we find Omer is using the super handy laser level to lay out the exact location of the lower wall panel behind where the VacuFlush toilet will mount. Here is a better shot of this area and you can see how they have the Rosewood side walls, sink cabinet and Blue Horizon Line handhold installed now. The wall on the right separates the Guest Bathroom from the Cabin and now has the finished White laminate surface in place. These Red PEX tubes in the other side wall where the Corridor runs, carry the DHW Domestic Hot Water to the Towel Warming rack that will be mounted to the finished wall here and they now have their SS threaded elbows attached to their ends and are ready for the wall panels to be put in place.
Christine can’t wait to live with these towel racks not only for their stated purpose of giving you warm towels to use but they also heat up the Bathrooms and Showers that extra bit that will be SO wonderful on those mornings when we are in the Polar regions of the world, or in my old stomping grounds of the Pacific North West. Omer has this wall panel all ready to be installed. These are made by laminating a thin fiberglass sheet they make in house to 10mm/ 3/8” marine plywood. Creates a smooth waterproof surface that is easy to clean and holds up well in the long term. Omer soon has the panel affixed to the wall with the SS fittings all ready for the Towel Warming rack.
In addition to all their functional and pragmatic benefits, you can already see how these White upper panels create a stunning contrast with the deep dark hues of the grain in the Rosewood lower panels. More of these laminated panels going in. Omer is very creative with the stick based clamps he carefully wedges in place to press each panel tight against its backing. Last large panel to go into the Guest Bathroom is this angled surface that is the underside of the stairs at the entrance into the SuperSalon up above from the Aft Deck. The small horizontal ceiling panel up above will be put in using FastMounts so it can be easily removed to access lights and wiring. A few more creative wedges and Omer has that last panel set in place. Et Voila! All the upper White walls are now installed in the Guest Head. The final touch will be to put a nice radius on all the corner panel joints using a paste created by mixing gel coat, resin and micro balloons.
Mounting flange has been installed for the VacuFlush toilet and last bit of work for Omer is the Rosewood Aft wall behind. The aluminium pipe above is the drain from the sink going to the Grey Water tank or Sea Chest. VacuFlush toilet with its BioBidet all ready to be installed once the walls panels are finished. Looking straight up, this is the ceiling panel in the Guest Head which has the louvered vent for the extraction fan. The finished ceiling panel will snap in place using FastMount connectors. Moving inside the Guest Cabin, Omer has the BHL Blue Horizon Line glued in place and now has the bottom half of the Rosewood handhold glued in place. Opposite the Bathroom this wall with the Shower on the other side has the upper half of the handrail and BHL all installed now. More BHL and Handholds being installed on the other wall of the Guest Shower out in the Corridor from the Workshop.
And see that hockey stick shaped line covered in Blue painters tape running along the outside of the Bathroom wall on the right in the background? That is where these beautiful Zig Zag handrails will soon be mounted for added safety and beauty as you go up/down the stairs. Taking a look back inside the Guest Cabin you can see how things are coming along in there. Christine’s desk on the Right with bookshelves above and cubbies above and below the Left end of the desk. Pullman Berth ready to have it’s removable back installed once all the wiring has filled up those white cable trays. Water manifolds all installed behind the seatback of the pull out couch in the middle. Slotted Rosewood panel above the Pullman is for the AirCon/Heating air which is fed by that large black duct coming up from …. ….. the Air Handler tucked away below the removable Rosewood box. The top of that box also provides the support for the Right end of the Pullman Berth when it is folded down. Completing our brief tour of the Guest Cabin with this shot of the forward end of the fold down couch/bed with these bookshelves above. Surface above these will have Green/Gray leather covered panels snapped in place similar to how the White leather covered Ceiling Panels mount above.
SUPERSALON:
The other Dynamic Duo of Omur and Selim continued their relentless application of their cabinetmaking craftsmanship up in the SuperSalon so let’s check in on their progress.
Selim continues to install the epoxied wood foundations on the floor, fill them with rigid foam insulation and fit the 10mm marine plywood floors. He has already finished this work on the floors in the Galley area. Omur has been busy with fitting all the corner L-boxes which run around the entire circumference of the 360 degree plate glass windows and make the transition from the upper window mullions to the ceiling panels. This gets a bit tricky, though no problem for Omur, up here around the front windows around the Main Helm where he also needed to maintain access to the bolt in plate with these five air ducts bringing fresh air in through those slots where there is a bit of a high pressure zone in the underside of the Pilot House roof overhang. Aft of that front set of air vents is this second larger plenum lined with AL foil faced cloth which brings in even greater volumes of fresh air when we are at anchor. This plenum has its own dedicated supply of fresh air that is captured by the large “wind tunnel” created by the hinged set of three solar panes on the roof above. All that air supply passes through a large Mist Eliminator vent up above and is then directed down into the plenum box. An AL plate with five more vent ducts like the forward one, bolts in place here. The ceiling directly above the Main Helm will be dropped down a bit to accommodate that front set of air vents and then rise back up as you can see with this transition piece Omur is fitting here. Omur has put in this large radius corner to make a smooth transition between the two ceiling levels. All the ceiling panels on either side of this transition overtop the Main Helm will be covered in Black leather to reduce reflections on night passages. T
The rest of the snap in Ceiling Panels in the SuperSalon will be covered in White leather. As you know, eXcellent Ventilation is a top priority on the XPM’s and more of this is evidenced by these channels running underneath the window sills which which are being prepped for the runs of ducting that will soon go inside with a series of adjustable round air diffusers set into the top sill covers. These diffusers spread out along all the window sills will be similar to those in the dash of a car and can adjust both the volume of air coming in and its direction. This allows the vents to serve double duty to keep the window class clear of condensation as well as bringing either chilled AirCon or heated air into the room from the pair of Air Handlers on either side of the SuperSalon.
Selim has the all the beautifully finished Ro$ewood in the Main Helm all covered in protective layers of cardboard while they work on finishing off this cabinetry and the installation of all the electronics, navigation and steering gear begins. But I dashed down the stairs into the Master Cabin and took this shot looking back up the staircase before he could cover up this bit of Rosewood glory which makes the transition from the opening for the 43” monitor to the window sills above. Here’s what that area looks like seen when standing at the top of the stairs just before it too received its protective covers and …… …… now looks like this.
One half of the L shaped Dinette Settee on the Right, staircase down to the Master Cabin in the middle and Main Helm on the Left. They have also started to finish off the interior surfaces of the two triangular cupboards on either side of the Main Helm with Beech covered marine ply.
Back at the Aft end of the SuperSalon the Galley base cabinetry is now in place and Hilmi has started to install the wiring for light switches and AC outlets. Blue Horizon Line handholds are now all in place and the Galley Garages are now being fitted to the tops of the base Galley cabinets. You can see the first of four lengths of Garages in the upper Right corner here.
All of this leading up to one of the next exciting stages; installing the Turquoise marble counter tops so do stay tuned for that.
Mr. Gee: Gardner 6LXB
Spending almost all my time at the shipyard self isolated in my Workshop/Office, has helped me give more time and attention to Mr. Gee, our Gardner 6LXB main engine.
Over two years ago, when I first acquired Mr. Gee from a tugboat in the River Thames in the UK, I had shipped him to where we were living at the time in Portugal and began his full restoration by completely disassembling him. I found a very good machine shop there and started his full restoration by having the heads resurfaced to get them perfectly flat, installed all new valve guides and new valves. I had put him all back together again to ship here to Antalya and gave the whole engine a very thorough sand blasting down to the raw aluminium and cast iron so as you can see he now needed and even more thorough washing, flushing and cleaning to be ready to paint and then install. I covered up all the openings with aluminium plate …… …… and masking tape and primed all the cast iron surfaces with Gray 600C/1112F degree rated silicone paint. The cast iron Cylinder Block received the same treatment and priming.
These Gardner engines, like many large diesel engines, have dry cylinder liners which enables them to have an almost infinite lifespan by allowing me to press out the old liners and press in brand new ones that create as new cylinders again. Before taping this up I finished honing each cylinder so once painted it is all ready to bolt to the massive all cast AL Crankcase I painted last week. I finished up the week by putting on the first colour coat of Red 300C silicone based paint. I’ve settled on a colour scheme for Mr. Gee of keeping all the cast aluminium parts with their bright silver aluminium finish and then dark Red for all the cast iron parts.
It was getting dark by the time I finished on Friday night so I’ll have to look at it again in daylight tomorrow (Monday) but the colour is not quite what I wanted so I might need to adjust it a bit for the next coat. I wanted a deeper darker Red, more Burgundy so I will see what it looks like on Monday and adjust the paint a bit on the next coat and you can see what you think.
In any case I think the contrast between this dark Red for all the cast iron and the bright silver of all the cast aluminium parts like the Crankcase I painted last week will be something Mr. Gee and his admirers will appreciate. For a preview of what Mr. Gee will soon look like, here is a photo of a fellow Gardner enthusiast’s 6LXB so stay tuned here to watch as I get Mr. Gee all ready for his new live powering our new adventures around the world.
NEW ARRIVALS:
A big box on a pallet arrived from FEIT Pumpe (Pumps) in Italy with this tiny little diaphragm pump inside. This will power our High Bilge Water system. These are 24V pumps to allow for the possibility that in an emergency situation you might not have AC power available I will only use diaphragm pumps for both our low and high Bilge Water systems, 15 pumps in all, is for two primary reasons;
1. No submersion of the pumps as they all mount well above the water line with pick up hoses going down into the bottom of the area to be pumped out. This protects the pump itself and eliminates the all too common possibility of bilge pump wiring breaking down and leaking current into the water.
2. Diaphragm pumps can as the saying goes “suck a golf ball through a garden hose” so they are immune to clogging with debris which is a very common point of failure for other pumps as bilge water usually has a lot of debris in it which quickly renders filters or centrifugal pumps useless.
This single high volume diaphragm pump connects to a manifold system of 50mm/2” hoses going to each side of each of the five WT compartments and either side of the keel bar separating the central bilge in the Engine Room. Each line has has a ball valve that is normally closed and then should a compartment need to be pumped out, that ball valve is opened and the FEIT pump starts pumping it out. We have a third higher volume “crash pump” that is independent of all this and I will cover that later.
These five large axial air fans were also in the box from FEIT and these will be used for extraction fans. Two of these will mount in the Upper Wing Vent Boxes you saw earlier in this post, two will go into the Lower Wing Vent Boxes to extract air from the Guest Cabin, Shower, Head and Corridor, and the large one will mount in the extraction Vent Box for the Engine Room. We’ve been waiting almost four months for this pallet to arrive and it finally showed up this week as well. This is 100 sheets of TreadMaster which will soon cover most of our deck surfaces and provide extremely durable non skid surfaces. This is one of the more critical bits of kit on a boat as our lives can often depend upon having eXtremely grippy surfaces for our feet when we are working on the decks in rough weather. Even in calm conditions, having truly NON slip decks a huge safety factor so the choice of deck material is an eXtremely important decision.
In addition to the non skid feature, we spend a lot of time in the tropics and places with extremely strong sunlight which quickly makes even white surfaces far too hot to walk on. Treadmaster has been covering boat decks for over 50 years and I have been on two boat’s that had their decks covered wtih Treadmaster for more than 25 years and were still working well.
Each Treadmaster sheet is 1200 x 900mm / 47.2 x 35.4” and they will be cut to fit the layout pattern we have come up with and there will be about a 15mm space where two sheets meet or come up to an edge or corner of the aluminium deck plates. For maximum lifespan and durability, we will glue the Treadmaster to well cleaned aluminium deck plates using an adhesive specifically formulated for this application. You will see that as it happens so more to stay tuned for.
Not yet out of their boxes but no less exciting is the arrival of most of the appliances for the Galley.
This is the Bosch 80cm induction cooktop that Christine has picked out and can’t wait to start using. We decided to go for this model with the additional extraction vent in the middle which will help keep smells, smoke and water vapour out of the Galley.
This is the equally impressive Bosch “Smart Oven” she is equally anxious to try out. It combines microwave, convection and broiler into one compact unit and so many “smarts” built in that it has its own “AutoPilot”! More Italian goodness arrived in four boxes like this one containing our two 130 Liter front loading 24V Fridges. These will be installed side by side in their own Rosewood cabinets on the Port side of the Galley with doors opening from the center. In addition to Vitrifrigo’ s latest and greatest insulation panels we are adding an additional 100mm/4” of foam insulation around all four sides and the back for maximum thermal efficiency. Two of these 70 Litre Vitrifrigo Drawer Freezers will go in their own matching and equally well insulated Rosewood cabinets beside the two Fridges.
I always build our fridges and freezers with remote air cooled Secop/Danfoss compressors that can be installed in compartments that are well ventilated, cool and away from living spaces. In the case of Möbius, all four compressors will be mounted directly below each Fridge/Freezer in the Basement. This keeps all the noise and heat out of the SuperSalon and makes working on them a breeze. I’ve been building refrigeration units in boats this way for over 15 years with excellent results and am upping my game even further with this latest installation. I will cover this in much more detail as we get to installing these units.
Vitrifrigo recently won the prestigious DAME award this year for their “all in one” units which can operate as either a Fridge or a Freezer simply by setting the digital thermostat for whatever temperature you want it to maintain.
This give us great flexibility to change one or more of these units from Fridge to Freezer as our needs change such as when we land a big tuna! OK. This pirate is pooped and if you’ve made it this far you must be too and time for both of us to get a brief rest before Monday morning rolls around in a few hours
I sincerely hope that each of you are finding ways to stay safe, healthy, happy and positive. We all need all the energy we can muster these days and nothing helps more than a positive attitude. As I oft like to repeat, the only difference between adversity and adventure is attitude so please stay strong mentally and physically.
I am VERY pleased to be able to report that everyone on Team Möbius including Christine and myself are all doing well and managing to stay safe, fit and healthy. As per the title the only thing we are “infected” with is enthusiasm and progress. We certainly hope this will continue although the numbers of cases and deaths in Turkey while still relatively low compared to most other countries, have continued to climb. There is a general “stay home, stay healthy” recommendation for all and requirement for some, face masks are now required in grocery stores and the like and more and more cities, including Antalya where we are, have been closed for travel in or out. Hopefully the escalation of these defensive restrictions and regulations which will outpace the virus and be effective in flattening the curves.
On the good news front, I was delighted to end my two weeks of self isolation after our trip to London last month and rejoin the rest of Team Möbius back at Naval Yachts on Monday. I have made several changes though such as moving my office into my Workshop so that I can now spend 98% of my time still quite isolated and well distanced and I now only go aboard Möbius when everyone else is off the boat on their tea, coffee and lunch breaks. This has been working well and I have been able to get back to photographing all the progress so let’s jump right in and show you what’s been happening this past week.
I think I will organise this weekly update by starting at the front of the boat and working my way aft so let’s go up to the Bow.
FOREDECK ANCHOR GEAR
If you read last week’s Update you recall seeing that Uğur and Nihat were getting ready to mount the Maxwell VWC 4000 windlass and this is the final location they have marked out. The long line is the centerline of the anchor chain as it comes back off the shank of the 115 kg/242 lb Rocna anchor though that side mounted bow roller chute. The circle is the main body of the windlass gypsy and capstan and the small holes are where the studs from the Windlass body go down through the 15mm/ 5/8” AL deck plate and are secured from below to the 24V motor and gear assembly. Down inside the Forepeak looking up at the spot where the Windlass will mount you can see the extensive 10mm / 3/8” stringers underneath that 15mm deck plate. Some of you were asking about our Chain Bin so here is a better shot of that. Having a relatively small and round area for the chain to pile up in helps keep the chain from “castling” very much and falling over on top of itself which prevents the chain from becoming tangled and difficult to put out.
The Chain Bin itself is about 70cm / 28” in diameter and about 1.5m / 60” tall with a drain in the bottom which exits out through the side of the hull just above the waterline. I had put in a similar drain in the chain locker of our previous boat and it worked extremely well to automatically drain any water and muck right back out and a good rinse from the washdown hose every once in awhile kept it clean and pretty much odorless.
There will also be a clear plastic “gaiter” fastened around the top of the Chain Bin and the bottom of the deck to contain any water and muck that might want to fly off the chain and mess up the Forepeak.
Just aft of the Chain Bin I can show you this detail of these two built in SS Quick Connect fittings on the aft end of the Anchor Deck. One connects to the Fresh Water wash down pump and the other to its Salt Water sister which makes cleaning up the chain as it comes aboard very easy as well as keeping the whole Foredeck nice and clean.
The White PVC pipe is the Compressed Air line that runs the entire length of the boat for pneumatic tools, blowing things up and cleaning. The larger clear hose is one of the vent lines for the large water tanks below the Master Cabin sole.
Uğur and Nihat were also able to finish up one of the two Fresh Air manifolds that go up in the ceiling of the SuperSalon. This is the forwardmost one that sits overtop of the Main Helm and then a second one is about 2 meters aft of that in the center of the SuperSalon. Looking on the other side these 5 vent tubes set well above the bottom of this air plenum or manifold and have manually activated vent lids which can be pulled down tight to seal off each vent entirely if things get really rough and we want to shut off the air flow entirely and keep any errant water out. Looking up inside one of the vents you can see the simple cross knob that you can easily turn by hand to move the lid with its rubber seal up/down as needed. Keep it Safe and Simple or KISS it right?
MASTER CABIN
Moving Aft into the Master Cabin, Selim and Şevki have been continuing installing the ceiling grid and snap in panels. This is standing beside the Shower on the Right looking towards the Aft Port/Left corner of the Master Cabin.
Bed on the far Left with all its drawers underneath and the dropped ceiling above. Some of the leather covered snap in wall panels on the Right have been remove while Cihan is putting in the black ducting behind the wall grid for the AirCon/Hot Air to flow from the Air Handler underneath inside the narrow floor you can see in the photo above up to ………………….. …….. this beautiful Rosewood vented air box up on the ceiling. Turning a bit to Starboard you can see the stairs leading up to the SuperSalon are ready for their treads to go in and Christine’s Bosch Washing machine, with WiFi no less, is setting atop the bed frame ready to be installed in its forward cabinet soon.
For those wondering, they have painted the ceiling grid Black to create a nice contrast to the narrow space between each of the White leather covered ceiling panels when they are snapped into their FastMount fittings in each of those small holes. Spinning around 180 to look forward you can see they have done the same to the rest of the ceiling grid up front.
Master Shower in the Left foreground with its adjoining Head/Bathroom behind. The rough ceiling panels have now been fitted and snapped into place in that forwardmost area with the Bathroom/Head on the Left, Vanity sink area in the center and the Wardrobe cabinetry along the wall on the Right. The washing machine will be installed in one of these upper cabinets. Zooming in on this nice bit of detail where three of the ceiling panels meet up on the small corner around the Bureau of Drawers that is on the far Right.
MASTER SHOWER & HEAD/BATHROOM
The Master Shower/Bathroom continues to get fully glassed in.Shower is in the Left foreground and the corner walls here will be etched glass. Shower seat on the bottom Left with the Bathroom countertop extending all the way to the far wall with the toilet mounted on the raised floor platform to the Right.
There will be a clear glass half wall inserted in that slot between the Shower seat and the Sink cabinet on the Right which will separate these two compartments and keep the Bathroom dry. The two upper “Medicine cabinets” as I grew up calling them have been clamped in place ready to be glassed in.
There are removable backs inside these cabinets to provide easy access to the plumbing behind the wall.
The hole in the ceiling is where fresh air flows in from the Dorade Vent above and you can just see the corner of the large hatch above the Shower and part of the Bathroom to bring in more fresh air and LOTS of natural light.
VacuFlush toilet mounts to this black flange on this raised platform and the rectangle in front is to provide access to the water tank access port underneath.
The Shower and Head will each have lift out Teak covered floor plates so all the water drains off their edges into the seamless floor pans below and out the drains into the Gray Water pumps. Just outside the Head/Bathroom door frame on the Left is the Vanity Sink with its own upper cabinet on the wall and another big hatch above.
SUPERSALON & MAIN HELM AREA
Omur and Selim made lots of progress in the SuperSalon and Main Helm areas this past week. Looking towards the Bow and down the spiraled stairs you can see all the drawers on the side of the Bed in the Master Cabin below.
Arm of the Settee in the bottom of this photo and Main Helm above. Standing in the opposite corner at the bottom of the other stairs coming down from the Aft Deck gives a better sense of the overall layout of the Galley on the Right, Helm up front and double Fridges cabinet on the Left.
Hatch into the Basement in the center. A good glimpse at some of the craftsmanship details of this Port/Left corner of the Helm area. Our ubiquitous BHL Blue Horizon Line continues winding its way through the boat. Peering down inside this triangular cupboard gives you an idea of just how cavernous and deep this space is thanks to the dropped ceiling overtop the head of the Master Bed below. There will be a Black leather covered lift up triangular door on top here to reduce any glare in the negatively raked window glass at night. This center area of the Helm will have a sloped dashboard panel with two 19” touchscreen daylight readable monitors set in behind it just in front of this center window. On the Right side of the center Helm Chair this sloped wall provides more area for Helm controls and switches.
Forward electrical panel inside this area and Hilmi has started to fasten in some of the many cables coming up from the Basement. Most of our 24V circuit breakers and some electric system monitoring gauges will be inside. The far Starboard/Right side of the Helm has a matching triangular storage area. This one isn’t quite as deep to provide plenty of headroom through the doorway below. Can you guess what Omur and Selim are making up here?
Hint; they also go into the SuperSalon area hence my including them here. Full marks if you were able to guess that these are the corner brackets to make the transition between the top of the window frames to the ceiling. These will go all the way around the whole perimeter of the SuperSalon windows. One detail some of you fellow DIY and Makers might appreciate is this thin phenolic based layer they laminate to the marine plywood surfaces to provide a perfectly smooth surface for paint and leather to be applied. Quick and easy to laminate onto the plywood surfaces and then trim the edges flush with a router bit. Glue and paint stick tenaciously to this material without any raising of the grain of the plywood or need for multiple coats to fill the porous wood below. Another detail I received several questions about is this thin acrylic sheet I have in my dirty little fingers here. It starts out as a sheet of thin 2-3mm clear acrylic which we then had our aquamarine swirl photo printed onto the underside surface. Once back from the printer these are easily sawn into strips for the Blue Horizon Line which you can see stacked up in the background.
A heat gun softens the strips where they need to wrap around radiused corners and are easily glued into the recesses behind the Rosewood hand holds and other edges such as these winding around the Settee bottoms.
GALLEY
More of our 360 degrees of BHL snaking its way around the Galley cabinets just under what will soon be the aquamarine granite countertops. Galley Garages are back from the Finishing Shop and being fit in place. Foundation framing being completed so that the rigid foam floors can be put in place and the grooves for the In-Floor heating PEX tubing can be cut. Once he had all the last of the floor frames adhered to the AL plates Selim got to work cutting and fitting all the rigid foam insulation. He then cuts and fits the 10mm / 3/8” marine plywood flooring. These are just dry fit for now as they need to come up for the installation of the In-Floor heating PEX tubing before they are finally glued and screwed to the frames. The finish floor will be strips of some new “click locked” vinyl flooring that is now used in airports, shopping malls and other high traffic applications.
GUEST CABIN
Down below in the Guest Cabin, Omer and Muhammed have been hard at work putting in the removable ceiling panels. Same system as we saw earlier in the Master Cabin with the Black ceiling grid to provide some depth and contrast in the space between the White leather covered ceiling panels when they are snapped into place like these three overtop the bookshelves hiding behind their protective cardboard coverings. And these ones overtop the Pullman Berth and …. …… Christine’s Office Desk with its own Bookshelves above.
Rosewood box on the Left of her desk provides some of the support for the Pullman when it is pulled down as well as being ……………… ……………………… a removable cover giving access to the Air Handler inside that corner cupboard. They have also been busy installing the sink cabinet and surround in the Guest Head with more of the BHL of course! Ro$ewood countertop being attached. Sink will be atop the counter on the far Right with storage cupboard below. On the other side of the Bathroom wall Omer and Muhammed have been started work on the BHL and handrail leading up the stairs.
Boat Office (aka mine!) on the Left. Carefully fitting and gluing the BHL strips into place.
ELECTRICAL WORK
On the opposite side of the photo above, behind Omer’s back we see some of Hilmi’s handiwork putting in the nautical miles of cables and wires.
This is the Aft Electrical Panel which will be home to most of our AC DIN rail circuit breakers as well as some more 12 and 24V equipment. This is the Forward Electrical Panel we say earlier on the Right side of the Main Helm which holds most of our 24V circuit breakers, switches and gauges. As you can see Hilmi has most of these cables coming up from the Basement, zip tied to the bottom for strain relief and ready for connecting all these wires to their respective circuit breakers, switches, controllers and gauges. Down in the Basement he has also been hard a work putting in more of the N2K network and Maretron monitoring system. Another AL panel in the diagonally opposite corner of the Basement with more Maretron black boxes and one of the blue multi-port boxes on the N2K Backbone. Looking up, we can see that the wire trays are starting to fill up with all the different cables and wires going in and out of the Basement which is purpose built to be Grand Central Station for all these systems.
PLUMBING
Back in the Workshop, Cihan’s plumbing handiwork is evident with examples such as this set of ball valves for the sea water going in/out of the Sea Chests in the Engine Room. These four are the sea water supply and return lines for the Delfin Watermaker’s low pressure Feed Pump and the Webasto Chiller’s circulation pump. Above these ball valves are more lines for Domestic Hot & Cold Water, Chiller water and bilge pumps. Looking forward alongside the Engine Room walls on the Left and the Day Tank in the upper Left corner you can start to see just how much work Cihan has been doing putting in all these hoses and ball valve manifolds for everything from fresh and salt water, Bilge and Gray water lines, fuel lines and compressed air. Here for example are some of the many hoses going in/out of the Engine Room on the Left with the deep sump of the Day Tank above with its blue handled ball valve for easily draining off any water and dirt that collect there. Up on top of the Day Tank Cihan is starting to plumb in the fuel lines to their respective ball valves across the top.
WORKSHOP FLOOR
One of the more exciting new developments this past week was Uğur and Nihat’s work putting in the framework for this very cool composite grid that Yigit found for us. This is normally used for walkways in high traffic industrial settings and marinas for example. It is about 35mm / 1.4” thick and comes in sheets about 1m x 4m long. Easily cut with a circular saw or hand tools and impervious to everything from fuel to acid so should work really well for flooring in the Workshop, Engine Room and Forepeak. So Uğur and Nihat got busy putting in a whole framework of L-bar for this flooring grid to attach to. This is the floor alongside the Port/Left side of the Workshop/Engine Room with the WT door into the Guest Cabin/Office area at the far end. On the Stbd/Right side Uğur tacks in the L-bar frames around those Sea Water ball valves we saw earlier. Doesn’t take him long to get this all tacked up and all leveled as it extends all the way forward to under the Day Tank. Using this system we are able to keep the Workshop floor all on the same level by framing around the Prop Tunnel as you can see here. There is a center workbench directly overtop the bulge of the Prop Tunnel with storage below so the large thick arched frame member does not impede walking around the aft end of the Workshop.
AFT DECK
Nihat and Uğur were in top form this past week as they also put in this very special milestone; the installation of the Aft window frames and …… ……. Aft Entrance door from the Aft Deck into the SuperSalon.
These have been purposefully left out up to now to make it easier to bring all the cabinetry and large equipment in/out of the interior but with all that now done these last bits of the aluminium framing can go in.
If you look closely at the top of both vertical door frames above you can see these oval cut outs which enable us to use them as well protected chases for wires and cables running from up in the SkyBridge and down into the SuperSalon and Basement. On the outside on the Aft Deck you can see how the window frames provide the same recesses for the 28mm / 1.1” tempered glass windows. Once the welding was done and cool, Nihat started putting in the EPDM insulation on these new AL surfaces. They were also able to cut these large holes in the Upper Aft corners of the SuperSalon which connect into the Upper Wing Vent Boxes that extend aft on both side of the Pilot House. There will be a large axial extraction fan inside each of these Vent boxes to pull air out of the Galley (shown here) and SuperSalon areas and keep a good flow of fresh air throughout this large living space.
AFT DECK VENT BOXES & OUTSIDE GALLEY
But Wait! There’s still more from the Dynamic Duo of Uğur and Nihat
Clearly “infected” with enthusiasm Nihat and Uğur also worked on lots of details on the two large Vent Boxes you’ve been seeing take place over the past month.
This is one of the Extraction Fan boxes which Yigit cleverly designed. A large axial fan will be mounted inside this box pushing air out the top 5 slots and the bottom is sloped so that any water that gets in here can quickly drain out those bottom slots. Here is another extraction fan boxes of Yiğit’s same design and this one mounts on the Lower Wing Vent Box just outside the Aft Entrance Door. Inside, you can see 2 of the round air ducts coming up out of the Corridor and Guest head below with the same shut off lids we saw at the beginning of this post so that these vents can be completely closed and WT if things get really nasty outside. Also in the Vent Boxes and something I received several questions about was these Mist Eliminators so I wanted to provide some more examples and explanation. These flush mount on the inboard sides of the Vent Boxes and their specially designed set of fins inside cause the incoming salty air to give up most of its moisture and also break up any full hits of water that might splash up this high. If you look closely inside (click to enlarge any photo) you can see the fin shapes and also the drain in the bottom that will have a drain hose attached to take the water back out to the deck. Looking down deeper into the Port supply air Vent Box you can see the entryway duct heading down ….. ………….. into the Engine Room through this long AL duct which brings the cool dry outside air down to the floor of the ER to help maximize the natural flow of air as it warms and rises up to exit out the extraction vent up on the ceiling of the opposite side of the ER.
PROP SHAFT in the RUDDER
Finishing the tour at the very Aft end of the boat to show you this last bit of aluminium work Uğur and Nihat completed this week with the final welding of the prop shaft removal tunnel in the rudder. A small but highly valued feature that makes it possible to remove the Prop Shaft without having to also remove the Rudder which is not a quick or easy thing to do. Nice work boys!
Mr. Geeee!
Spending almost all my self imposed “shelter in place” time at the shipyard in my reorganised Workshop, one advantage is that I am now able to devote more time to Mr. Gee as we affectionately call our Gardner 6LXB main engine.
In previous weeks I had sandblasted, scrubbed, pressure washed and primed all the main aluminium castings and this week I was able to apply the top coats.
He has cleaned up very nicely for a 50 year old guy don’t you think?
Brief Tech Talk:
For those interested, I’m using a special high temp silicone based paint and the primer is rated for up to 600C/1112F and the top coat here is rated at 300C/572F which is way beyond any temps Mr. Gee should experience. The topcoat you see going on here, is basically aluminium dust mixed into clear silicone. Works great and looks like brand new aluminium which was my goal. I was originally going to leave all these castings in their natural “raw” sandblasted aluminium state but the nature of cast aluminium is that it is quite rough and porous which tends to retain oil and dirt. So I decided to paint all these surfaces not only because I wanted Mr. Gee to look good, I also like to have light coloured and very smooth surfaces on my engines so that they are easy to keep clean and more importantly easy to spot any leaks right away.
I found that even when the aluminium top coats were fully cured, when you rubbed these surfaces with your fingers or a clean cloth, some of the aluminium dust particles suspended in the silicone would come rub off, so I put on two coats of clear to create a smooth and impervious final finish.
LOTS of work as you might imagine, but well worth it and I am eXtremely happy with the end result both now and over the next few decades of Mr. Gee’s next life.
Various cast AL covers which bolt to the Crankcase also received their fresh new aluminium and clear coats. This first half of the flywheel housing will soon be bolted to the end of the crankcase above and then ……
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