All of us on Team Möbius enjoyed our four day weekend even if we were back under full national lockdown and returned to Naval Yachts on Wednesday morning with all our batteries fully charged to make the most of the 3 days we had to work this week. The theme this week with many parts of the build seemed to be electrical and hence this week’s title. Let’s jump right in to this week’s shortened show and tell so you can see for yourself.
ELECTRIFYING ELECTRICAL WORK:
Only seems right to start off this electrifying progress update with all the progress our head Sparkie aka Electrician aka Hilmi accomplished this past week.
If you were with us last week you will recall that four of the five electric distribution panels arrived and so Hilmi has been a very busy boy getting those all wired up.
Three of the Distribution Panels are in the Basement so that’s been Hilmi’s home of late and here is finishing off the wiring of this panel for all our solar panels. This simplified schematic shows the overall Electrical System on XPM78-01 Möbius and you can see that there are 14 individual solar panels each with their own dedicated Victron SmartSolar 100/20 MPPT controller. Hilmi had previously mounted the 14 MPPT controllers directly to this aluminium plate which acts as a giant heat sink to keep them all nice and cool. Cables from each of the solar panels up above come down here where they connect to pos/neg input on their respective MPPT controller. Them the regulated DC output from each MPPT controller is wired into this MPPT Distribution Panel via a DIN rail mounted circuit breaker. With the panel door closed you can see the clear and easy to read labeling of each of these 14 circuit breakers grouped into the three physical banks, Forward, SkyBridge Roof and Aft. As with all the wiring, Hilmi attaches unique numbered ID tags to each wire. The to Red bar is the Positive Bus Bar and the Black one below is the Negative Bus Bar. Silver cylindrical item on the far Right of the Positive Bus Bar is the Class T fuse where the large 120mm2 / 5/0000 output cable will be connected and carry all those beautiful solar amps over to the Main DC Distribution Panel on their way to the House Battery Bank. A short while later Hilmi has these two eXtreme sized pos/neg cables installed on their respective busses inside the Distribution Panel above and runs them up the Right side of this cable tray where they cross overhead as the cable tray makes its way across the ceiling of the Basement and down into the Main DC Distribution Panel we will look at in a moment.
You can see these big Red/Black cables going across the ceiling if you scroll up to the very first photo in this section and look above Hilmi’s head. This is the Main DC Distribution Panel here those cables from the MPPT Distribution Panel will soon be connected. This Main DC Panel is mounted on the other side of the wall opposite the MPPT Controller Panel which you can just see peeking out in the background on the far Left here.
Blue box on the Left of the Main DC Panel is the Victron automatic Isolation Transformer and on the far Right are the two Victron 120V MultiPlus 24V/3000W/70A inverter chargers. Similar to the MPPT Distribution Panel the Positive Bus Bar is the one running across the top and the Negative Bus Bar is on the bottom. Peering inside on the back of the Main DC Panel are a multitude of items such as these three Victron Smart Shunts each of which will be connected to ………….. ……. one of these Victron BMV-712 Smart battery monitors which are mounted up at the Main Helm.
Two of these BMV-712’s will individually monitor Battery Banks A & B each of which have 12 FireFly L15+ 4V Micro Carbon Foam cells wired 6S2P and produce 24V @ 900Ah. Then the third BMV-712 will monitor their combined inputs and outputs of the whole House Battery Bank which is 24V @ 1800Ah.
Being a DC Battery Based boat ALL of our electrical power, both 12V & 24V DC and 120V & 230V AC comes from these batteries so having detailed monitoring is critical. Looking up from the bottom you can see how eXtremely massive these solid copper Bus Bars are. Each bus bar is made from two strips of 8mm thick by 40mm wide solid copper bars which ensure that there is essentially zero voltage loss as they move the electrons around. And with 24V @ 1800Ah or 43.2kWh flowing through these buss bars they need to be well isolated from everything else which is what these special composite made insulators do as they attach the bus bars to the electrical panel box.
eXcessive? Perhaps. eXpen$ive? To be sure. However this all yields very high dividends every day we live aboard and is a no-brainer investment that is well worth it in our opinion as our electrical system is quite possibly THE most critical of all the many systems that make up the small village known as XPM78-01 Möbius. Moving back behind that Victron Wall with the Main DC Panel on it and looking down the MPPT panel on the WT Bulkhead, we spot the third electrical box to take up its home in the Basement in the rear Right here. Visible in the foreground on the Right are two of the three Victron 220V MultiPlus 24V/5000W/120A inverter chargers.
FWIW: I’m thinking about calling this “Electron Alley”, let me know what you think and if you have better name suggestions? We find it handy to have names for different spots on Möbius in our conversations and helps to have short clear names to reference.
This is the AC Distribution Panel where the inputs and outputs for all the various sources and consumers of 120V and 230V AC are centralised and distributed. Hilmi starts by routing each of the Gray AC cables into this AC Distribution Panel through the WT cable glands along the bottom and then strips off the outer insulation jacket to expose the copper mesh grounding shield underneath. We are using DIN Rail mounts for all the electrical panels and here you can see how Hilmi has wired the individual Gray junction blocks on the bottom to each of the circuit breakers above.
All tagged with their unique ID numbers of course! The individual wires inside each AC cable is then separated out. All the copper mesh wires are covered with Green striped Yellow insulation heat shrink for added safety. And then each individual wire is connected to either the Negative Grounding Bus Bar on the bottom or ….. ……the DIN Rail junction blocks up above which are in turn wired into the DIN Rail mounted circuit breakers at the top. And this is the final result for the bottom end of this AC Distribution Panel.
That Gray Cable Chase running along the top will soon be filled with all the AC wires for the Isolation Transformer, Inverters and Charges so stay tuned for that next week. Speaking of Inverters and Chargers ……….. Hilmi also worked on completing the wiring of these three Victron 220V MultiPlus Inverter/Chargers and the two 120V versions on the other side of this “Victron Wall”.
Red/Black are the 24V DC cables and Grey are AC.
You can guess as to what the as yet unshrunk clear tubing on each cable is for? All the Red/Black cables from the MultiPlus Chargers pass through this opening in the large cable tray on the bottom which they will soon be securely zip-tied as they make their way up into the Main DC Distribution Panel on the Right. This is what the connections look like inside each of the MultiPlus Inverter/Chargers. 24V DC on the Right and 230V (or 120V) on the Left. Inverter/Chargers generate quite a bit of heat when in use so keeping them well cooled is very important as their efficiency drops dramatically as the heat goes up and they will automatically shut down if it goes too high.
To help them keep their cool, the five inverters are spaced well apart from each other and each one has two thermostatically controlled vans in the bottom of each unit to move the hot air up and out the top and sides.
Further cooling comes from having them all reside down in the Basement which is the coolest space in the boat, very well insulated and has its own thermostatically controlled ventilation system as do all three House Battery Compartments. Closer look at Hilmi’s handiwork wiring all these AC cables into the AC Distribution panel you saw earlier. And by now you’ve figured out what those clear plastic sleeves you’ve been seeing are for; Labels for the Cables!
Hilmi first uses the label making machine to print out the self adhesive labels which he applies to the cable as he is doing here. Now he slides the clear heat shrink tubes over the label.
Last, he uses his heat gun, basically a HD hair dryer, to heat and shrink the clear tubes onto the cable to protect the label as you see in the photo below.
All this does add to the time but it all becomes part of the basic mass production steps Hilmi has refined and repeats for each wire as he is installing the cables so it all goes very quickly.
This is yet another example of the importance of these “little things” which add up to eXtremely BIG things in terms of overall safety and low maintenance over the rest of the life of the boat in providing quick, clear identification of every wire, hose, valve, etc. Yes, you *could* just leave this in a schematic and look it up when needed as many boats do. BUT when it is Dark thirty and the seaweed has hit the fan and you’re trying to resolve a problem ASAP when you are tired and just have your headlamp on, these “little details” make ALL the difference in keeping yourself, your crew/passengers and your boat safe and operational. Ask me how I know!
How much time and $$ is THAT worth???
ELECTRIFYING PLUMBING:
Might sound like an oxymoron to some but even Cihan our Master Plumber had an electrifying dimension to his work these past 3 days and he has your next Quiz:
What is he holding here and how is this electrical? This clue view should help you see that there is definately an electrical component to this bit of plumbing kit. These are electrically operated control valves which in our case are being used for the high water “crash pump” operation. This is one of those systems which we hope to never use as this is for the unlikely scenario where there is seawater flooding the boat after something like the hull has been breached or more likely some sealed underwater entry has been breached such as the prop shaft seal.
Cihan is installing one of these Tork SS1010 solenoid valves to each of the 38mm / 1 1/2” ID pickup hoses at the bottom of each “bilge” compartment in the boat. Given that the XPM hull design has all the area below the waterline being integral welded tanks, we don’t have any traditional bilges other than in the Engine Room, so these high volume pickup hoses are installed at the bottom of the Margin Plates which connect the tank tops to the hull plates and thus form a V shaped “gutter” running down the length of both sides of the hull between each of the five WT Bulkheads.
Each of these 12 gutters has its own dedicated diaphragm Bilge Pump to remove any small amounts of water that might accumulate in there, but for a breach where there is a high volume of water coming into the boat, there is a second High Water removal system which is where these 24V solenoid controlled valves come into play.
These valves are ‘normally closed’ which means when they have no power going to them they are closed. Each of these High Water 38mm pickup hoses connect run back to the Workshop where they connect to this high volume diaphragm Crash Pump you may recall seeing Cihan install a few weeks ago.
Each of the Tork solenoid valves is then wired to two switchboard panels, one at the Main Helm and one in the Workshop so the procedure is that when you get the alarm from one of the High Water Alarm switches you can flip two switches to start pumping out the water; one switch to turn on the Crash Pump and a second one to open the Tork High Water solenoid valve in the compartment where the water is.
Simple, Safe, Easy and as I said a system we hope to never need and only test a few times a year on our safety inspections to make sure the system is working. Here is an overhead shot of one of these High Water solenoid valves in position below the grated flooring on the Starboard/Right side of the Workshop. Red circle is the Tork Solenoid valve with the Pickup Hose down to the bottom of the bilge area below on the Right and then IF the valve is On/Open the Crash Pump would pull water through the valve along the White U-shaped hose marked in red to the T in the Main line and then through the hose marked in Blue to the Crash Pump where it is sent out the exit Sea Chest.
Pump on the Left has nothing to do with this High Water system as it is the Feed Pump taking salt water to the Watermaker and just happens to be where the Solenoid valve is located. Kneeling down for this closer point of view; Tork valve in the Center with the White Hose coming out of it at the top going down into the lowest point in the Bilge below and the White U-shaped hose coming out the bottom facing side of the valve to carry water over to the Orange T in the main hose. Not yet connected hose on the center Right will connect to the Orange T which then goes to over to the Crash Pump off to the far Right here.
I will show you more of these as Cihan installs them in the next few weeks. More electrifying plumbing over here with the our R2D2 Mini-Me looking 220V Alfa Laval fuel centrifuge. Cihan has now installed it on vibration reduction rubber mounts over on the Stbd side of the Day Tank. This is pretty much the ultimate in fuel cleaning and is more commonly found on large +100 meter commercial ships but adds a whole new level to our ability to take even the dirtiest and water filled diesel and convert it to crystal clear diesel without any filters or other expendable media. * For those interested in knowing more about these Alfa Lafal centrifuges, Steve D’Antonio has one of his typically well written article on them HERE and another one HERE. And finally for Cihan this week he has finished installing all the Fleetguard fuel filtration system on the front of the Day Tank. These too have their own “electrifying” element to them which is your next Quiz:
What could possibly be electric when it comes to fuel filters themselves??
Hint; it has to do with those Black plastic fitting on the bottoms of the three FS19596 filters. Hoses now all installed well enough for the first pressure testing with the various ball valves for selecting which filter is in use and which are at the ready.
And the Quiz answer? Those Black connecters are WIF or Water In Fuel detectors found in the bottom of each of the FS19596 fuel filters. These are the Secondary filters after the fuel has all gone through the Primary “mud” FF5013 filters and the FS refers to “Fuel Filter Separator” as they are also separate out any water that might have gotten into the fuel. Water is heavier than diesel so will always sink to the bottom and would turn on a water sensor switch which is wired into an alarm and light readout to let us know immediately. There are additional water sensors in the Day Tank so we are sure to know well in advance of any water being present in our diesel fuel.
ELECTRIFYING ALUMINIUM?
Yes, even our intrepid dynamic duo Aluminium team of Uğur and Nihat has an electrical element to their work the past three days and in several ways so let’s go check in with them now.
Here is the first example of their “electrifying” jobs this week.
Can you guess where and what this is? The “What?” is pretty obvious when we zoom in and find that this is one of the seven axial extraction fans they have now installed.
Can you guess where? Correct!
These are the extraction fans mounted in the Aft two corners of the SuperSalon which can be turned on to help extract the air out of the Galley on the Port/Left side you see here and ….. …… on the opposite Stbd corner seen here by the Entryway stairs. On the rare occasions when we have absolutely no breeze at all in an anchorage, these fans can also be used to pull fresh air in through all the ventilation ducts in the front of the SuperSalon and Main Helm …… …….. and keep it flowing through and out the grills in these two Aft upper Wing Box corners on the Aft Deck. These are 230mm / 9” 24V axial fans which are on variable speed controllers so they can move a great deal of air while being almost silent up inside these well insulated plenums inside the aft end of the ceiling soffits. You may recall Uğur and Nihat preparing for the installation of the Vetus 2024 Extended Runtime Bow Thruster the past few weeks but they had to wait for the special Sikaflex adhesive for below the waterline applications. It arrived last weekend so they were able to finish the installation this week.
Uğur & Nihat still need to add the vertical braces from the sides of this very heavy motor and the hull and then the Bow Thruster will be ready for Hilmi to complete the wiring from the Bow Thruster up to the Forward DC Distribution Panel up above here in the Forepeak. More on that next week. Yet more electrifying work from Nihat and Uğur this week, any guesses what and where this is? Some of you might recognize the well known Swiss made Belimo name or otherwise know this is one of two Fire Damper actuators that close off all air intake and extraction vents in case of fire in the Engine Room. One damper is mounted on an AL frame that bolts into the large horizontal opening here in the Port Intake Vent Box on the Aft Deck. A Mist Eliminator grill is bolted into the vertical opening on the Right to remove most of the salt and humidity in the air being pulled through which then goes through the damper assembly above when it is open and then ….. down this long rectangular vent to the bottom of the Engine Room.
The two oval penetrations are for wiring runs in/out of the Engine Room to this Vent Box and the 90 degree pipe is the drain for …….. …….. the sink which will be inserted into a cut out in the marble countertop which tops off the Vent Box as this area on the Aft Deck is also our Outdoor Galley. Nihat has now welded in the L-bar tabs around the upper edge of the Vent Box which will be used to attach the marble countertop to the Vent Box. Here is what that long vent down from the Vent Box looks like inside the Engine Room as it brings that nice cool fresh air down to the bottom. The opposite side Stbd Vent Box has the same Fire Damper to control the air being extracted from the Engine Room through the upper Vent and the lower one is for the air being extracted from the Workshop.
The tops of this Starboard Vent Box are also topped wtih 20mm/ 3/4” thick Turquoise marble and the electric Kenyon Frontier Electric Grill is on the lower surface on the Right. Typical Swiss quality, these Belimo BLFL24-T95 actuators are eXtremely well made and tested. The small Orange unit in the upper Right is the temperature probe which sticks inside the air duct and is set to actuate if the air temperature goes above 72C/160F. That signal would then cause the 24V motor in the large Orange actuator to quickly turn the inner insulated door and close off the entire vent. The little Black crank in the lower Left allows you to manually close/open the vent and the little Black lever on the Right allows you to stop the door at any angle position.
Similar to those Tork SS solenoid valves these actuators are “Normally Closed” and only open when you turn them On by applying 24V to them. They have also been fabricating these two pole supports and Uğur is showing about where this one on the Port side will be attached to the Vent Box. These support poles have dual functions providing additional support for the roof above that is cantilevered off the main Pilot House frame. There is only the three solar panels mounted atop this roof so not much weight to support but these poles will help make it much more rigid and eliminate any movement. These poles also act as safety handholds when moving along the side decks on the outside of these Vent Boxes. No electrifying component to these two manual winches for the Paravane system but one more job ticked off the list as these were mounted on either side of the Main Arch. As you may remember seeing when they were mounting the big Lewmar Kedging Winch and Maxwell Windlass on the bow, the bronze bases of these winches must be isolated from the aluminium plate so Uğur has cut out the thick round disc he is holding on the bottom here. And yes, these too were cut from the supply of kitchen cutting boards that Captain Christine bought at the nearby grocery store.
Might be odd sourcing but they are the Goldilocks just right material for the job and they soon have these this winch bolted and sealed to the base of the Starboard legs of the Arch. Here is the fully finished Paravane Winch on the Port side. One more job checked off the list and one more step closer to Launch! Still technically quite “electrifying” as Uğur uses the MIG welder to finish this Exiting Sea Chest on the Port side of the Engine Room. Welds all done and cleaned up. The angled pipe on the Right is for the water being separated out of the Halyard wet exhaust Silencer/Separator that mounts up above and will be connected with a large 70mm / 2.75” rubber exhaust hose. The aft facing flange is where this big “Saxophone” manifold mounts to provide connections for all the various hoses bringing everything from Gray to Black to brine water exiting from the Watermaker and seawater from the Chiller’s water pump. There will be a vertical support added to the bottom end on the Left. More Sea Chest action in the Basement as it receives its flanged mounts for the smaller manifold on top and ……. ……. the single unit below for pumping out the Black Water tank not far away in the Basement which services the Guest Head.
MR. GEE ALWAYS ELECTRIFIES ME!
Not to be left out, even with the shortened 3 day work week, I was able to make some good progress on restoring Mr. Gee our Gardner 6LXB Main Engine to better than original condition so let me show you that.
I did the final honing of the new cylinder liners that have been pressed into the cast iron cylinder block. This honing is done to create the just right cross hatch surface on the cylinder walls for the rings to fully seal and be slightly lubricated. I do the honing using this special ball style hone in my 1/2” drill along with plenty of WD40 for lubricant. I have used these Flex-Hones for decades so I bought the right size for Mr. Gee’s 120mm / 4.75” bore and it worked flawlessly. I’m holding the hone one handed to take this shot but it takes both hands and a well timed Up/Down motion …… matched to the drill speed to get the just right angle of the microscopic “scratches” the abrasive balls of the hone leave on the cylinder walls. This is the end result. As with most engines, Gardner wants this cross hatch pattern to be at an angle of 40-45 degrees to each other which is what you are seeing here. While the depth of the cross hatch pattern left by the hone abrasive is literally microscopic, about 15-25RA which is 15-25 micro-inch or .000015” to .000025” they are eXtremely critical to the engine’s lifespan and performance. The just right cross hatch allows the rings to seat quickly with minimum wear and they they are just right depth and shape to retain the just right amount of oil so the rings are properly lubricated. Once the rings have seated, wear virtually ceases because the rings are now supported by a thin film of oil and do not make physical contact with the cylinder wall. After multiple cleanings using fresh WD40 and plenty of clean paper towels to remove ALL abrasive grit or cast iron particles left behind in the cross hatch, I used my trusty 1.5 Ton hydraulic lift to hoist the cylinder block up onto the cast aluminium crankcase to begin a critical measurement of piston top to cylinder top which I will quickly walk through here for those interested. If not just skip ahead. I carefully lower the cylinder block onto the studs in the crankcase being careful to not damage the threads and then tighten all the nuts down to the correct torque as per the Gardner manuals. Then I prepped the connecting rods and piston assemblies, giving them one last thorough cleaning and putting in all new bearings. Thanks to the incredible attention to detail of the Gardner Company, Mr. Gee guides me throughout the process with plenty of help with the even more detailed Overhaul & Maintenance manuals I have at my side at all times.
Here is but one example of this detail with each connecting rod bottom end bearing being stamped with numbers so they are assembled with the critical eXact matching from original. I also engraved each part when I first removed them so this is the connecting rod from cylinder #3. Note too that each nut and each bolt is stamped #1-4 so that the right nut goes on the right con rod bolt. Forget your YouTube video “unboxing” channels, THIS is what exciting “unboxing” looks like folks! I don’t expect too many of you will share my excitement about the quality of these new Gardner parts and I’ll try to not obsess too much but these pistons really are works of art & engineering. Special inserts for the sidewalls of the top ring, special black low friction coating on the wear sides of the piston body, massive piston pins ………. ……. detailed identification of critical orientation and sizing information stamped on top noting these have the latest 15:1 compression ratio, perfect hyperbolic combustion dome in the middle, valve clearance cut outs, …….
Oooops! Sorry, I did say I would too much now didn’t I. While others are busy getting their ducks all in a row I’ll focus on having all of Mr. Gee’s assembled pistons and con rods all in a row. I was a bit too into the moment of fitting the pistons into their bores and torqueing the con rod nuts just right to take many pictures but this is what the setup looks like for the critical measurement I needed to take. For those interested the measurement is all described here in the Gardner manual but basically what I’m checking is the height of the top of each piston to the top surface of the cylinder block. As per the drawing in the manual this distance “A” needs to be no less than 0.025” and no more than 0.034”, which includes the 0.014 thickness of the head gasket. This “Clearance A” is critical in order to assure that the compression ratio is correct and more so that even when running a bit hot there is plenty of clearance between the valves when they are fully open and the top of the piston. If this distance was too small and a valve was to be hit by the upward moving piston ………….. well let’s just say, that would be VERY bad! And yes, you can ask me how I know that too! So I set up my dial gauge with its tip on the top of the piston and then slowly rotate the crankshaft to find the exact Top Center position when the piston is the highest and turn the dial gauge to zero it at that position. With the dial gauge zeroed with the piston at its Top Center highest point, I then rotated the arm to move the tip onto the freshly machined cylinder block to give me the distance this surface is above the top of the piston. I did this three times for each piston to ensure accuracy and they were all as you see here; 0.027”
If you look back at the chart in the manual, 0.027 + 0.014 head gasket thickness = 0.041 which is 0.002” under the maximum factory allowance of 0.043”d so I will leave well enough alone.
The other bit of TLC for Mr. Gee this past week was fixing THIS. After almost 50 years of continuous service in his original home powering a tugboat on the River Thames in England, some of the aluminium parts had suffered some serious “crevice” or “poultice” corrosion. VERY clearly seen here on this aluminum thermostat housing where a rubber hose has been clamped on for all those years. Many of you will have seen Poultice corrosion on aluminium parts on cars or boats which usually appears as a white paste. Poultice corrosion occurs when water gets into very thin areas that are starved of oxygen and instead of developing the healthy aluminium oxide coating when exposed to air which resists corrosion, the oxygen starved water becomes aluminium hydroxide which causes the corrosion pitting you see above.
Once again, Steve D’Antonio has an excellent in depth explanation of the different types of aluminium corrosion in THIS Professional Boat Builder article for those who would like to know more.
These surfaces on the aluminium cooling water manifolds look similarly corroded but in this case it is physical wear from 50 years of coolant eroding these surfaces so I set out to return all these to like new as well.
The surface you see here on one of those manifold faces started out looking almost identical to the thermostat housing above and this is the “after” shot from me doing a thorough cleaning with a tiny carbide dentist burr in my ever present Dremel tool to get down to clean solid aluminium. One of the handiest items in my “Mr. Fix It” toolbox is a metal epoxy called “JB Weld” and wouldn’t you know it, Amazon.com Turkey had it and Captain Christine had 5 packs of JB Weld delivered to our door in 2 days!
I suspect many of you also know how well this stuff works as either a filler or an adhesive for most metal and other materials. You mix it up just like any other 2 part epoxy and when it hardens it has the properties of aluminium in terms of strength and machinability. So you can file it, grind it and tap it for threads with no problem and unbelievable strength.
FYI, no affiliation or sponsorship (I wish!) just many years of very successful use.
I created these little cylindrical pipes by wrapping clear cello packing tape around a tapered round paintbrush handle and jammed them into the hole I needed to maintain and then filled in all the surrounding void in the aluminium with JB Weld and let dry overnight. My other little trick for getting smooth cylindrical surfaces such as these hose attachments on that thermostat housing is to first fill the voids with JB Weld and then wrap clear cello tap tightly around the cylinder. Next day you can unwrap the tape and find an almost perfectly round and smooth surface.
That was as far as I got on Friday evening so I’ll show you the finished results in next week’s update. Our Cabinetmakers were away this past week so unfortunately no updates to show you from them so you will have to wait for another week to see more of the ever evolving and ever beautiful woodworking on XPM78-01 Möbius.
Well, it is now late Sunday evening here and Christine and I were onboard Möbius all day yesterday getting started on splicing all our Lifelines out of Dyneema so I’m going to call it a night and show you that in next weeks Progress Update. We have a full 5 day work week coming up so you will need this slight reprieve to build up enough stamina to get through a full 5 days of progress update!
AND the Turkish government is lifting almost all the Corona related restrictions tomorrow, June 1st so Cheers! to that. We have our fingers crossed it all turns out well but the culture here is very “law abiding” and most people are very thoughtful so we think that everyone will continue to stay smart and healthy with all the lessons we have learned of late and we won’t see any significant recurrence in cases here. I know that similar changes are happening in most places so we sincerely wish the same for all of you wherever you are and look forward to seeing you here again next week.
Another 4 day work week this week and down to 3 days next with back to back holidays so the work weeks are Short & Shorter BUT the most important thing is that the progress here at Naval Yachts on XPM78-01 Möbius is getting Better & Better so it is ALL good.
This past Tuesday, May 19th was a triple whammy being the day of Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day. May 19, 1919 is is regarded as the beginning of the Turkish War of Independence and so in many ways this is similar to what July 4th is in the USA and Canada Day on May 1st. A big national holiday so all businesses were closed and we were all back on lockdown for the 24 hour day.
We all got back to work Wednesday morning with LOTS getting accomplished the remaining 3 days of this week as you are about to see. And then we are off again on Monday and Tuesday as begin a four day weekend, also under full lockdown status and so not ack to work until Wednesday morning, May 27th. This four day weekend , Saturday through Tuesday, marks Ramazan Bayrami Holiday which is the Festival of Eid al-Fitr which is the end of the month long fasting for Ramazan. It has many similar traits as Thanksgiving does in other countries as the focus is on getting together with family and celebrating with a lot of eating. Obviously a bit more challenging in this year of the Novel Corona Virus while under a full lockdown, but everyone was stocking up on groceries up through yesterday (Friday) and we think many families are creating their own family “bubble” and spending the 4 day weekend together in one of their homes.
Christine and I will enjoy another four days of truly spectacular summer weather here and in the bliss of being together and working away at our many “administrative” boat projects as we start heading towards Launch Date and are down to the final bits of kit for the boat, looking after insurance, flagging the boat, finalising antennae layout and that sort of thing. Neither of us thinks we have ever worked harder but we also think we’ve never enjoyed ourselves more and we could not be happier about our new floating home is shaping up and already dreaming about being at anchor and underway on passages as we get back to making our way around this awemazing world. Well, as soon as we are allowed to that is.
While our work weeks have been shortened most of May, the progress that Team Möbius us making gets better and better so please come join me for a tour through all that they accomplished this past 4 day week.
ELECTRICAL
As you might recall reading in last weeks progress update we are without our head Sparkie Hilmi as he is off enjoying two weeks of very well deserved vacation. However being the trooper he is, he worked both days last weekend before his vacation began on Monday so let’s go pick up where he left off last week.
If you were with us last week, you will recall that Hilmi had been busy wiring up the external rectifiers and regulators, one pair of which you see here, which manage and control the output from the two big 250A @ 24V Electrodyne Alternators that will be mounted on Mr. Gee our Gardner 6LXB main engine. These external rectifiers are mounted underneath one of the AL Workbench tops on the Starboard/Right side over near the Day Tank. Here is a good shot of one side of one of the two external rectifiers with the six red cables down the side bringing all the AC volts and amps directly from the Alternators which are in the Engine Room to the far Left. The two larger Red/Black cables on the Left carry the 250A @ 24V DC power to the Aft DC Distribution Box which is directly above the workbench here. This is the second external rectifier sitting off to the side of the one in the photo above with the six AC cables for the second Electrodyne alternator. You can see that each rectifier also has its own thermostatically controlled fan to keep the air moving over the diodes any time they get too warm.
However, being in the relatively cool Workshop rather than the much hotter Engine Room will help these rectifiers to keep their cool and keep cranking out the Amps anytime the Gardner is running.
Completing our tour of these Electrodyne external rectifiers, here is a shot of two of the 12 massive diodes inside which do the “rectifying” to convert the AC to DC. Of course we carry a full set of spares of all these diodes and other parts to be able to rebuild these alternators should they ever need it. If you are curious about why we have external rectifiers and regulators the short answer is MUCH improved efficiency due to running MUCH cooler.
For a more detailed explanation please go back and read my Mini Tech Talk in last week’s post.
Hilmi busy last weekend creating his latest masterpiece; this rainbow of wiring which carries electrons down and under the floor into the Engine Room as well as up to the DC Distribution Box up above. Peering through the composite grate flooring you can see this rainbow of cables running along the cable tray underneath and into the Engine Room penetration at the top of this photo. The flooring can be lifted out to service or clean and otherwise provides an eXtremely well protected pathway for these critical cables. Two bundles of six cables from the Electrodyne Rectifiers on the Left here, Green/Yellow for the DC Grounding cables going to the ER and then big pair of Red/Black Pos/Neg 24V DC cables for the Gardner Starter.
With a total output of 500 Amps @ 24 Volts or 12kW this is the equivalent of having a 12kW generator without the maintenance and expense of having one.
Up above the Workbench we can see where all these and many more cables will terminate at the big DC Distribution Box which will soon be mounted to that vertical rectangular AL frame in the center here.
BTW, the little R2D2 look alike on the Left is the Alfa Laval fuel centrifuge and the white box on the Right is the Kabola KB45 diesel boiler.
Awaiting Hilmi’s return is this collection of cables Inside the Engine Room that he will install cable trays for and route them safely over to the Alternators mounted on either side of the Gardner. Close up shot of the oval AL penetration carrying the cables through the ER wall. Once all the wiring is complete and systems are tested, the insides of all these penetrations will filled with purpose made filler to make them completely watertight.
Looking up and Aft on the ceiling in the Workshop we find this other remnant of Hilmi’s weekend work where he has mounted the two pairs of Black/Red Pos/Neg cables taking the 24V DC power to the two covered up Accu-Steer HPU400 Kobelt hydraulic steering pumps.
But wait! There’s more!!!
As I was typing this up here on Saturday afternoon, I heard my phone “ding” with the WhatsApp new message and what do I find? Hilmi is sending me photos of what he just finished doing TODAY! Seems like he just couldn’t stay away the whole week so he has come in again to get more done this weekend. Wow!! See what I mean when I say repeatedly that Team Möbius is Awemazing!!
Thanks to Yusuf in the head office, all the custom built electrical boxes arrived and so Hilmi came in and has them all mounted now.
As most of you can tell, this is our little MPPT City where the 14 Victron MPPT SmartSolar controllers live and they now all join together inside this new Gray junction box with all the circuit breakers and connections for the 14 individual MPPT controllers to join together and create the single output to the Main DC Distribution Box which is just off to the Right of this photo in the Basement ………………… ……………. over here!
Great to have this early just installed shot before Hilmi quickly fills it with all the cables, shunts and fuses. Easy to see the basic components of this box with the beefy copper Positive Bus Bar on the top and the matching Negative Bus Bar on the bottom.
Stay tuned for many more details as Hilmi gets to work bringing in all the cables through those WT cable glands along the bottom of this Main DC Box. At the other end of this “Victron Wall” with our 3 x 230V and 2 x 12V MultiPlus Inverter/Chargers and the Isolation Transformers this AC Distribution Box now settles into its new home. Last photo from Hilmi for this weekend is this Forward DC Distribution Box up in the Forepeak.
Yet to come is the Aft DC Distribution Box in the Workshop which we saw up above those Electrodyne Rectifiers Hilmi was wiring last weekend.
With the source of ALL our electrical power being that eXtreme 24V House Battery Bank in the Basement, we have created this “hub and spoke” type distribution model with the Main DC box in the Basement right next to the House Battery compartments and we then run a double pair of four120mm2 or 5/0000AWG cables to take the 24 positive and negative up to the Forepeak DC box and the Aft Workshop DC Box with almost no voltage drop. Then all loads connect direct to these three Distribution panels to keep all the fuses, circuit breakers, switches and shunts in the same protected box and close to the devices they service.
LOTS more to come on all this so please stay tuned.
And THANKS Hilmi and Yusuf for such outstanding work!
NEW ARRIVALS:
I usually leave the New Arrivals overview to the end, but this week’s bounty was all electrical so seems best to go through these quickly here. This box made it all the way from Oklahoma in record time and even had a hand written note from my now good buddy Dale Gould at Electrodyne.
But wait? Didn’t Hilmi just finish installing the Electrodyne parts? Well he looked after the external rectifiers and regulators in the Workshop, but what goes at the other end?
Look familiar?
It should as this is where those six red AC cables we saw Hilmi putting in up above, originate at the alternators on the engine. Massive in the eXtreme, these are the Junction Boxes where the wires coming out of the body of the alternator will be connected to those six big studs on the Left side where those six red cables will then take this power out of the ER and up to the rectifiers.
I have just set this Junction Box on top of one of the Electrodyne G24-250 Powerheads aka alternators to show you about what they will look like. You can see the white wires coming out of the alternator body on the Right which will be routed through the holes in the bottom floor of the Junction Boxes and connected to the studs. Peering inside one of these Junction Boxes you can see how simple and robust these Electrodyne’s are. The label confirms these are 24V @ 250A alternators which have a fully isolated or insulated ground as we keep ALL grounding wires on the boat independent and “floating” from the hull. If you know how alternators work you will recognize that these relatively tiny Pos/Neg connections are what actually control the output of the whole alternator as these provide the field current going to the Field Coils which in turn “excite” or energize the rotating Stator. With both our rectifiers and regulators being external, the ONLY thing inside these massive Electrodyne bodies is a spinning Stator that you see in the upper Left of this diagram of a typical alternator circuit.
This is what keeps the heat generation so low both inside the alternator cases and the External Rectifiers out in the coolness of the Workshop and keeps their efficiency and output so high.
Of course, producing all this 12kW of electrical power doesn’t come for “free” as an alternator just converts mechanical power from the engine that spins it, into electrical power. Transferring that mechanical power from the engine’s crankshaft requires VERY strong belts that will not slip and can handle these high loads. Each alternator requires approximately 10 HP from Mr. Gee when at full 250A output and so we will be using Serpentine 8V multi rib belts to drive these pulleys that mount on the end of the shafts of each alternator.
These multi rib Serpentine belts have replaced most single V type “fan belts” in cars and trucks as a single belt can power multiple devices and can last over 100,000 miles. They are able to transmit so much power without slipping by being very flexible and having so much more surface area than a single belt.
I am in the process of designing and building this Serpentine belt system and will show you more as this happens. This was the next pallet to arrive this past week.
Can you guess what electrical goodness is inside? Correct! Our last six FireFly L15+ Carbon Foam batteries!
I’m giving them a quick “physical” to make sure there was no damage in shipping and that they all have the full 4.2Volt output. These brutes weigh in at a svelte 42.6kg/94lb and each L15+ has two 2V @900V cells inside which you can chose to interconnected in Series to create a 4V @450Ah battery. We then connect six of these 4V cells in Series (pos to neg) or 6S to create a 24V @ 450Ah battery bank. As per this schematic, we have four of these 24V @ 450Ah banks which are then connected as two parallel pairs 2P to create two larger banks A & B which are each 24V @ 900Ah. Finally Bank A & B are connected in parallel 2P to create an overall House Battery Bank of 24V @ 1800Ah or about 43kWh.
Carbon Foam batteries have very high Usable Capacity of 65% being able to consistently crank out their Amps from 20-85% SoC State of Charge. That equates to a truly eXtreme Usable Capacity of 1170Ah for 28kWh worth of energy to keep us fully powered all day every day with reserve to spare.
Here’s what this all looks like inside one of the three battery compartments which are as low as you can get in the hull straddling the monster 25mm x 300mm Keel bar running down the center of the whole hull.
The six batteries on the far Right here form one of the four 24V @ 450Ah battery banks and you can see the next one starting off to the Left. And last but definately not least for this week’s exciting new arrivals was this box of goodness from Wendy at Defender Industries who is our “Go to Gal” for almost all the equipment on XPM78-01 Möbius whom we appreciate and depend upon SO much.
There was a mix up in the big Lewmar EST55 and 65 winches on the fore and aft decks as they were 12V instead of 24. Wendy was fabulous and fast at arranging a direct exchange with Lewmar so we quickly packaged up the 12V motors here and sent them off to Defender while they ordered the 24V replacements. Of course all this was happening at the height of the Corona crisis which added a lot to the overall challenge of shipping these heavy boxes back and forth half way around the world but we all persevered and it worked!
Thanks Wendy and Defender Industries! We could not build this boat without you.
You will soon see Uğur and Nihat installing these beauties so watch for that as this week’s progress tour continues.
PLUMBING
Back onboard XPM78-01 Möbius let’s see if we can find Cihan our multi talented Prince of Plumbing and many other roles. He moves fast so he’s not easy to catch but I managed to catch up with him most days this past week.
Any guesses what Cihan is working on here in the Basement? This should help to give it away.
Yup, this is the 100mm/4” PVC ducting Cihan has fabricated for venting the Battery Compartments. At the front end of these three Battery Compartments there is an intake vent pipe that takes fresh air down to the bottom of the three compartments and then at this opposite end of the battery compartments, this PVC pipe pulls the warmer air up at the top out of the compartment and eXtracts it out of the boat. Cihan and I were conferring on the routing for this PVC pipe and decided to get it up a bit higher for more headroom but you can see the basic setup coming out of the Battery Compartment. Looking further Aft you can see how Cihan is a master at using different angle bends of PVC to route this ducting up out of the way along the ceiling and back to where it exits out of ……. ……… the Basement here.
The T in the PVC ducting on the Left is one of the intakes for extracting the overall Basement air and then the ducting heads straight up through a WT aluminium pipe in the ceiling of the Basement ……. …… and comes out here behind the Stbd/Right side of the Galley cabinets in this big area under the side decks which form the “ceiling” of this space. You can see that this Basement/Battery Air eXtraction duct joins several other WT aluminium penetrations for things like some of the Fuel Fill & Vent hoses.
The Basement Air eXtraction duct continues off to the Right or Aft on the boat …………. …………. rises up a bit to pick up the air coming out of the eXtaction fan built right into the Bosch Induction cooktop/Hob.
From here the PVC ducting goes out to the Stbd side Wing Box where an extraction fan pulls all the air up through the ducting and out onto the Aft Deck. You will see that in detail when we catch up with what Nihat and Uğur were working on this past week. Back in the Workshop Cihan spent a lot of time this week working on the Fuel system. You will recall his work of art putting together the shiny Silver/Blue/Red fuel manifold last week and now, what looks like a toppled over R2D2 is actually our Alfa Laval fuel centrifuge which Cihan is getting ready to mount.
You’ll need to wait until next week to see how Cihan will use that T shaped bracket he has built do to the mounting. But the most exciting thing for me that Cihan worked at this week was THIS!
Can you guess what system he is working on here? Another easy one for most of you I’m sure; he is now installing the Fuel Filtration system, the design and components of which I’ve described in several previous updates. Short synopsis is that I’ve designed the Fuel Filtration system around multi stage pairs of Fleetguard spin on filters like this.
Each filter has an aluminium “head” that provides the mounting base and fuel routing manifold for each filter. The primary FF5013 filter on the Right here is the “mud filter” that does the brunt of the initial filtration. Its head is then joined to the head of the FS19596 Secondary filter with a SS 3/4” nipple……. ……. like this.
Fuel initially enters this pair through one of the threaded fittings marked “IN” on the Right side here, flows through that first FF5013 Primary filter then the filtered fuel exits through the “OUT” fitting which is directly connected to the IN (arrow) of the FS19596 filter and after passing through this filter exits this Fuel Filtration system on the far Left arrow. The FS19596 filters are also water separators and each one comes with a built in electronic WIF or Water In Fuel alarm. An electrical cable plugs into the Black fitting you see here on the bottom of the filter element and if any water collects at the bottom it turns the alarm on.
The White fitting is a drain so you can quickly drain off any water that has collected there or pull of a quick sample to check the cleanliness of the fuel. We decided that the best location for the three pairs of fuel filters was on this end of the Day Tank so Cihan is not tacking on the mounts for each aluminium filter head. He tacks on a few more L brackets where the fuel hose trays will go. Like this, and then tacks the third pair down below. Hose routes were checked for clearance and optimal location and then he finish welded all the brackets to the Day Tank.
Just how we like our systems; Simple, Safe, Efficient.
More to come next week as Cihan finishes up the installation.
Mr. Gee our Gardner 6LXB Main Engine
Before we move on to the progress of the cabinetry and woodworking teams, a quick update on the bit of work I was able to get done on Mr. Gee this week that can be summed up in two words: sand blasting and painting.
The engine coolant or water manifolds were the last component that I had not fully disassembled previously so they finally got some attention. As with many Gardner components this is all made from very thick cast aluminium which has held up very well in its 50 years of non stop marine service so far. The vertical piece here will normally be bolted horizontally atop one of the two cast iron cylinder heads and bring coolant (water & antifreeze) in/out of the cylinder heads to keep them at their just right temperature. This is the housing for the two thermostats in the system which regulate the flow of the coolant through the engine, keeping the fuel from flowing for the first while so the engine warms up and then opening up like a valve to allow more coolant to flow through the engine and the heat exchanger which has the same function as a radiator in your car or truck to eXtract the heat out of the coolant so it can go back and take more heat out of the engine and make sure Mr. Gee keeps his cool and is always operating at optimal temperatures not matter what the outer conditions are. Larger Primary thermostat in my hand regulates most of the flow and the functioning of the coolant bypass and the smaller Secondary thermostat kicks in in hotter temperatures. Both thermostats now out and dismantled and the housing is ready for its date with my parts cleaner before heading down to the sand blaster to REALLY clean up its act. Here is a “before” shot inside the sandblaster as I get ready to clean up the Coolant Header tank on the Left and the two Valve Covers on the right. And here is an “after” shot of those coolant manifolds you saw me dismantling above, the fuel lift pump in the rear Left.
The bronze & brass oil change pump in the lower middle is a very fun addition on Mr. Gee which is a hand pump for removing the engine oil, all 30 liters of it! It is an original Gardner accessory and I’m delighted to have one thanks to the efforts of Michael at Gardner Marine Diesel. As you can see with these other water manifold parts that you saw me dismantling above, the sand blaster does an incredible job of not only thoroughly cleaning these parts back to their original state and the fine grit I’m using leaves a finish that actually shines.
For many of these aluminium parts I will just leave them with this sand blasted sheen on them and for others I will coat them with clear epoxy if they are a bit porous and would be more difficult to keep clean and not absorb oils.
All the steel and cast iron parts require a good protective paint so these guys all lined up for me to spray them with silicone based paint that can withstand the heat. Oil filter housing in the foreground with an oil pressure distribution block behind it and then miscellaneous bits and bobs, dipstick tube and exhaust manifold clamps behind.
MASTER CABIN:
Moving up to the front and into the Master Cabin we find that the Headboard on the King bed is now all in place as are the removable ceiling panels.
Hilmi has been here as well as evidenced by the Black AirCon/Hot Air controller and White In-Floor heating controller mounted in the upper Left. Red/Black wires are for the two reading lamps. Over on the far Port/Left side of the bed Christine’s “floating” shelf is all in place and Hilmi has the upper switches wired as well as the lower two outlets for 120 and 220 AC power. Straight up from there we see that the first of the removable ceiling panels have not all been upholstered in their White leather and have been snapped in place. Lights have all been pre wired so will only take minutes to snap those in place as well.
Similar progress with the ceiling panels up in the forward area of the Master Cabin outside the Shower and Head and overtop the Vanity sink at the far end. And a bit more progress inside the Head/Bathroom with the upper cabinets over top of the sink and counter now attached and ready to be sealed in place.
The large outer corner of the shower will have two etched glass plates installed in about a month and can hardly wait to see and show you those.
SUPERSALON:
Checking in with Omur and Selim as they continue to apply their cabinetmaking craftsmanship to the SuperSalon.
They continued this week fitting each of the Window Mullions, which are the U shaped vertical marine plywood “boxes” which cover the large aluminium I beam frames which transfer the loads of the whole superstructure of the Pilot House through to the hull frames below. Here is one of the Window Mullions at the Stbd end of the Galley Garages. All the corners will be well radiused and then covered with White leather for the Aft area and Black for the ones around the Main Helm area. The Mullions are all removeable in order to provide future access for servicing those that have cables running through them or to perhaps add wiring and such in the future. So each Mullion is custom fit to provide just the right clearance all around. In addition to the Window Mullions requiring careful fitting you can see similar details such as this outside corner of the Fridge cabinet where it makes this transition over to the Window glass. Here is the more overall view of the SuperSalon with me sitting on the Entryway stairs down from the Aft Deck looking forward to the Main Helm. Gives you, and me, a better sense of how this room will feel when finished and how awemazing the views are going to be out these 360 degree windows. The two AL pillars in the Aft corners of the SuperSalon are particularly massive so their Mullions are the largest but will still blend in and look great when finished.
It is often said, quite correctly, that boat design and building is all a process of endless compromises and trade offs. These window pillars and their mullions are a good example of this where we have to find the just right trade offs between making the pillars eXtremely strong and multiple times more than they are required to be and yet also not become visually massive, distracting and reducing the glass area and views too much. Having our priorities and fundamental principles clearly stated and referred to makes this process much easier. Our SECLoM mantra of Safe, Efficient, Comfortable and Low Maintenance is what we have “chanted” throughout the designing and building of XPM78-01 Möbius and it continues to serve us well.
Here is a look Aft down the Port/Left side of the SuperSalon towards the far corner where the Entryway stairs turn 180 degrees to the stairs down to the Corridor into the Guest Cabin and Workshop. Gives another perspective on how the Mullions will look.
Looking up you can see how Omur is mounting the Black overhead Soffits that make the transition from the Windows to the Ceiling. As you can see most of the marine plywood has been cut out to reduce this high up weight and they will soon have their Ceiling Panels snapped in place using the same FastMount system we are using throughout the boat.
Turning to look at the opposite Aft corner across the Galley for another view of the window pillars. Mullions are removed here so the Black you are seeing on the pillars is the EPDM insulating foam that covers and fills all the cavity spaces in the aluminium I Beams. Remember that PVC ducting that Cihan was installing for the Basement and Cooktop eXtraction Air? And remember that bit about compromises? Well, we had to give up a bit of space in the Aft corner Garage to create this little boxed corner where that 100mm/4” PVC eXtraction Air pipe runs Aft to connect up to the eXtraction fan in the Aft Port Wing Box. Of course we will likely turn this “bug” into a feature by building something around it for storing special items. Maybe a good spot for storing wooden and silicone utensils we use on the induction cooktop that is right beside this Garage?
Compromises can often be turned into a good thing too you know! Lastly for this past week, Omur and Selim have been working on the wood liners for the overhead Hatches in the Master Cabin and SuperSalon. You may recall seeing them build the laminated inner cores for these Hatch Liners several months ago so now they are moving onto adding the solid Ro$wood upper and lower edges followed by the inner lining of Rosewood veneer. Omur has finished the solid edging on these two Hatch Liners so they are ready for fitting and he’s bringing them back aboard from his Cabinetry shop next door. I’ll show you more of these being installed next week.
GUEST CABIN & CORRIDOR:
CORRIDOR STAIRS
Moving down the stairs into the Corridor that takes you to the Guest Cabin on the Right here, the Ship’s Office aka Wayne’s Office on the Left or the WT door into the Workshop directly behind you here.
This is about where Omer and Muhammed left off and picked up again on Monday of this week. Rosewood stair risers (vertical faces) are now all installed, the FastMounted removable bottom two stair treads are in as is the Red/Black wiring for the indirect LED light strips that run under the nosing on each stair tread.
You can also see the infamous Blue Horizon/Handhold Line BHL partially installed on the wall on the Right and just visible at the top of the stairs is the Zig-Zag Rosewood edging for the upper Entryway stairs. This set the stage for Omer to start fitting the solid Rosewood Nosing on the edge of each stair. You can see by the cuts that this is a Nosing on of those two bottom stairs that have to be removable to provide access to the space underneath these stairs where there are some plumbing hoses that might need to be serviced in the future. Next step up the Nosing is solid all the way across. These Nosings will end up being about 5mm/ 3/16” higher than the finished vinyl flooring which I’m attempting to show you here and should have placed a 5mm thick bit of plywood to help show this.
We find this size of lip to be the Goldilocks just right amount that lets your feet feel the edge but not too much and yet still provide enough of an edge to prevent any slipping.
Peeking up under one stair nose to show the groove each nose creates for the LED lights to be recessed into and the wires to power them. We have LED indirect lighting throughout the entire interior living spaces and these are all dimmable so we can adjust them to suit conditions.
Christine and I find this kind of indirect lighting to be a HUGE safety factor on a boat, especially when we are on night passages, as they provide eXcellent visibility down at your foot level without putting much light up at eye level and thus affecting our night vision very little.
Standing up at the top of these Corridor stairs to take this Birds-eye view that shows how the angled stair treads work. You can also see how we have just the right amount of space between the AL pipe railing on the Left and the Fridge cabinet on the Right to make it very safe when transiting Up/Down these stairs, especially when we are underway in heavier seas. You will be seeing much more of these Entryway stairs in the coming weeks as Omer starts to finish these stairs to match the ones below. However you can already see how that Zig Zag Rosewood trim will finish off these stairs just right. Zig Zag is back from the Finishing Shop and ready to be attached. Which is what Omer is up to here. And now installed as Omer clamps the Zig Zag in place.
I often talk about how I think we should all “Put yourself in the way of Beauty” and this is a good example of what I mean as to my very pleased eyes, this Zig Zag beauty is like a sculpture that I get to experience every time I go up or down these stairs. The Rosewood Nosing pieces are now back from the Finishing Shop as well so they can now be installed and you are starting to see how the intersection on the Right where the Stair tread, Nosing, Zig Zag and Blue Horizon/Handhold Line all come together. All the finished Nosing all clamped down now AND the first half of the BHL Blue Horizon/Handhold Line is now going in on the wall on the Right which is VERY eXciting for me to see. Back to that busy intersection at the top to see how the two halves of the BHL come together. Next week I’ll be able to show you this part of the BHL with the end cap in place to really finish this feature off.
The plywood panel in the background will have a Green/Gray leather covered wall panel snapped in place next week as well which will really finish off this stairwell nicely.
GUEST CABIN:
Speaking of finishing things off nicely, stepping into the Guest Cabin we find a lot of that going on. Three of the White leather covered removable ceiling panels are now snapped in place above Christine’s Desk with this Bookshelf above it.
And the slotted vent for eXtracting the air out of this cabin is also now snapped in place above the bookcase.
We saw how the Rosewood Hatch Liner was installed in last week’s post and you can now see how nicely the ceiling panel highlights the Rosewood edges which protrude down just right below the ceiling panel. Ceiling panels back from the Upholstery Shop and Omer has all the Black male FastMount fittings glued and threaded into the plywood backing so they are all ready to be snapped into their respective homes in the ceiling grid. A good combination of things going on here to show you how the Ceiling Panels snap in place into those White FastMount female sockets. In the background you can see where the overhead LED light will soon be connected up to those Red/Black wires and the hole off to the Left is where an air diffuser will be inserted to provide control over the fresh air coming into the Guest Cabin. I thought this worms-eye view would help bring everything going on up at ceiling level into better focus.
Cabinet for the Pullman Berth to folds up into at the bottom of this photo and Christine’s Bookshelf on the far Right. Two big Cubbies that add even more storage area in the Guest Cabin. There will be two hinged lift up doors to cover each of these Cubbies to support for the upholstered couch seat back. The back panels of each Cubby is also removable to give me easy access to the water manifolds and other systems that are running along the hull behind here. Up above the slide out Couch/Bed Omur is putting the finishing touches on the cabinet for the Pullman Berth. The removable back panel is now in place and the two cool little mini shelves have been attached. These little mini shelves were the combined idea of Yesim, Omer and Hakan and what they call “Wayne’s Surprise” as these were not in the original designs and were a bonus feature that they put in without me knowing. Very handy for those sleeping in the Pullman to put their watch, alarm clock, phone, book, etc..
This example might also help you understand that I am not being hyperbolic when I say that Team Möbius is AWEMAZING!
The fold up Pullman mattress “door” is back from the Upholstery Shop and Omer has now installed it into the two beefy SS pin hinges on either side which the Machine Shop fabricated. eXtremely solid platform for the memory foam mattress that is also very easy to lift up into the stowed position. And latches firmly into place with a click of these two SS latches that are the same as the ones we will use throughout the boat for solid locking latches on all cabinet doors and drawers. Stepping all the way back into the doorway into this Guest Cabin to get this shot of this whole corner area. Christine’s Desk on the far Right, printer cubby between it and the Pullman which does double duty by being the support for the Pullman when it folds down.
The other outer corner of the Berth will have a Dyneema line that runs up to a SS hook inside the Pullman cabinet to help support the other end of the Berth. In the interim, Omer made up that little round stool like support. Panning over a bit to the Right to show the Desk and Bookshelf area a bit better.
The athwartships running wall behind the Desk & Bookshelf is eXtremely well insulated as the Workshop and Engine Room are on the other side with extra thicknesses of both thermal EPDM insulation and 4 layer acoustic insulation.
Well, you can now understand my “Shorter & Shorter; Better and Better” title for this week’s XPM78-01 Möbius Progress Update posting. It may have been a shortened four day work week but Team Möbius manages to make better and better progress with each passing week. With Monday and Tuesday being part of our four day weekend for the Festival of Eid al-Fitr here in Turkey, next week will be down to just three working days so more challenges for Team Möbius but I’m sure they will have made even more progress in that 3 day work week than this past 4 day one and I can’t wait to show you that in next week’s XPM78-01 Möbius Progress Update.
This is a long weekend for my fellow Canadians with today May 24th being Victoria Day in celebration of Queen Victoria’s birthday and then May 25th is Memorial Day for all our American friends and family so there will be lots of us enjoying, I hope, these celebrations in spite of the challenges of these Corona days. Christine and I may be on full lockdown until Wednesday morning but we’ll be enjoying each other and lots of good food as well as these incredibly beautiful summer days here in Antalya this long weekend.
Thank you SO much for joining us and a special thanks to those who made to the end here without too much fast forwarding. I know I go on and on and dive into WAY too much detail I’m sure but I do hope that most of you can find the parts that are interesting and skip over the others.
Whatever you are up to this weekend and however long your weekend might be, please do stay safe, happy, healthy and sane and I look forward to bringing you the next progress update. And please be encouraged to add your contributions to this adventure by putting your questions, comments and suggestions in the “Join the Discussion” box below.
Wowzah! Just when I thought Spring had really Sprung and how the heck is it already the middle of May, Summer showed up this week. As I sit here typing up this weekly XPM78-01 Möbius update at 4pm on Saturday (May 16) it is 34C/93F and the forecast is for it to continue to climb up to 39C/102F tomorrow and then starts to “cool down” to 35C/95F on Wednesday! We get these kinds of hotter temps when the wind shifts to be coming out of the SW off the Sahara dessert but doesn’t usually happen until the true summer months of July and August.
As per this week’s title though, things also really heated up at Naval Yachts as Team Möbius was really firing on all cylinders and made a LOT of progress on the build. Uğur and his brother Okan finally returned to the team and many projects that were partially completed began to fall into place nicely. But enough talking/typing and let’s dive right into this week’s show and tell so you can see all this progress for yourself.
ALUMINIUM TEAM:
Yayyyyyy!!! Uğur is back!!!
Uğur has been on Team Möbius from the very first day of the build, longer than anyone else so it was a huge loss to be without him for over a month. But he’s back now and we could not be happier and as you’ll see, his presence has an eXtremely large effect on the progress with all things aluminium so I’ll start by showing what he and his equally talented sidekick Nihat got done this past week.
Let’s also have our first Quiz this week:
What is the first project Uğur started on in the photo above?
Does it help give you more clues if I zoom in on one of the details on what they are installing here? OK, had to start you off with an easy one and Yes! they are installing the last of our 3 beautiful Bofor Watertight doors. If you’ve been following along for the past few weeks you’ve seen them install the WT door on the inside between the Workshop and the Corridor by the Guest Cabin and then last week everyone pitched in during Uğur ‘s absence and Nihat, Omur and Selim installed the WT door in the main entry into the boat on the Aft Deck. As you can see here, this last of the 3 WT doors is for entry to the Workshop from the Aft Swim Platform.
In this photo, Nihat (right) and Uğur have finished bolting the WT door frame to the inner frame of the hull and are now cleaning up the Sikaflex sealant/adhesive squeeze out. Et Voila! We have an eXtremely watertight door and all three of them are now installed.
It opens this direction so we can latch it in the fully opened position and maintain full access to the stairwell on this side. And this is what it looks like when fully closed, though the handles have not been secured here.
Bofor custom built these to our specifications and added an extra latching handle at the top and bottom in order to easily withstand a full 360 degree rollover when this door would be fully submerged and not leak or be compromised.
They have now removed all the doors and have stored them all safely in their factory packing boxes because as you can imagine there is a LOT of traffic through these doors during the build, often with large equipment, furniture and tools.
SEA CHEST MANIFOLDS:
The next project involved both Uğur and Nihat on the Aluminium side and Cihan (left) our Prince of Plumbing.
Quiz #2: What’s your guess as to what they are building here?
Are they expanding their talents into the music business and making eXtremely large Andean flutes? Another clue; There are three of these all together, each with quite different sizes and numbers of pipes along their length.
Another clue; One goes in the Forepeak, one in the Basement and one in the Engine Room.
More clues?
One end of the main tube is fully capped off, one end is open. The open ends have a welded on flange that bolts to its mating half….. …….. like this and ……. …… this. This one that goes in the Forepeak is fully welded and just needs a bit more cleanup.
OK, a bit of a tough Quiz this time though I’m sure some of you figured out that these are the manifolds where all the fluids going out of the boat through the Exit Sea Chests are collected.
*** Mini Tech Talk about Sea Chests vs individual through hull fittings
For those who may not be familiar with Sea Chests as these are not as common in boats under 15m/50ft which usually have each supply and discharge hose connected to its own through hull fitting, each one of which is a “hole in the hull” below the WL, usually with a ball shut off valve, and potentially a “sinking” problem.
The alternative Sea Chests offer is to bring all or most of the supply/discharge hoses to a large diameter, tall vertical pipe/tube that is permanently installed as part of the hull. This cuts down the number of “holes” in the hull to a very small number of Sea Chests. We had just one for exit only one sea chest on our previous 52’ steel sailboat and, we have 5 on our XPM78-01 Möbius; three Supply and two Discharge. Each Sea Chest tube is a large diameter 100mm / 4” ID 10mm/3/8” thick walled vertical AL tubes/pipes which are integrally welded into the bottom hull plates. The flanged top of each Sea Chest is well above the waterline, about 50cm/20” then the manifolds you’ve seen above connect all the supply or discharge hoses to the Sea Chest. Being well above the WL, these Sea Chest tubes can be open at the top with no water possible to flow into the boat, though ours will have thick plexiglass tops bolted onto them for added safety. The downside of Sea Chests vs individual through hulls is that you have longer hose runs between the fluid producers/consumers and their supply/discharge connections.
Each Sea Chest can be then be used to either SUPPLY sea water to things like the water maker or the various heat exchangers and coolers onboard, OR be as these ones are, EXITS for fluids such as Grey and Black Water (when far enough off shore), sea water from wet exhaust, exiting “brine” water from the water maker, and so on.
Here for example at the top of this photo is the Exit Sea Chest in the Engine Room. There is a matching Supply Sea Chest on the other side.
This Exit manifold is the longest of the three you’ve just seen them building.
For those who might be wondering, the reason for the angle on that pipe stub at the far end of the manifold, which will soon be welded into the upper end of the vertical Sea Chest tube, it is so the long manifold will be most out of the way running along the AlucoBond (not yet installed) wall of the ER.
Why so many outlets? Well when you have a total of 14 Bilge pumps for example and each one needs to be able to pump water out of the boat, and then more fluid producers such as a water maker, a sea water pump for the engine cooling heat exchanger, a wet exhaust system and the list goes on, these exits all add up. As you will see in the coming weeks, the hoses from each exiting fluid pump will be routed to these tubes along the length of the manifold and secured with hose clamps.
Now imagine if every one of those exit manifold pipe, 26 for those counting, were to be connected instead to its own through hull fitting, each with its own ball valve, as it typical on most boats? Then add 8 more for sea water supply and you now have 34 “holes in the bottom of your boat”!
To our way of thinking, Sea chests are the Goldilocks just right way to go when your priorities are Safety, Efficiency, Comfort and Low Maintenance. With only 5 “holes” in the bottom of our boat and each of those being 10mm/3/8” thick walled AL pipe that is welded top and bottom to the hull plates, makes for an eXtremely safe and water tight system. One that is easy to install and service as every hose is to readily accessible and just as importantly is easy to literally keep an eye on each time you walk by so you spot any changes or leaks right away. Also easy to expand upon in the future if you add an additional fluid producer you need to get overboard.
WINDLASS & WINCH INSTALLATION:
The headings I like to include for each section probably make most of the quizzes easier to guess, so you know that Uğur is starting the next job of mounting the Maxwell VWC 4000 Windlass, but can you guess what he’s doing here and what that purple looking material is?
Clue: You probably have several of these in your house. First part of the Quiz is now easy to answer, he is making the spacer that will isolate the SS Windlass above deck base from the 12mm / 1/2” aluminium deck plate it will be mounted to. With the body of the Windlass being Stainless Steel and the deck being aluminium, it is critical to isolate all these dissimilar materials from each other to prevent electrolysis and corrosion. Furthermore the motors of the windlass and all winches have isolated grounds to keep them electrically isolated from the boat as well.
The second part about what material this is has a bit of a fun story to it. There wasn’t any material on hand at Naval that met all the requirements of being non conductive, non compressible, non brittle and about 10mm thick and ordering some would have taken too long. So I asked Captain Christine to “take one for the team”, don her mask and head out to the local grocery store and buy a couple of plastic cutting boards as they happen to have all the Goldilocks just right characteristics and were minutes away. Problem solved and Uğur soon had one of them drilled and cut to size as you see here.
You may recall that several weeks ago they had laid out the anchor deck area to show the CL CenterLine of the anchor chain and the locations of all the holes for mounting the Windlass to the deck and now it was time to cut more holes in the boat!. Yikes! Minutes later, Nihat used the spiral cutter to smooth out the cut surfaces and round over the edges of each hole. The largest aft hole is where the main vertical drive shaft goes through the deck connecting the upper Gypsy/Chain Wheel and Capstan to the hefty 24V gear drive motor below the deck. The smaller forward hole is where the chain travels In/Out of the Chain Bin below and then of course the six holes for each of the SS studs which securely connect the upper Windlass wheels to the drive motor below. Here is the view from inside the Forepeak looking up at those holes. You can also see how the deck and stringers are all much thicker 10mm / 3/8” plate to provide a solid foundation for the eXtreme forces a Windlass often has to deal with when we are anchored in storms and high winds with the 125Kg/275 lb Rocna anchor solidly stuck to the bottom below. For those wondering, the pipe you see in the photo above is called a Spurling Pipe which provides a smooth passage for the chain as it moves In/Out of the Chain Bin.
Also important to have plenty of “fall” distance between the mouth of the Spurling Pipe and the top of the chain piled up in the Chain Bin. Ours will be at least 1200mm which helps ensure that any kinks in the chain links to shake free on their way up and out. We have designed a 1.6m/ 63” tall round Chain Bin as this helps to reduce the chain from “castling” as it piles up into a cone on the bottom as the chain comes aboard and then falls over on itself and can get tangled and difficult to pull up on the next set.
As you can see here the Spurling Pipe ends at the same level as the top of the Chain Bin so there is plenty of fall for the chain below. We think we will also fit a clear plastic round “skirt” that will fasten around the outside of the top of the bin and over to tie off on the bottom of the Spurling Pipe to act as a “Muck Guard” to keep any of the bottom goo that might make it past our chain washer and splash around in the Forepeak. But we will try it without the skirt for a few months of anchoring and see how it works as is.
Quick test fit of the SS Windlass base plate to make sure everything lines up before moving on to install the motor assembly from below. All good so down below we go. Once they knew it all fit well, they removed the base plate and applied a generous coat of Sikaflex 295 sealant/adhesive on both sides of the cutting board isolation plate and then slid hard nylon washers onto each SS stud and tightened up all the nuts to the correct torque. Now Uğur could look after the finishing touches such as putting in a nicely rounded seal of Sikaflex to seal off the edges and hide the blue/purple cutting board plate. As you can see the motor and gear box assembly is a monster and it took three strong team members to hoist the 24V motor and gear box up through the bearing and seal in the now solidly mounted base plate above. They had to hold it there while Uğur threaded the 4 SS bolts from up on deck down into the round top end of that blue bear box you see here from below and ….. ……. here from up on the Anchor Deck. You can see how the way we’ve designed the Spurling Pipe it also keeps the Windlass motor and gearbox assembly literally “high and dry” and fully protected from any water or anchor muck coming off the chain as it goes In/Out of the Chain Bin. Adding the skirt would completely seal this off and also help reduce the sometimes odiferous little sea creatures that like to hitch a ride on the chain as it comes aboard.
Et Voila! XPM78-01 Möbius now has this eXtremely strong and beautiful Windlass.
You might think I am being a bit eXcessive with the details of this Windlass but you’d be wrong. It is quite literally true that our lives and the “life” of the boat is directly dependent upon this Windlass and the rest of our anchoring system to keep us solidly in place when we are anchored, which in our case is about 99% of the time. The loads on the windlass, chain and anchor are perhaps the highest of any on the boat and if any of these were to break or let go, the boat would drag and could likely end up dashed on the rocks ashore. So we take our anchoring system VERY seriously and SWAN, Sleep Well At night as a result. Similar mounting method is used for the equally eXtreme Kedging Winch that mounts just aft of the Windlass. A few weeks ago they built this eXtremely sturdy mounting box out of 10mm / 3/8” plate so it was a simple matter of just drilling holes for the base plate of this Lewmar 55EST electric winch. Here is the view from down in the Forepeak looking up inside that winch box with a similar mounting technique. There was a mix with the 24V motor and gearbox assembly for these Lewmar winches so they will be mounted as soon as they arrive next week. Fortunately this does not cause any delays with the build as these big winches are made to be used manually without any motors so they were able to finish the installation and it will be a relatively quick and easy task to just bolt the motors on from down below when they arrive. What a Beautiful Bow you have my dear!
All thanks to Yigit, Uğur and Nihat.
But wait! There’s more!
Remember I told you that Team Möbius was firing on all cylinders this week so Uğur and Nihat also got started on installing the Vetus BOW22044DE bow thruster. The DE model is for “extended run time” of at least 7 minutes, which might sound short but is several times more than most. Typical use is in short few second bursts and so relatively speaking, 7 minutes is a very long time.
This beauty is capable of putting out 220kgf/485ft lbs of force with 11kW/15HP which is more than enough to keep the bow of the boat under control on those rare times when we are docking in high side winds and currents. While we only use the bow thruster 3 or 4 times in a typical year, largely because we are rarely at docks or marinas, but it is one of those pieces of equipment like crash pumps or fire extinguishing systems, when you need it you REALLY need it and are SO glad you have it. The prop is plastic which will be a welcomed change from the double acting bronze ones in our previous thruster which was a real pain to scrape and keep clean. I’ve just set it in place here as we were double checking that the blade tip to tunnel wall clearance was just right, which it is. These are the two parts which bolt onto either side of the AL tunnel. The arched top of that black aluminium fastens to the tunnel on the inside with the bronze angled gear drive on the other side inside the prop tunnel. In this photo the upper shaft is where it connects to the motor and the bottom keyed 90 degree shaft is where the red propeller attaches. Last thing Friday, after LOTS of measuring and double, triple checking, they cut these holes in the Bow Thruster tunnel. If you look at the photo above you can see how the upper end of the bronze tailpiece fill fit through that large hole and then the flange will be through bolted into the Black AL cage housing on the inside of the tunnel. At 84Kg/185lbs, it took a few more strong guys to get just the motor down into the Forepeak ready for fitting to the tunnel next week. With the Black AL housing now bolted to the bottom of the motor you can better picture how the thruster will attach the tunnel at about a 50 degree angle off vertical. This will keep the top of the motor housing low enough so that the composite mesh flooring can go overtop and keep it all nicely protected and a fully flat and open floor to move around the Forepeak.
Note too the Discharge Sea Chest on the Right here which provides the exit for things like the Black and Gray Water tanks up here which service the sinks, shower and head/toilet in the Master Cabin.
Here is a shot of those three holes looking from the inside of the tunnel. Stepping back a bit to show you how the hull has been carefully faired away from the tunnel to help reduce the turbulence as the water flows over the tunnel. This shape and position is very precisely calculated to have the best flow possible with the arc of this concave surface and the angle of its axis relative to the bow wave flow up here.
The hole just aft is for the Sea Chest I noted above.
Not bad for just one week’s work of just one team!
ELECTRIAL WORK:
One of our other “armies of one”, aka Hilmi our head “Sparkie”, had a very productive week as well and here we find him in the Basement fabricating all the 120mm2 / 4/000 cables that interconnect each of the twenty four 4V @ 450Ah FireFly Carbon Foam batteries. This partial sketch will show you how each individual bank of six 4V @ 450Ah cells is wired in Series, negative to positive, to create a 24V @ 450Ah bank. Two of these banks are then wired in Parallel, positive to positive, negative to negative to create two 24V @ 900Ah Bank A & B.
Sorry for this rough screen grab of the electrical schematic I’ve drawn for the whole boat, but hopefully it shows how Bank A and Bank B connect to their own Victron BMV 712 Smart shunt and Battery Monitors.
Finally, Banks A & B connect to the Main Bus Bar via a third Victron BMV712 to monitor the overall 24V @ 1800Ah House Battery.
My schematic is still a bit of a work in progress so some edits required to fuses, switches, etc. but this will give you the basic layout. Here are Hilmi’s tools of his trade for building these cables; the Blue/Black hydraulic crimper on the Left makes it quick and easy for him to get a “just right” crimp of the large copper battery cable lugs in that box and end up with the beautiful finished crimped cables you can see in the upper Right. Once all the lugs are fully crimped to the cables, Hilmi slides a Red or Black adhesive lined shrink tube to insulate the barrel of the lugs and fully seal the lug/cable joint. After the batteries are fully installed and tested the exposed surfaces of the lugs and terminal bolts will also be sealed with a protective coating. Here are ten more 4V cells visible in the middle battery compartment. If you’d like to compare this reality view with the schematics above, you can see how the bottom six cells are wired in Series (neg to pos) and then the top four in the next bank are wired the same with the other two of the six out of sight.
With all four Banks connected in Parallel this creates an overall House Battery of 24V @ 1800Ah or 43.2kWh. These Carbon Foam batteries have a usable capacity of about 65% as they can operate very efficiently between a State of Charge of 85-20% so we have a total usable capacity of about 24V @ 1170Ah or 28kWh which is well over my estimated daily use and our 14 solar panels should be able to keep these batteries fully charged indefinitely.
Throughout all the living areas Hilmi has also been busy wiring all the interior lights. All the overhead lights will be dimmable LEDs mounted in the removable ceiling panels and then there is an extensive set of indirect LED light strips running along the floor toe kicks and under the stair tread nose, etc.. Back in the Workshop, Hilmi had Cihan and Mummy prep the ceiling and aft wall for the cable trays that will soon carry the power cables for the two HPU400 Accu-Steer pumps you see covered up here. If you look closely (click to expand any photo) up at the top center you will see an oval slot cut through that frame for the wires to pass through. and then these two short AL flat bars have been welded onto the stringers on the aft Transom Wall to provide attachment points for ……… ………. these cable trays.
Sadly for us, fortunately for Hilmi he will be off on two weeks of well deserved holiday time starting on Monday so he has been working all this weekend to get as much done as possible before he leaves.
Thanks and enjoy your time off Hilmi!
EXTERNAL RECTIFIERS & REGULATORS:
There were a lot of different hands busy working on the area below the workbench on the Stbd/Right side of the Workshop this past week. These two hands belong to Mummy as he and Cihan welded in the aluminium brackets for mounting the two bright Red 24 volt external regulators that convert the AC output coming through six cables directly out of each of the two massive Electrodyne alternators in the Engine room next door and convert this to 24V DC @ 250A output. Beside each Red Rectifier are the two of these WakeSpeed 500 smart regulators which control the output of each alternator. Here is one matched pair of rectifier and regulator mounted under the Workbench and ready for Hilmi to wire.
The six studs on the side of this Electrodyne Rectifier are where the AC cables coming directly out of each alternator will attach and then the rectifiers convert this AC power to DC which comes out the positive and negative studs you can see behind the fan housing.
Mini Tech Talk on EXTERNAL RECTIFIERS:
External Rectifiers are quite unusual so why am I using them? In two words; Heat & Efficiency. Most alternators have their rectifiers and the regulators housed inside the body of the alternator which makes for a very neat and tidy unit. BUT, as you might know alternators, especially high output ones, generate a LOT of heat, every degree of which reduces the output and efficiency of the alternator. More than 50% of the heat within an alternator is generated by the diodes in the rectifier. In our case at 250 amps, there is about 750 watts of heat generated that needs to be removed. The regulator adds additional heat and the whole alternator is mounted on the engine inside the hot engine room so you can see where this is going.
Solution? Remove the rectifiers and regulator from the alternator giving the rotating stator plenty of room to circulate cooling air and put the rectifiers and regulators OUTSIDE the Engine Room entirely in the nice cool Workshop. Then mount the rectifier assembly on a large steel case, connected to a large aluminium “heat sink” of the workbench and add a thermostatically controlled fan and you have dramatically increased the output and efficiency of the alternators. Also MUCH easier to install and service as needed with everything so easily accessible.
Here are all four units now mounted and ready for wiring. The Red Electrodyne Rectifiers are mounted end for end so they offer this good shot of both ends and all four sides. The smaller studs on the Rectifier on the Left are where the smaller gauge wires connect to the WakeSpeed 500 smart regulators and I will talk at length about why we have chosen these and what makes them the Goldilocks regulators for our Battery Based boat.
PLUMBING:
Cihan, our “Prince of Pipes” is a very multi talented key member of Team Möbius and he always has very productive weeks so this was all the more so evident this past week.
Kabola Boiler Exhaust:
Time for the next Quiz;
Why is Cihan up on top of this ladder outside Möbius and what is he working on now? Does it help to know that he is holding what is attached to the inside of where he is working in the photo above? Does it give it away if I hold up the inside and outside parts for you? Tadaaaa! This is the outside view of the finished installation of the exhaust exit pipe from the Kabola KB45 Combi diesel boiler.
This double walled as you can see to pretty much eliminate the heat transfer to the hull plates, but these Kabola boilers are over 94% efficient so they put out so little heat that I’ve been able to hold my hand directly in front of one of these exhaust outlets and it is only warm. Difficult to get a shot of, but this is how it looks on the inside where the 90 degree elbow brings the exhaust hose up along the hull. With this exhaust outlet being so high up and protected by the Rub Rail on the outside, this inverted orientation of the elbow on the inside ensures that there is no chance for any water to get in. After the elbow, this SS flex pipe connects to this SS silencer/muffler which is also double walled. On the other inlet side of the silencer another length of SS flex pipe makes the final connection to the vertical cast SS exhaust outlet on the back of the Kabola.
The SS wire clips hold the insulating wrap in place for now and more layers will be added later to fully insulate the whole exhaust system. Why do I say that Cihan is so multi talented? Well who knew he could sew?? He used those talents to fabricate this lovely little jacket for the silencer complete with draw strings and Velcro fastener along its length. And looks like this when it is installed and just loosely wrapped for now. Nice work Cihan!
FUEL MANIFOLDS:
We saw Cihan mounting these three fuel manifolds last week. and so this week he was busy plumbing them with their SS ball valves and Aeroquip push on fuel hose fittings. To my eyes these are bits of beautiful jewelry being made out of blue and red anodized aluminium. I have great success with these on hot rods, custom motorcycles and boats in the past so I’m going with what I know works well for our boat.
These are aviation grade fittings and require no tools and no hose clamps. The sharp edged barbs you see here have a very tight press fit onto the hose which creates a leak proof connection when you push the hose down hard with some good lubricant to help the end of the hose to go all the way into that Red ring at the bottom. You push until the ring doesn’t turn freely and you know it is all the way on and you’re done.
Each fitting is threaded to the polished AL manifold using one of these Blue nipples and some Loctite pipe sealant. Doesn’t take Cihan long to have all the SS Ball Valves and AL fittings fully installed and ready for him to start attaching the fuel hoses. This would be a tough Quiz but any guesses what this is?
It is on the bottom front corner of the Kabola boiler …..
…. and is actually several devices in one assembly. The Red handle on the Left is the emergency pressure relief valve same as you would find on the water heater in our house in case something went awry and the pressure inside built to a dangerous level in which case this valve would open and let the hot water escape.
The Gray plastic barbed hose fitting is for the initial filling the boiler from a water hose you attach here and the round black knob below it is the on/off valve for to let the water in and then seal it off. To charge the system you connect the water hose, open up the Black valve and let it fill until the gauge reads 2bar/30PSI and then close the valve and remove the hose.
MASTER CABIN:
Up in the front down in the Master Cabin, Omur and Selim were busy installing some of the ceiling and wall panels that have come back from the Upholstery Shop. As with all our panels these are removable using FastMount ball and socket clips.
Here Ömür is installing the threaded Black ball side of the FastMounts on the backs of this White leather upholstered panel which will snap into ….… ……. these White sockets in the drop ceiling over the head of the Master Bed. Like this.. Bottom Headboard panel is snapped in place to complete the panel mounting in this area. Which set the stage for Hilmi to come in and install the two thermostatic controllers Upper Black one is for the Webasto AirCon/Hot air system and the lower White one is the controller for the In-Floor heating in the Master Cabin. More evidence of Hilmi having been here with the LED lighting wires hanging down from the Black ceiling grid ready for Omur and Selim to start installing the ceiling panels in here.
SUPER SALON:
Omur and Selim were also busy this past week upstairs in the SuperSalon so let’s head up there for a look.
Looking up at the two part Soffits that make the transition between the tops of the windows and the ceiling. Here I am standing in front of the bottom of the stairs coming down from the Entryway off the Aft Deck looking forward down the Port/Left side with the dual Fridge cabinet in the foreground. Pivoting around a half turn this is how the Soffit on that side terminates above the aft window in the Plinth above the stairs leading down into the Corridor alongside the Guest Cabin below. Looking forward again towards the Main Helm you can see how these Soffits move down both sides and then transition into the Black dropped ceiling over the Main Helm. The two sets of 5 pipes in the ceiling are where the fresh air from outside flows in. Next they turned their attention to the Galley Garages and doing the final fitting where the tops wrap around the window mullions. Which leads to this exciting to see next phase where the large mitred corners of the Galley Garages that set atop the Turquoise marble countertops are now being glued up. They move fast and quickly cover up their work to protect the varnished surfaces but this will give you an idea of how it is looking so far. The White melamine countertops are templates that will soon be sent over along with the marble slabs to the CNC Waterjet cutter. Next up are the Window Mullions which they have glued up in long lengths of marine plywood which they cut to length for each mullion. With the different angles of the glass and the aluminium I-beam frame members, each Mullion needs to be custom fit to slide over the insulated AL frames. As you see here, some of these frames have conduit running through them where we need to have electrical cables running between the lower cabinets and the ceiling. It is one of the many challenging characteristics of building a boat with 360 degree windows but well worth the effort as you are starting to see.
These Window Mullions will be covered with White or Black leather and are also made to be removable using the same FastMount system as the ceiling panels. Omur fully immersed in his work as he fits the mullions around the Main Helm. Up above him where the Soffits blend into the dropped ceiling over the Main Helm. The forward 2m/6’ of the Helm/Salon area is all Black to reduce glare when we are sailing at night so you see the change from White to Black on the far Right.
A Back leather covered removable panel will snap into the Black Soffit here which has been cut out to reduce weight and provide easier access to the area behind and above.
GUEST CABIN:
The Guest Cabin/Corridor/Office team of Omer and Muhammed are yet another eXtremely talented and productive team so let’s end by checking out their latest accomplishments.
Inside the Guest Cabin they have now pretty much finished the area overtop of the bookshelf above Christine’s Office desk. All the wall and ceiling panels here are snapped in place and the round air diffuser has been installed. The Black surfaces are where the removeable Rosewood vent box mounts. That vent is similar to this one overtop of the Pullman Berth and you can see that they have now finished mounting those gorgeous Rosewood hatch liners in the Guest Cabin. Hilmi is ever present and here consulting with Omer about the location and mounting details for one of the light switches that goes in this bottom corner of the leather covered wall panel with the Guest Head on the other side. Great team effort as Omer has the square opening for the switch box all routed out and Hilmi has the labelled wires for the light switches neatly tucked inside while they wait for the light switch and wall panel to be installed. Outside the Guest Cabin out in the Corridor is more exciting developments thanks to Omer and Muhammed as they start installing the Rosewood stair treads and risers that lead up to the SuperSalon. More examples of the close coordination and teamwork required as Hilmi needs to pull these wires for the indirect LED lighting under the nose of each stair tread at just the right time as Omer installs the risers. More trickiness for Omer as the aluminium of the bottom two stairs are removable need so that space can be accessed so he has to make these treads and risers be removeable so you can unscrew the hinged aluminium stairs when access is needed. Even more tricky fitting up above as the solid Rosewood trim has to literally zig zag its way along this outer edge of the stairs leading up to the Entryway door onto the Aft Deck. Here is a different perspective of that zig zag edging when standing up on the landing between the two stair cases. Final Quiz for today: What am I holding here? Bingo! This is Omer’s mock up of the nose moulding he has come up with to fit protect the tread/riser edges. This will be made of solid Rosewood and the space left on the right is where the finish vinyl flooring will sit.
It is a great design functionally as it both protects the edges and more importantly the people by providing a solid slip free edge for your feet as you move up/down these stairs. And as you will soon see, they will also look fabulous when finished in Rosewood.
Omer gluing the top riser in place now.
Hatch Handle Design
I also managed to find time this past week to finish designing the handles for the hatches I had designed months ago and were made in house at Naval. As you can see I still tend to do my rough design work using hand sketches before I move over to modeling them in 3D and getting into the details. Pencil and paper sketching still work best for me as I’m coming up with a new design and sets me up just right when I fire up Fusion 360 to do the modelling. Sorry I don’t have more time to grab some better screen shots or make some animations for you but hopefully this gives you a basic idea of how the overall hatch design works and you can see two different handles now in place. Here is a zoomed in look at the typical handle which will be CNC machined out of a block of aluminium and pivots 90 degrees on a SS shoulder bolt threaded up through the round boss you can see through here. I removed the handle here to show you the purple coloured Latch block that is also solid AL and bolted from the others side through the 8mm thick AL wall of the outer frame of the hatch.
I am very pleased with the way this hatch design has evolved and they should be very much in keeping with the XPM ethos of Smart, Simple, Strong, Safe and Efficient. We will soon see once I get the handles machined and installed and can mount the glass tops and rubber seals and do a good fire hose test so stay tuned for that!
Mr. Gee
It was also an extremely busy week for me trying to track down errant shipments and helping the team aboard with all the details contained inside all the manufacturer’s Installation Guides for the bow thruster, windlass, winches, Kabola, etc. so I didn’t get to give Mr. Gee our Gardner 6LXB main engine as much time and TLC as I had hoped but I did manage to spend half a day sandblasting the last batch of smaller cast iron, steel and aluminium parts and get them all primed.
This is an upside down view of the cast iron Fuel Filter body that mounts to the aft Left side of the cylinder head. Exhaust manifold studs and the oil cooler oil pump on the far Right. Looking more like a kinetic sculpture perhaps but actually some of the exhaust manifold clamps and the throttle lever seen here.
Not too exciting for you I’m sure but getting Mr. Gee closer to running so it is all good.
Whew! Almost as tiring just writing this all up for you as it was living it last week and it is now late Sunday night and still 35C/95F outside and I need to go join Captain Christine for a late dinner. Hope you enjoyed this latest weekly progress update and thank you SO much for joining us on this adventure.
Please leave any and all questions, comments, critique and suggestions in the “Join the Discussion” Box below and we’ll see you here again next weekend.
For those of you who regularly follow this blog (Thank you!), you’ll know that the past few weeks have been shortened to be 3 or 4 day work weeks by holidays and we have two more of those weeks coming up later this month. However this week was a gloriously full five day work week and all of us on Team Möbius took full advantage of that as you are about to see in this equally full update post of all this past week’s progress.
We have also been seeing the weather continue its trending ever warmer and starting to feel like summer is already on its way. The forecast for the week ahead is for daily highs to climb each day from 26C/75F today to 34C/93F on Friday! Even this past we have had spectacularly blue skies, sun and even a full moon just to put the icing on top. We’ll take it!
As in many other parts of the world, Turkey is also beginning to slowly reduce Corona based restrictions and this is our first weekend that has not been a mandatory lockdown for everyone. From what we can observe from our apartment and my travels to and from Naval Yachts each day, it does appear that most people continue to take the situation quite seriously and even without mandated stay home policy, the streets and sidewalks continue to be even more empty than they typically were long before Corona became a virus rather than a beer. While I have my concerns, I do hope that the gradual lifting of restrictions will not create a second rise of cases and deaths and we can all move forward to establishing an even more positive future than ever.
However that is all in the future and we’ll just have to wait and see but the progress on Möbius is very real and present so please join me in my typical deep dive into all that was accomplished by the eXtremely talented Team Möbius.
ALUMINIUM WORK:
While our Aluminium team has been reduced to “an Army of one” for the past month, that one is Nihat and he had a stellar week. Even better, we hear that Uğur and Okan will be returning on Monday so we hope that next week will surpass this one, which is saying something.
Any guesses as to where Nihat is here and what he is working on?
For those of you who might remember, I will make this is a bit like the old (invented in Briton in 1943), “Who Done It?” murder/mystery board game, called “Clue”. So here are some Clues for you:
There is a reason Nihat is kneeling in the photo above.
There is a connection between what he is standing on and what is behind him and on the Left of this photo. By now most of you will recognize that this photo is taken in the SuperSalon, but that’s just to throw you off a bit as well as giving you the most revealing clue of all …………………… Full marks to those of you who figured it out and won the game with your guess that it was
Nihat,
in the Basement,
working on the Battery Compartments
with his drill and tap. The Aluminium aspect of this job involved him cutting the 5mm/ 3/16” AL plate for the lids on each of the three House Battery Bank compartments and then drilling and taping these for the SS Countersunk bolts to hold them down tight against their rubber seals around the perimeter. For those interested in such details, before I show you the initial installation of the batteries, this schematic overview of the electrical system on XPM78-01 Möbius might be useful. Hopefully all self explanatory but post questions if not.
NOTE: I have since expanded the House Battery Bank with an additional fourth bank so the House Battery Bank now consists of 24 FireFly L15+ 4V cells wired 6S4P. So the new numbers are 24 x 4V @ 450Ah which adds up to 24V @ 1800Ah = 43.2kWh.
In the coming weeks you will see these batteries being wired up as in this drawing (just add the fourth bank of six cells on the Right) so I will leave a more detailed description until then.
And YES, Mea culpa, I am woefully behind in writing up and posting a Tech Talk on the whole battery system and our thinking behind the change to go with FireFly Oasis Carbon Foam L15+ 4V @ 450Ah batteries rather than the OPzV 2V Gel cells we had originally designed.
It is hidden from view by the floor plate, but each of these deep compartments have the 25mm / 1” thick Keel Bar running through their Center Line length where the two sides of the thick hull plates begin. These battery compartments are therefore the exact same construction as all the individual fuel/water tanks which are an integral part of the hull and lie below all the floor plates in the boat.
By placing the batteries down at the very bottom of the hull the lead weight of the batteries serve double duty as they are also part of the “lead ballast” of the boat. Unlike the situation in most boats where the batteries have to be located relatively high up which is not a good thing, positioning the significant weight of all these batteries down at the lowest point position converts this to “good weight” and a very positive part of the design in terms of stability and ride.
Nihat has previously installed a bottom AL plate that sits atop the Keel Bar and is bolted to L-Bars around the perimeter to create a very solid floor for each battery compartment. Next, Nihat has placed one of the three White fiberglass Containment Trays inside the compartment before he carefully lowers each 4V battery cell into the compartment. Each of these 4V @ 450Ah FireFly Oasis Carbon Foam batteries weighs 43Kg/94 Lbs so Nihat definately did the heavy lifting this week and I had Nihat show us his newly enlarged biceps, along with the results of his hard work with this now fully filled compartment.
Next steps are to build and install the battery hold down system and the ventilation ducting and then wiring them all up and installing the temperature monitors on each battery bank so stay tuned for more in the coming weeks AND that long overdue Tech Talk on the XPM Battery system.
ELECTRICAL & N2K SYSTEMS:
Let’s continue with the electrical theme and go check up on all the work our other Army of One, our Chief Sparkie Hilmi, and see what he accomplished this week.
This is the “brain box” that controls the whole In-Floor heating system on XPM78-01 Möbius. We have 3 independent zones, one for each interior floor area; Master Cabin, SuperSalon and Guest Cabin/Corridor. We are using this Azel I-Link 3 zone system which consists of the main control head you see above then three thermostats which go in each compartment. Most of the time you control the In-Floor heating with one of the individual thermostats and just access the main control for initial setup, programming, etc. All just how we like our systems; smart, simple & efficient.
There is a nice little alcove or cupboard on your Left as you go up the stairs from the Guest Corridor to the SuperSalon that seemed to be the just right location so Hilmi mounted the I-Link Control Head on the side wall and started wiring it up. Pretty easy stuff for Hilmi so he had it all wired up with the appropriately tagged cables in no time.
Next up for Hilmi this past week was more work on the extensive NMEA 2000 or N2K network and the equally extensive Maretron monitoring system so let’s move aft to the Workshop to see what he is up to there. On the Starboard/Right side of the Workshop down by the Day Tank he is preparing to mount four of the many Maretron Black Boxes, which are hiding inside those White boxes and will soon be mounted up on the top Right area. The individual Maretron “Black Boxes” are located in multiple clusters throughout the boat to keep them relatively close to the sensors which feed into them and as per Christine’s schematic each BB is connected to the N2K Backbone which creates the overall Maretron network. There is a long box running the full length of both sides of the Workshop to make the transition between the AlucoBond covered Workshop walls and these create an ideal area for locating things like the Maretron BB’s. These corner transition “boxes” are a simple L shaped bend of AlucoBond which attaches to the AL L-bars you see running the length of these upper corners and will keep the Maretron BB’s and cabling well protected but easy to access.
The purplish block on the far Right here is one of many Turk N2K multi-ports which think is far superior to having a whole series of individual N2K T’s for each of these drop cables coming from each Maretron BB. Same type of installation of more Maretron BB’s over on the Port side of the Workshop up by the WT door leading into the Corridor. Moving up into the aft end of the Galley in the SuperSalon Hilmi took advantage of this area that will soon be covered by the Turquoise marble countertops, to install this run of five flexible conduits you see here. These are all currently empty because they are part of our efforts to “future proof” these boats which in this case is to make it relatively easy to install any additional circuits we might want for additional electrical devices in the future.
Wiring for all the existing equipment is already installed and mounted to the White cable tray you can see on the far Right here.
Hilmi is installing these in any spots where future access will be difficult once all the furniture is installed. This is looking at the ends of those 5 conduits which would be right above where the camera was to take the photo above. You can see that the Gray flex conduit is empty and will just sit in this spot that can be easily accessed through the ceiling of the Guest Head below which you can just see through one lighted opening in the upper Right corner.
SUPER SALON FLOORS:
Looking around elsewhere in the SuperSalon we can see that Omur and Selim were equally as productive in their masterful cabinetry work. This week the focus was up high putting in the soffits that make the transition from the windows/walls to the ceiling and then down low putting in the plywood flooring. Selim picked up where he left off last week, installing the last few jigsaw puzzle pieces of the 12mm / 1/2” marine plywood flooring. The darker square above his hands is the 50mm/2” thick laminated mounting platform for the base of the Helm Chair which will be through bolted in place. The rest of the plywood covers the 50mm / 2’” pink insulating foamboard which will soon have all the PEX tubing for the In-Floor heating snaking through it.
After a quick vacuum and sweeping this is what the overall floor looks like and starts to give us a better sense of why we named this the Super Salon.
You are looking towards the Bow in this photo with the Main helm up near the top, dinette L-seating on the Right and Fridges and Freezers on the bottom Left. The large open hatch provides access to the eXtremely voluminous Basement which is below the entire floor of the SSalon.
SUPERSALON CEILINGS & SOFFITS:
Up above, Ömür and Selim have been very busy installing gridwork for all the removable ceiling panels. This is the dropped ceiling area above the Main Helm. The five 100mm vent ducts bring fresh air that is forced through those slots in the underside of the Pilot House roof into a plenum above this AL plate. White diffusers will fit into each of these vent ducts and allow you to adjust air flow and direction much like side vents in your cars dashboard.
After installing the black ceiling grid you see above they quickly build these templates to get the intricate shapes just right and then use these to cut out the individual plywood ceiling panels. All plywood ceiling panels will be upholstered with White leather for the main areas and Black over the Helm to reduce night glare. These templates are a very fast and accurate way to cut each piece of marine plywood to just the right size so Ömür quickly has the middle Helm ceiling panel all ready to be fitted.
I wasn’t fast enough to get a photo of them installing the FastMount clips so let’s just say they are called FastMount for a reason! They soon have all three of the ceiling panels snapped in place over the Helm.
Throughout the boat, all ceiling panels are similarly removable and snaps into the ceiling grid using more of the FastMount system you’ve see in many previous posts.
