It has been Thanksgiving week for all our American friends and family back in the USA and while Christine and I are far away and Canadian Thanksgiving was over a month ago, we will take any opportunity to remind ourselves just how many things we have to be thankful for.  Working on XPM78-01 Möbius this past week here at Naval Yachts has been filled with many such reminders that I’ll show you in this Progress Update.  What I am personally most thankful for thought is that my Beautiful Bride and Captain Christine is now finally back in my arms after spending a week in Spain where she was doing some boat and pet sitting for some very dear friends who have their boat enjoying a lovely little marina for the winter in Sant Carles de la Ràpita which is about 3 hours drive SW of Barcelona.

But I”m sure you are much more interested in all those many other things we have to be thankful for this pas week onboard Möbius so let’s go check all those out.

CABINETRY:

I’ll let Cabinetry work take the lead this week for a change which is easy to do given all the progress those two teams made this past week.

Some of you have been asking how all those mesmerizing swirling grain patterns in the Rosewood are all so beautifully aligned and flow across the different cabinetry components and this shows you one way this is done. 

Omer has picked out a series of matching slices of Rosewood from the stack you see above, carefully aligned them into this series and temporarily taped them together.
Next he lays one of the long vertical pieces for the doors and walls in the Guest Shower and Head/Toilet area on top of these strips and uses the edge to guide his razor knife to crosscut the piece of veneer a bit larger than the board it will soon be glued to.  After a short trip to the big heated veneer press, the board is ready for its solid wood edges and further machining.
In a case such as this piece, the bottom side has Rosewood veneer and the top surface has Beech laminated to them and then the edges and corners are machined with their respective radius, dados/grooves, and rabbets.
The result? 

This kind of matching grain patterns flowing horizontally across multiple pieces and around corners. 

In case you don’t recognize it, this is the Guest Shower you are looking into with the Guest Cabin to the left and the WT door into the Workshop/ER on the far right.  The shower door itself will be all glass in this case.
Standing in the Shower and looking across the entryway to the Guest Cabin is another example of the matching grain patterns on this outer wall of the Guest Head in the corridor leading up the stairs to the SuperSalon.
From the same spot just rotating counter clockwise to Port/Left side of the hull a bit you can see how my “clean workbench” and Office area is shaping up with lots of storage areas above and below the workbench.

Dual Fridge cabinet with more examples of the matching Rosewood is at the top of the stairs.
This is what you’ll see coming down those stairs from the SuperSalon looking aft into the Workshop/Engine Room with the Workbench/Office along the hull on the right and Shower/Head on the left.  The cut outs in the upper half of each wall are where the padded light gray leather panels will go with the Blue Horizon line and handhold separating the upper leather and the lower Rosewood.
This is a rendered approximation of what this Workbench/Office area will look like when finished.
For one final perspective I scrambled up the stairs into the SuperSalon and put the camera down on floor level looking Aft to catch this view of the Fridge cabinet on the right and the inside peninsula cabinet of the Galley on the left.  You can see my workbench/Office area in the distant background between the stairs and the Fridge cabinet.
Next door to the shipyard is Naval’s Cabinetry workshop and over there we find Omur and Selim continuing to make good progress on the smaller cabinets which run along the back edge of all the countertops.  I refer to these as the “Garages”.
This render looking over the Galley to the Stbd/Right side windows lets you see how these Garages are mounted on top of the rear edges of all the marble countertops.
This bird’s eye view shows how there are four banks of these Garages surrounding the Galley providing a lot of super convenient storage at your fingertips.  Note that the depth of these Garages are all different to provide different amounts of countertop area in front of them and different sizes to each Garage that can be maximized for their contents.
One of the keys to make these Garages super efficient is to make access super quick and easy and so we have created these “gull wing doors” work like this with the top and front surfaces being made into a single piece that hinges at the back and latches at the bottom.  There are small gas assist cylinders inside so you just lift the latch and the door swing up and out of the way.
I’m quite a car buff and part of the inspiration for this door design comes from one of my all time favorite cars, the 1956 Mercedes Gull Wing 300SL Roadster.  I couldn’t ever afford this model but at one time I had two of the sister 190SL’s I brought back with me from living in Germany in the 80’s.
My grizzled hand and the spray can provide a sense of scale of this set of Garages which go along the the countertop that runs athwartships/side to side, with the dining settee behind and the Stbd/Right windows on the right end.

This is the long bank of Garages running along the Stbd/Right side with their back edges up against the window glass.
Selim putting the solid Rosewood edges on one of the Gull Wing Doors with the bank of Garages in front that run along the windows on the aft end of the Galley.
Omur has three of the four banks of Garages laid out on this platform as they will be placed in the Galley so he can cut the very complex set of angles for the mitered ends where two banks intersect.  The bank on the floor on the far right fits into the spot where Omur is standing. 
The bottom corner here is where the Aft on the left and Stbd Side windows on the right meet and the short bank of on the right side of the platform is the one with the dining settee behind (to the right) of it.

Looking from the other side now that Omur has this corner miter roughed in you can see how the bank of Garages will connect to each other.  The short bank on the left is again the one with the settee behind it on the far left side.

Once all these banks of Garages have been fully fitted into the boat they will come back here to have all the Rosewood veneer applied to their outer surfaces and have all their solid edges machined with their radius corners.

PLUMBING:

Cihan continues his progress with things like getting the Day Tank fitted on the Stbd/Right side of the Engine Room Enclosure so he can now start running all the diesel fuel lines going in and out of this Day Tank.

He has also been running more lines along the sides of the hull such as the Chiller lines wrapped in black EPDM insulation on the bottom here, clear water lines above them and then hot and cold supply lines running up vertically on the far right where they then run across the ceiling over to the other side.

As each new section of plumbing is installed it is checked for leaks with compressed air and this pressure gauge.  Doing this testing at steps along the installation process is more time consuming but makes it much easier to find any leaks that might show up rather than waiting till the whole circuit is installed and having to track down any leaks along the whole run.
In the Forepeak up at the other end of the boat Cihan was busy installing the second Black Water (sewage) Holding tank with the VacuFlush Vacuum Generators underneath.

These Dometic BW Holding tanks are a very complete BW Holding Tank system with the diaphragm pump on the right for pumping BW over to the exiting Sea Chest barely visible on the far right end of the tank by the black/red wires and a second independent exit for a shore side pump out connection in the center with the white/green sanitation hose connected.  Well designed with all hoses coming in/out of the top only so there are not any hoses that retain sewage when not being used.  The black cylinder on the far top edge is a vent line filter and the round disc to the right of this is a vacuum release valve which prevents high volume shore side pump out stations from collapsing the tank sides with too high a vacuum inside the tank.  And on the left middle those wires are for three float gauges that connect to green/amber/red lights for empty/mid/full indicators.  We will also install a digital tank level sensor using Maretron submersible pressure sensors that put the precise tank level information onto the NMEA2000 network so we can see and display that data on any monitor throughout the boat or on our phones and tablets.

These 150L/40 USG holding tanks can weigh up to 160kg/350 lbs so they need to be very well supported and you can see how Cihan has welded in T-bars under the reinforced bottom stringers molded into these Dometic BW tanks.

These T-bars are further strengthened with the AL plate he welded in to mount these two diaphragm low water Bilge pumps.  And the space under the BW holding tank provides a nicely sheltered home for the VacuFlush Vacuum Generator.

WIRING:

While it may look like Hilmi is laying down on the job he and Okan are actually hard at work putting in this DC junction box for lighting up in the SuperSalon and forward Master Cabin.  This is located on the right side of the stairs going down into the Master Cabin where the 43” monitor will later be installed.
Just roughed in here but you can already see that Hilmi does very neat and well detailed wiring of all our electrical systems and is now taking full advantage of all those cable trays he installed a few months ago.
Looking aft from that Junction box you can see one of the many benefits of this design with all this volume running down both sides of the SuperSalon where the side decks run overtop.  These volumes provide unprecedented space that makes installation and future maintenance a breeze as well as providing areas for mounting equipment we want to keep out of the way such as the AC Chiller Air Handlers.
More of Hilmi’s handiwork is seen here along the Stbd/Right hull in the Master Cabin where he has now installed the four massive Red/Black cables that bring all the 24V DC current up to the Forepeak to run things such as the Bow Thruster, Windlass and Kedging Winch.
Each of these cables are120 mm2 / 4/0000 to ensure less than 2.5% voltage drop from the batteries.
For those wondering, these high amperage cables are purposely twisted to help reduce the magnetic fields that are created around each cable whenever current is flowing. 
The direction of these circular magnetic fields is in one direction for the red positive cable and the opposite direction for the current flowing the other way in the black negative cables so twisting them slightly like you see here helps cancel the magnetic field out. 

Why do we care? 

Magnetic fields can negatively affect things like compasses and more so interfere with current flowing in other nearby wires so as you can see we also keep these high amp DC cables in their own cable trays mounted as far away from other wires such as AC lines and then we keep data carrying cables even further away and over on the opposite side of the boat wherever possible.

ALUMINIUM WORK:

Uğur and Nihat are relentless in their pursuit of completing more and more of the seemingly endless list of aluminium work to be done and this week was no exception as they finished dialing in the prop tube and started working on the aluminium framing for the glass surrounding the SkyBridge coamings.  Let’s go check it out.

Using all the measurement tools available from low tech string lines and tape measures to laser levels and dial indicators, the prop tube was brought into full alignment in preparation for being permanently attached to the hull. 

Here Uğur is getting a line representing the centerline of the rudder post precisely positioned so measurements can be taken from that to other parts of the CPP propeller, prop shaft and keel.
Nihat is sitting directly above Uğur inside the very aft end of the Workshop adjusting the position of this centerline extending down through the hole where the rudder post bearings will mount.
Using these reference lines they were then able to move the inner Nogva CPP prop log tube with precise and tiny increments by tightening and loosening these four screws to move the tube up/down and left/right until it was in just the right position and then do the same at the other end inside the Engine Room where this tube and the prop shaft enter.

The vertical pipe on top is where the epoxy like ChockFast liquid will be pumped into the space inside between the two tubes and once it is fully filled will be left to harden and lock the whole assembly into one solid component for the prop shaft to run inside.  Now we wait for the ChockFast to arrive for the next stage.

Next up they started to remount the workbenches and shelves that run the full length of both sides of the Workshop.  Just the lower shelf has been installed on the right to give more room for Cihan to finish plumbing the Day Tank, Chiller pipes and other lines on this side.

But you can see how the Workbench and shelves will look the same on the opposite side.
Moving up to the WT door leading into the Workshop from the Guest Cabin area to get this shot looking aft to give a better sense of just how much shelf and workbench area these provide.
The big new job they started this week though was putting in the AL framing for the clear glass “eyebrow” that runs around all four sides of the SkyBridge.  This raises the height of these partial walls or coamings from about knee level to almost waist level for greater safety but without affecting the 360 degree views when looking out.
At the four corners up front there will be tubular supports to both support the forward end of the SkyBridge roof as well as provide frames for the acrylic sheet windows. 
First job was to tack the lower socket portion of these pipes in place atop the flat tops of the front AL coaming.
The framing for the glass panels which will be glued in place with industrial glass adhesive similar to what is used in building high rise glass sided buildings, is fabricated from L-bar so that was tacked in place next.
It is important that the top surface of the glass frames are perfectly level and on the same plane as this will also be the surface that supports the roof when it is lowered down into “cyclone” or “canal” mode and the laser level makes that very easy.
They are a well oiled team and they quickly worked their way around the whole perimeter tacking the L-bar in place. 

More to follow next week so stay tuned!

  But WAIT!  There’s more!

Several surprise guests showed up and added to the things we have to be thankful for.

First was this crate which Yigit is busy removing the top from.

Any guesses as to what’s inside????
Some of you will know immediately when you see this and for those not familiar these three white tubes are the membranes for our watermaker.
Underneath is this beauty, the heart and soul of the watermaker containing most of the other components such as the high pressure water pump, the pre filters and the gauges for low and high pressure as well as salinity and product water (pure H2O) flow rate.
Back side has the insulated high pressure lines carrying the seawater into and out of the high pressure pump and you can se one of the filter housings on the left end.
Not too heavy so quite easy to bring all the components up the stairs and into the Workshop.
The watermaker will actually go directly opposite of here but as you saw earlier, that workbench isn’t installed yet so we set all the components on this side just to check out the fit on the workbench.

The 3 membrane tubes will mount up on the wall behind the WM and on the far right is the remotely mounted low pressure feed pump which brings sea water out of the Sea Chest into the High Pressure pump. 

Hard to see but the main control station box is wrapped up on the far left side.

I was delighted to be able to source this watermaker from a Turkish Company just north of us as one of my very best friends and fellow liveaboard cruiser had great experience with the watermaker he got from them last year for his boat.  The key thing with Watermakers for me is that ALL the components be “generic” off the shelf items rather than proprietary ones as this makes it so much easier to find replacement parts anywhere in the world as needed over the years.  Fortunately Watermakers have gone this way and everything from pumps to membranes to switches and gauges are all industry standard items that can be found almost anywhere.

For those interested in some of the technical details, this is a Delfin “Maxi 4500” and some of its specs are:

• Ceramic piston high pressure pump
• Powder coated aluminium frame
• 316L SS high pressure control valve
• 316L SS by-pass valve
• 316L SS low and high pressure gauge
• Fresh water flow meter
• Sea water flow meter
• Low pressure switch
• TFC membranes
• FRP membrane housing
• 316 SS high pressure fittings
• 25&5 micron pre-filter
• Manual fresh water flush
• Operation time indicator
• Automatic salinity monitoring and bad product rejection
• Feed pump

The pumps are all 220V AC and the membranes are standard 2.5” x 40” size which produce 190 L/50 USG per hour.

It was also important to me that our watermaker be all manual rather than all automated.  We are eXtremely dependent upon our watermaker for both potable/drinking water as well as all our domestic water and water we will need to produce during passages to use as ballast to replace the weight of the fuel as it is used.  This added to the challenge of finding the just right watermaker because the trend has long been to make these more and more fully automated where you just “set it and forget it”.  No thanks, I’d much rather start up and shut down our watermaker each time so I know for sure how it is working and can adjust it for optimum output and operation as sea temperature and salinity change and require different settings.

But WAIT!  There’s still MORE!

Hilmi, our electrical whiz, came and asked me to come off the boat with him to check out the new pallet of equipment that had just arrived.

Which turned out to be THIS pallet full of beautiful blue Victron boxes!

I will go over this in MUCH more detail in the coming weeks but at the risk of causing some serious drooling by some of you, I’ll just leave you with the following photos of what’s inside some of these boxes………….


And so that’s the week that was Nov. 25 to 29, 2019 here on Project Goldilocks with Team Möbius.

Thanks SO much for taking the time to join us and PLEASE be encouraged to put your questions and suggestions into the “Join the Discussion” box below.

-Wayne