Even in these early stages of the building of our new home, a 24m XPM (eXtreme eXploration Passage Maker) there are stages where the progress is extremely visually apparent such as when all the aluminium or AL plates arrived, when the jig went up and when the deck plates were placed on the jig, there are also stretches where the changes are much less apparent but the progress remains the same. This week the changes are very dramatic as the four watertight bulkheads or WTB were lifted up off the shop floor by a truly eXtreme crane and slotted into place on the deck plates. The shape and size of Möbius’ hull continues to come into view with these basic outlines of the shape of the hull and I hope you’ll enjoy this updates on the progress made this week of May 14-18, 2018 here at Naval Yachts shipyard in the Antalya Free Zone.
Speaking of the Antalya Free Zone, we receive quite a few inquiries asking about just what a “Free Zone” is and why we have chosen to build Möbius here. I will do a whole post on this topic in a future post but this post on TRTWorld on how “Antalya Free Zone becomes building hub of luxury yachts” gives a good summary of some of the boats and shipyards here in the Free Zone. I think you will find it well worth 3 minutes of your valuable time to watch.
I’m also pleased to point out that the 50m/164ft luxury yacht you’ll see at the very beginning of the embedded video above and in this article, is one of the many yachts which “our” very own Dincer and Baris Dinc here at Naval/GreeNaval Yachts were part of the design and engineering team at Mayra Yachts for this amazing yacht. If you’d like to see more about this 50m beauty, which is at the other end of the spectrum from our “no nonsense” lean & mean boat, Mayra Yachts have posted this video of its launching.
One of the other big benefits of working within this Free Zone is that all the more than 60 different ship building companies can share everything from equipment to cranes to many of the very skilled trades people. Most welders for example move from one job to the next once the hull they are working on is finished which typically takes 3-6 months and thus they are able to be fully employed al the time but not always for the same company. Similarly with just a phone call you can have anything show up within minutes from a forklift to a 100m boat moving machine to the crane eXtremely long crane you’ll see below . It’s an extremely smart and efficient model and no surprise that this is quickly becoming one of the world’s largest producers of yachts and ships.
And as I try to do with each of these weekly updates, you’ll find a video summary of the week compiling the shots I took during this past week. With this week’s video I’ve left all the talking to the video and added in a bit of music overtop of the background sounds from the shop floor. Let me know with your comments how you like this??
Hope you enjoy it all and please don’t be shy about posting any and all comments and questions you have as you join us on this grand adventure.
To help make sense of what you are seeing in the photos below as well as future posts of the skeletal framework of the boat coming together, let me provide a few drawings of what the completed framework will look like and the overall layout of the various compartments within the boat’s length.
This perspective or isometric drawing shows the complete skeltetal framework by removing the other plates of the hull, deck and superstructure of Möbius. This is what you will see emerging over the next few weeks. You can clearly see the transverse frames and longitudinal stringers I repeatedly refer to in these posts and you can also see the framework for the above deck superstructure which forms the Raised Pilot House with its 360 degrees of large glass windows. We are calling the area in side our “SuperSalon” as it is our primary living space with aft galley/kitchen, mid dining area &lounge area and the main helm station at the very front. You can also see how the roof of this Raised Pilot House will form the floor of flybridge which I like to call our SkyBridge because it will provide this very open view of the whole world around us and every one of the 360 degrees of the endless horizon surrounding us when doing what we love which is long passages with no land in sight.
This plan or top view of the hull at just above and just below deck level will fill in a few more details on how the framing works.
Take note also of the frame numbers running across the very top and bottom of this drawing as I refer to locations along the length of the boat by these frame numbers. The frames are on 1 meter (3.3ft / 39 inch) centers so the frame numbers also tell you exactly how far away from the bow you are.
As I noted above, this weeks posting is largely about the Water Tight Bulkheads WTB being installed and if you look over these three drawings you will see that there are five of them alltogether at frames 1, 4, 9, 14 and 17. The very first one at Frame #1 creates a permanently sealed “crash bulkhead” and then four distinct compartments aft of this; Master Cabin, SuperSalon, Christine’s Office & the Guest Cabin, Engine Room and Workshop.
This side view will show you why this is called a Raised Pilot House as the floor is raised about 1.2 meters above the floor level in the forward and aft cabins. We came to love raised Pilot House layouts on our previous boat Learnativity was of the same style but with “only” 270 degrees of glass around both sides and the front. We liked it so much that one of our design criteria we established was to raise this (sorry) all the way to 360 degrees. Learnativity also taught us how having no cabinetry above countertop level was truly a “feature not a bug” in how it added so much volume to the overall room and made it feel much more open and spacious, so you will see this when we get to showing you the interior of the boat.
As you look over this side view you will notice several other key features such as how everything below the waterline is welded in fuel/water tanks, how the raised salon or pilot house give us the “down/up/down” layout same as Learnativity had and you can also see how the SkyBridge works and how awemazing it will be to be up there with such an unobstructed and elevated view of the entire world around us.
And this centerline section will show you the interior spaces. In particular you can see how we have used the “empty ends” idea to give us both a long lean waterline for maximum hull efficiency and yet also be a Goldilocks just right for just the two of us inside. If you click on this drawing you’ll be able to see how the living spaces only run from Frame #4 through 17 which means that out of the 24m of total length only 13m is used for living spaces which is about the same length we had inside our former 52 foot sailboat. The front foredeck and aft workshop make up the remaining 10 meters on Möbius and this not only balances the boat much better at sea by keeping the weights closest to the center, it also helps to dramatically reduces both our weight and financial budgets as these “empty ends” are not built out.
And lastly for this week’s orientation tour, this set of drawings of some of the frames will give you a clear idea of how they are constructed and how the shape and size of the boat changes dramatically as you move forward and aft. In the top right corner you can see that skinny crash bulkhead at Frame #1 compared to the spacious area for our Master Cabin located between Frames # 4-9 and then the SuperSalon and SkyBridge areas in Frames #11 & 12.
OK, now that you are better oriented let’s pick up where we left off last week with this shot looking aft from about the mid point of our Master Cabin at the bottom. Remember to click “invert” button in your head as the hull is being built upside down right now so that raised area in the foreground is the underside of the floor of our SuperSalon aka the conveniently named Raised Pilot House. The square opening in the middle is for a large hatch into the huge storage area underneath the whole SuperSalon floor and that angled cutout over to the right is where the stairs wind down into our Master Cabin. One of the other things about a Raised Salon or Raised Pilot House design which I learned to really appreciate on Learnativity was that it created this fabulous space underneath the floor of the raised area. On Learnativity this was a combination Engine Room ER with a stand up Workshop along the Port side but we wanted to move the Engine Room as far aft as possible and not connected to any living spaces. So on Möbius this area under the SuperSalon will be a combination of a cavernous storage area for spare parts and supplies along with a great location for many of the system components such as inverters, chargers, pumps, circuit breakers, etc. I’ve made this area 1.2m / 4ft high so it is just right working height for me sitting down or kneeling very comfortably. This makes installation and maintenance very easy and a joy to work on when you have the space to spread everything out and not have all the “nooks and crannies” which plague most boats.
At the top of the photo you can just see all the way to the very stern end of the aft deck and the large rectangular opening is for the hatch overtop of the Engine Room or ER. The majority of the area under the aft deck though is for my Workshop which I’m already dreaming about working in.
Zooming in a bit you can see how the longitudinal stringers are being readied for laying on the deck surfaces. This shot is looking at the transition from the floor of the SuperSalon and the cutout for the stairs down into our Mast Cabin.
Looking forward a bit later in the day at what will become the ceiling of the Master Cabin again, the stringers have been laid out and tack welded in place.
I have been mentioning how the CNC cut parts have been created in an interlocking puzzle piece style and here you can see one example of this with that small rectangular hole in this bulkhead plate forming the slot for the matching sized tab on that stringer or stiffener you see protruding out below. With a tab/slot at each end and others along the way of long runs this makes for much faster assembly as it eliminates most needs for precise measuring and layout and ensures that each piece pretty much has to be in just the right spot.
Once everything is lined up the welders can weld the slot shut so everything remains watertight and once ground off you’ll never know this is there.
One last bit of detail while we are in zoom mode here, this notch along the edge of one of the bulkheads is for the spot where the hull plates change thickness. Starting at deck level and extending straight down for about 1 meter the hull the plates are 6mm / 1/4” thick and then increase to 10mm / 3/8” down to above the WL WaterLine then increase to 12mm / 1/2” where the hull gently curves under and joins up to the 25mm / 1” keel bar. At the bow this 25mm keel bar protrudes out in front to form a big solid “bumper” for hitting things and then has a 15mm / 5/8” “ice breaker” section of the hull for back to Frame #4 for the first 4m / 13’ of the hull at the bow. This is WAY over thicknesses the structural engineer and certification authorities require but for Christine and I this is a big SWAN factor for us that lets us Sleep Well At Night and have that mandatory confidence you learn you MUST have before putting to sea.
This underwater shot looking up at the hull shows these plate thicknesses very nicely with each colour being a different thickness; 6mm = Red 10mm = Purple 12mm = Green 15mm = Cyan
You observant ones will also see how we have tucked the prop up into a bit of a prop tunnel and Dennis has done a masterful job with this and whittled our draft below the WL down to a very svelte 1.3m / 4.2 ft which lets us safely slide into shallow atolls where most other boats, sail or power, would not be able to go. For reference Learnativity had a draft of 2m / 6.6 ft which was very good but getting this down to just over 4ft opens up all the more remote spots for us to go and allow us to have our favorite situation; The only boat in the bay!
Moving on to the WT Bulkheads finally, let’s to see some of these being built. Here you can see one just getting started as Enver in the foreground confers with Dincer (kneeling) and Ugur. The vertical stiffeners have been welded into the T formation and are ready for locating and welding onto the bulkhead plate.
Over to the far left side you can see another bulhead that has already been prepped and is now ready for lifting onto the deck plates in the jig.
Stepping back a bit you can now see two other bulkheads being built. The horizontal bar stock you see is tacked on to keep the plate flat while it is being worked on and lifted into place. These will be removed once the framework is all assembled.
Here is WT Bulkhead at Frame #4 pretty much ready to be lifted in place.
Some of the many stringers tacked up and waiting to be welded.
Similar to how these frame tops are being welded up.
We will see more examples later in this posting but you’ll note how the welds are not continuous but rather laid down in shorter lengths with an equal length gap between them. On the other side this same alternation takes place with the welds there being where the gaps are here and vice versa. This is to reduce the movement of the AL due to the heat of weldingand keep them nice and straight.
Back to stiffeners on Bulkheads showing how they aer tacked in place to begin with and once in place will be welded fully.
With all the longitudinal stringers in place the transverse frame tops we’ve been seeing in previous posts are now ready to be lowered in place with their slots sliding over each stringer…..
Like this.
Using the same technique we’ve seen previously these U shaped bridges are tacked to the deck plate and then the tapered wedge is hammered into place to force the edges of the frames and stringers to be tight against the correctly curved deck plates and then tacked in place. The bridges are then removed and the spots where they were welded are ground smooth and flat. As you can imagine there is going to be a LOT of bridges used throughout the hull building process so you’ll be seeing many more examples of this simple and effective way of keeping all the parts registered tightly and accurately together during assembly.
And then THIS guy showed up! Click on this picture to enlarge (works on all pictures) and take a minute to take in just how much reach this crane has.
I know I can be wont to exaggerate from time to time but seriously folks, just like Möbius herself this truly earns the eXtreme label don’t you think?? To help you with that, the truck portion of this crane is all outside the building and the building is over 30 meters / 100 ft long and that hydraulically telescoping arm can reach all the way to the far end of the building! Check out the video at the end to see this mechanical marvel in action.
Here you are seeing the third bulkhead, Frame #9 being lifted into place. This is the bulkhead between our Master Cabin and the SuperSalon.
That is a very simple self locking “grabber” on the end of the webbing from the crane which clamps onto the AL plate and lifts the bulkhead up.
Here is a shot of the first WT bulkhead at Frame #4 with a diagonal brace temporarily tacked in place to hold it up.
Hard to see here but as you’ve just seen on the aft deck, the slots along the top (bottom here) edge of this bulkhead slide over the stringers so everything is keyed together in just the right spot.
Bulkhead at #9 being carefully positioned over its corresponding stringer slots before being tacked in place.
Continuing the process and now looking forward from the stern this is Bulkhead #14 being lowered in place.
Easy to see how this interlocking technique works. Fast, easy and not much room for error.
Standing up at the bow and looking aft you can see most of the bulkheads now. The very front #1 bulkhead can easily be lifted into place by hand later and that eXtreme crane was gone as quickly as he had arrived. Gott love being in the Free Zone with such ready access to everything you need to build boats!
And now some of the final welding can be done in a few places. This is what will be the ceiling of the Workshop under the aft deck and you can see that alternating pattern of welds we saw earlier in this post.
This shot shows how the welds are staggered on opposite sides of the stringers.
Here is where we are at as of Friday afternoon. That vertical plate on the right is the inner wall of our hazzardous materials locker that is accessed from the swim step and completely sealed off from the interior for storing fuel, oil, propane, etc.
With the bulkheads are all in place now Team Möbius are busy welding the newly assembled parts in place and continuing to prep the next round of pieces in this hugey jig saw puzzle.
Such as this lower frame member and
… these ones.
In the foreground is the bottom member of Frame # 21 clearly showing the shape of the prop tunnel at its highest point.
Meanwhile, more and more parts are piling up as they come off the prep table. These are some of the many baffles on the inside of the many fuel and water tanks which become integral parts of the hull. With exception of a small bilge area under the aft of the engine and CPP servo gearbox in the Engine Room, everything below the waterline on Möbius is tankage. This adds a significant safety factor for us as any penetration of the hull below the WL would only enter a tank and not the interior of the boat itself. Almost no boat is ever truly “unsinkable” but with 12-15mm of AL hull plate below the waterline we are confident that such an event should be eXtremely unlikely.
And that catches you up to date on the building of the mighty Möbius. I think you can see more and more reasons why have chosen the Antalya Free Zone for Project Goldilocks and we could not be more grateful to the incredible team of skilled craftsmen that Dincer and Baris have assembled at GreeNaval Yachts. Thanks everyone, see you Monday morning.
Here as threatened promised is your summary video of this week’s progress with a sped up version of clips I shot during the week. I’ve left it to the videos to do all the “talking” rather than my narration and added a fun music background along with the background noise from the shop floor. Let me know in your comments if this worked well for you or not and what you’d prefer.
And as always, anxious to get any and all comments, questions and suggestions so don’t hesitate to add these in the comment section below.
Keep an eye on the work NASA is doing with 3d printing as a substitute for carrying the variety of spare parts needed on space stations and space craft. They’ve already done some fabrication proofing on some interesting rocket engine parts. Parts with a low likelyhood of failure but with high resulting consequences of failure fit this catagory very nicely. In your case, I’d look at engine and plumbing parts.
Great minds think alike John! I was an early pioneer with 3D printing back in my days with Autodesk and continue to follow their progress and be a big fan. 3D printable materials is the current limitation for the most part, which I liken to the original 2D printers lack of colour and photo realism back in their times and as you know the list of materials grows almost daily it seems. In the meantime there are lots of options for outsourcing the final 3D printing in metals and other materials to places like Shapeways not unlike how we used to drop off our 35mm film at overnight or 1 hour photo print places. In fact this is how I made the wedding rings Christine and I wear which are part of the story behind the name Möbius which we chose for this boat. But that will wait for its own post.
For now a 3D printer is definately on the list for equipment in the workshop though I will also have a small mill, lathe, drill press and other bits of kit back there which are all part of what enables us to explore and spend most of our time in extremely remote parts of the world where we need to be as self reliant as possible.
To your other comments it would also be worth noting that one of the things which won us over in choosing the Gardner as our engine was that they made almost every single part in house. This even included things like the fuel injectors and so while I will carry a full compliment of new spare parts for the Gardner it is also good to know that I could probably make most any part on it if I had to with the tools and materials I have on board.
If you have any other suggestions or experiences with 3D printers or anything you think is relevant, please do add more comments as you think of them. Thanks much for sharing this one and joining us on this journey.
Wayne
If you’re interested in current state of the art, check out DM (Desktop Metal). Youtube has bunch of good videos, but it is basically metal injection moulding done without the mold.
Thanks Andy, had not seen this DM tech before. Nice to see them going after a mass production angle to see if that’s going to work out though I think that it is the mass customisation element of 3D printing that is the big gain. Certainly great fun to watch this tech take off.
Having these kinds of DM machines in the lineup at 3D print shops such as Shapeways would be a great addition and I think that’s where they would likely find big acceptance as well as at specific manufacturers making parts and components where the sintered metal products from a DM machine could pay for itself quite quickly.
Really appreciate this update and look forward to more from you whenever you run into them.
Thanks,
Wayne
Just one hind sight question/comment. I am very impressed with the work being done by Van Oossanen of Holland with their naval archecture as applied to displacement hulls and their hull vane innovation. How did you settle on your hull shape?
Yes, the Dutch continue to be some of the world’s best designers and builders of boats don’t they. Many of them have shipyards here in the Antalya Free Zone so we now get to see some of this first hand. And during our world wide searching to find the designer and builder who would be the best fit for us and our new boat we considered and met with several of them and they were all impressive. I’m aware of but not too familiar with Van Oossanen so thanks for that reference and I’ll check out their work more closely. I’ve read some but not enough about hull vanes by them and others and I do think there is a lot of promise there but will take a few more years to be broadly applicable.
As for the evolution of our hull design Dennis at Artnautica gets all the credit there, we just provided the clarity of purpose, use case and criteria and then worked with him very hand in hand throughout the design process. For example our propulsion system was a top priority for us and we knew we wanted to go with a CPP system spinning as large a prop diameter as possible as slowly as possible for maximum efficiency. And we also wanted the least draft possible to enable us to get into shallow areas that so often keep most boats out in the remote parts of the world we most prefer to be in. Put together this led to the prop tunnel you see in our hull.
Christine and I are both ex single handed sailors prior to meeting 5 years ago so voyaging under power is new to us and we wanted to bring as many of the elements of great boat design, handling, safety and comfort along with us on this new ride. So a very long and slender hull was a given, low D/L and L/B ratios, wave piercing bow and smooth release stern were top priorities. So we have ended up with what is very much a “sailor’s motorboat” with many of these traits and we think Dennis has done a masterful job of creating a hull that is optimized for extremely safe, efficient and comfortable worldwide passage making.
Your comment motivates me to get to posts talking more about the hull and our overall design process sooner than later so thanks for this gentle push John.
Wayne
Thanks for a great blog, will start following this daily like I did with setsail! Fascinating stuff, and she will be a great boat! One question, you state pilothouse floor is raised 120cm, but in the drawings it looks clearly a bit more and almost like shoulder height, so should that be 140-145cm?
Great to have you aboard Andy and glad you like what you have already seen. I will keep doing my best to report on our progress as well as go back over our design decisions that led us up to the final design.
Good eyes on these distances and I should have been more clear. What I should have clarified was that we rasied the PH floor such that the HEADROOM I will have when working in that large storage/systems room below was 120cm which I came up with as the amount for me to be able to kneel and move around when working down there w/o hitting my head. So you are quite right that measuring the literal amount the PH floor was raised from where it would have sat on top of the tanks to where it is now would indeed be about 140cm. This adds back in the height of the cross beams and flooring and so in many spots the open areas between the frames will be more than 120 and make working and moving around down there very easy I think.
I find it most comfortable to work sitting down and so I think I’ll make up a small little “seat” of some upholstered foam on a plywood base that will make it keep my tosh off the cold tank tops and be quite comfortable when installing the equipment initially and maintaining it after that.
Thanks again for the kind comments and we’re honoured to have you join us on the journey.
Wayne
Working with our fabulous designer Dennis from Artnautica, we tried to keep the overall heights and weights above deck down as low as possible so wanted to raise the PH as little as possible. We also worked hard on the esthetics of how the surrounding glass would look where its bottom edge ran along the deck and decided to raise the bottom of the glass up slightly with that aluminium transition from the deck to the glass. Dennis did a brilliant job we think and we really like the overall esthetics of what we now have.
Thanks for replying and clearing this up, I think your reasoning makes a lot of sense, good to have good sitting room there. Though if I may give a small amount of opinion, having visited quite a few Dashew boats and having talked to multiple owners, I do not think said basement area is really the best place for installing equipment, and indeed in the never boats they have discontinued the practise. It sounds good in theory and looks good in pictures when empty and technicians are there working at the yard, but in reality/practise it is a pain to troubleshoot a blown fuse or flaky connection when your basement is full of stored stuff. Besides nowadays all the electronic “black boxes” are fairly small and can really be installed anywhere with much easier access. So I think for example the wall underneath the driving console with removable panels and access from cabin below (like LRC58 Broadsword) gives much easier access and makes more sense.
Just my 1c, and you are free to not agree!
Really welcome and appreciate your comments here Andy and I hope you will keep them coming.
Your observations and reservations about the accessibility of this large space or basement below the Pilot House are ones we continue to think through as well. As with our previous boats this new one will be our full time home and so having this amount of storage space will be a major benefit in addition to providing a very centralised location for some of the systems and equipment. When space is tight you tend to have lots of mixed boxes or containers of items and so with this major expansion for us we think we will buy a large number of standard sized plastic containers which fit nicely in the recesses in this basement area and will allow us to dedicate each box to a single purpose or type of item. And as Christine often remarks to friends and family, she lives on a floating parts department so I can use all the space I can get to keep these spares out of the way of our everyday living aboard.
In terms of locating equipment your comments drive me even harder to really think through what items to put in this area. With each bit of kit that needs to be mounted somewhere I try to go through the whole use case for each one and use this to help decide where the “just right” location is for that item. I’ve got several areas to chose from in most cases when it comes to systems components; the large forepeak, the basement and the workshop. The Workshop is particularly voluminous as we have gone with a rather unique arrangement of building an enclosure around the Gardner that creates a much smaller engine room and yet has full standing height and plenty of access on all sides. I’ve worked on keeping this an engine room only by locating pretty much everything else outside the ER such as watermakers, polishing system, filters, etc. By keeping this an ER only all that other equipment stays much safer and cooler and provides better access. The walls of this enclosure create two “wings” on either side that are part of the overall aft workshop and they also multiply the wall area dramatically providing a very substantial amount of vertical mounting space with walk up access to all of it. With these three very different areas to chose from for most equipment I’m optimistic that I’ll be able to find that Goldilocks just right spot for most of them.
Christine and I were fortunate enough to spend time on Broadsword in Fiji and the Caribbean and get to know her owner Dominic quite well. And of course with our close association with Dennis we know the whole LRC58 line very well and they provide Dennis and ourselves with great lessons learned and examples to work from such as their readily accessible electrical panels. There is also another very handy and quite voluminous area on Möbius in those two side spaces under the side decks along the PH. In our layout the Galley and eating area will use these spaces on the Stbd side but along most of the Port side we will have these large cupboards with doors below the window sills down to the floor and some of these are current top candidates for the electrical panes and circuit boards up in the SuperSalon area.
My understanding is that the newer 70 and 78 FPB’s raised their PH much higher mostly to gain more living area but this wasn’t an option for us for three reasons. First we already have more than enough living space as it is only the two of us 99% of the time so that wasn’t any advantage. Second, raising the PH raises a substantial amount of mass higher up with negative effects on the ride and safety, and thirdly we find the esthetics of the higher PH’s to be out of proportion with the rest of the boat. Mind’s eye of the beholder of course but to our eyes the long, low, lean and mean look which Dennis has created with our much lower PH seems to be an ideal fit with the rest of the boat and in just the right proportions. All that maters I think is that each of us loves our boat a wee bit more every time we row up to her and I hope we all find that with each boat we live aboard.
I do hope you and others will continue to share your opinions, observations and suggestions. To me the value is not in agreeing, though good if we do, but more so in gaining a different perspective, learning new approaches, being made aware of things I have not thought of and in pushing me to think more about my decisions. Thanks to your observations here I will push myself all the harder to think through and find that just right spot for each item that needs to be mounted and installed on Möbius.
Thanks Andy, much appreciated and hope you’ll add more as you think of them.
Wayne
Looking ahead a bit, where are you sourcing everything else besides the engine. EU? Things like electrionics, hydrolics, mechanics, solar cells, all the stuff that goes and makes it go.
Hi John. Good question and one which I will do my best to answer more as the build and the buying of such equipment progresses.
Short answer for now, not my forte as you know, is that we will source parts and equipment wherever we can get the best value. 🙂 The other part of the answer is that we don’t know yet as we are purposefully delaying the purchasing of as much as possible to be as late as possible in the build process so we have purchased very little so far.
Multiple reasons for this wait as long as possible buying strategy;
• we keep our $$ invested as long as possible to be earning as much as possible before being converted into the build budget
• We take advantage of the typical “Moore’s Law” type curves for much of the equipment where the performance keeps going up and the prices keep going down so by waiting as long as possible we get the best for less. Not true in every case, but most of them such as solar panels, electronics, screens, etc. But even things like pumps and fastening systems are on a similar curve of getting better and cheaper over time.
• We have the most time to learn and research as well as time to evolve our decisions and criteria as the boat gets built and we see where best to locate equipment. Having spent over 2 years with the 3D modeling of the entire boat including all this equipment we have been able to do a large degree of this real time design and have a pretty good feel for the boat from being able to see close to the real thing by walking around in the models. However there is still no substitute for the real physical thing and by delaying our purchases as long as possible we have the benefit of being able to evolve and update our equipment decisions as the build progresses.
Slightly longer answer ………………………
You’ll also note that I said above “wherever we get the best value” and not necessarily the cheapest. This is because we heavily factor things like reliability, maintenance and KISS (simplicity over complexity) into our decision making. We start by doing a thorough job of detailing our use case for each piece of equipment to fully define our requirements for any given bit of equipment and help us make the inevitable “compromises” or trade offs as we set about searching for the “Goldilocks” or just right item. Takes up a HUGE amount of time but pays good dividends in return so we are happy with the process.
Once we have these details worked out we use these as our search criteria if you will as we head of hunting for the best make, model, source and price. It works very well for us and is something we’ve done with all our boats so not a new process for us.
Circling around, finally, to your question about sourcing, we are working increasingly closely with our fabulous builder GreeNaval Yachts here in Antalya to take maximum advantage of their very significant combination of experiences and connections with the wholesale supply world they know so well and we add in some sources that Christine and I have from over the years and particularly with our familiarity with the North American sources. GreeNaval has both the benefit of their connections and relationships with a vast array of suppliers as well as the benefit we enjoy from building here in the Antalya Free Zone for the not insignificant advantage of paying no taxes or duties on any of the equipment or materials going into the boat.
Wherever possible equipment will be ordered directly from the manufacturer so in that sense our source is very international. To date this includes things we have already purchased like our Gardner engine and all it’s parts coming direct from Gardner Marine Diesels in Canterbury UK, our complete CPP system coming from Nogva in Norway and our VacuFlush heads and system from the USA. I suspect that when we are done and look over the entire collection of sources we have used, the majority will be within the EU but will clearly include many others from around the world.
The local Turkish sources are also very good. For example name brand items such as Bosch, Miele, LG, Siemens and the like for galley equipment have a full distribution network here and surprisingly they have some of the best pricing found anywhere. We are also finding a lot of excellent Turkish suppliers for things like anchoring gear, water makers and the like who are using an assembly model we learned to like very much with our previous boats where they assemble something such as a watermaker from all “off the shelf” components such as pumps, membranes, switches, gauges, motors and so on and build these into a complete system. We like to use as many “generic” items as possible in terms of the ease of finding parts when we might need them in the future pretty much wherever we are in the world. For things like pumps, bearings, switches, circuit breakers, tubing, fittings, and a long list of others, with a bit of work and research we can figure out what items are available in most markets and catalogues and increase the likelihood that we’ll be able to find what we need no matter where we are.
And as Christine often tells her friends and family, she has learned to love living on a floating parts department so we mitigate the need for finding parts to a large degree by carrying a VERY healthy supply of spare replacement parts, fasteners, O rings, gaskets, belts and all the tools to replace all these when needed. For critical systems such as steering, anchoring, navigation and such we will carry either a full factory supplied rebuild kit or a complete backup redundant unit. Even though most of these will end up going to a new owner in the very long range future, this is all part of our SWAN or Sleep Well At Night approach to the whole boat and enables us to do go wherever we want for as long as we want by being as self reliant as is possible.
My usual long winded answer to a very simple question but hope this helps answer it well for you and don’t hesitate to ask any questions this might raise.
Thanks John,
Wayne
It appears to me that you’re taking on the task of “systems designer” which at a minimum covers at least system integration and systems reliability.
In My Opinion, one of the reasons that Steve D is successful is that one of the features of his design/build process which I believe he calls parametric is that it deals with the entire passagemaker in an interative manner – “if we do this, how does that impact the rest of the passagemaker.” He appears to work very hard at understanding how things work together. I don’t know Steve’s experience but one rule of thumb that’s good to keep in mind is that the unanticipated results from any change to a system will out number the intended results by at least 10x and usually 100x. Not always bad.
Read his site, espically the Black Swan design philosophy, which I believe are his parameters or axiums that summarize his intentions for the system functionality, and watch in his other postings, how he works one major iteration at a time to see how that impacts the whole passagemaker system and impacts his parameters. Follow up reading the references he posts which relate how others operating his passagemakers delt with undesirable occurances. How would your passagemaker fare in the same conditions?
You might consider starting basic with a proven system, come to understand it, change incrementally and watch carefully after every change: not only ask did you get what you intended but what is happening that you did not intend? A system in action is vastily more than some simple aggrigate of the individual parts. Come up with your parameters as a base for measurement so you can always revert to “home” if you should get lost.
Just some thoughts
By the way, the implication is that you’re building the first of a series of passagemakers. Think about it.
Thanks for this very thoughtful set of comments and suggestions John and sorry to take so long to get back to you with this response.
You are quite correct in that we are working very hard the design of the many systems on Möbius as this will be the focus of the next stage of the build after the hull is completed. However I need to be clear that I am a long way from being a systems designer! Just an ex sailor who is trying to help design and build the best Goldilocks, just right, just for us, next boat.
I share your admiration for the great work that Steve and the whole FPB team did on designing their systems and it seems to have been paying off based on the real world data coming in from what I think are a total of 14 FPB’s that have been launched so far. I’m not sure if they were eventually able to codify all their work on systems design and create a parametric design tool or not. I have some experience with parametric design of a different type that of parametric based CAD systems from my many years with Autodesk and now my work with parametric modelers such as Rhino3D and Fusion 360. The concept of parametric design is extremely powerful and it helped me develop the basic approach I take now with the overall design of this new boat not so much from the CAD perspective but from a methodology of first defining what the parameters themselves are and how they interact with each other and then starting to give the parameters values as you create the systems. However, while I tend to use the overall concept of parametric design, it is purely conceptual and not an automated or formal method and I don’t think I would refer to what I’m doing as parametric per se as a result. My “parameters” are what I laid out in the previous “Mission Impossible” post where we have articulated as clearly as possible the details all our use case scenarios, overarching goals, priorities, key characteristics, etc. and are using these to guide our process of systems design, selection of components and installation.
For those reading this who are not familiar with parametric design, it is a relatively simple concept that I’ll try to illustrate with a simple CAD based example of designing a drinking glass. If it is to be a circular glass, then the initial basic parameters would be things like; diameter at the bottom, diameter at the top, height, bottom thickness, wall thickness and so on. There are relationships between these various parameters such as how the base diameter is connected to the top by the walls of a certain thickness and how the volume this glass could hold is affected by the thickness of the bottom and the thickness of the walls. The interesting thing with this method is that it forces you to develop a set of clearly defined parameters BEFORE you can even begin to design any glass from this system. Once you have all these parameters you can appreciate how very different the design process is in that you are not “drawing” a glass you are filling in the values for each of these parameters and it is these parametric values which determine what your glass will look like. The power comes from the fact that once you have the parameters needed to fully define any given object, these can be used to create an infinite number of different glasses simply by changing the values of one or more of the parameters. Want a taller glass? Increase the height parameter. Want a tapered glass? Make the bottom diameter different than the top diameter. Of course this is a very simple example and as you design more complex objects and then assemblies, it becomes more and more complex.
Your points about how the consequences or ripple effect of changing even just one of these parameters can have a far reaching set of unintended consequences as it ripples through these more complex designs and his point is very well taken, although my experience on boats in this regard has fortunately not been on the 10X to 100X scale you site.
Steve’s take on what he calls the “Black Swan theory of cruising” is indeed interesting though I think it is a bit at odds with what Nassim Taleb meant when he coined the term initially in his book “Fooled by Randomness” and then of course in his next book “Black Swan”, both of which are great reads and have had a major influence on my life in many ways since reading them many years ago. My takeaway from these readings and other research and experience is that so called Black Swan events are essentially random and unpredictable and that they are as you noted, as does Taleb, these consequences can be both good and bad. Given this my thinking is that the best strategy for pretty much everything is what I refer to as “Readiness for the Unexpected” and a topic I have frequently presented on in talks around the world, but that’s another story. Relative to boat design and your excellent suggestions, what this means is that I embrace this overarching concept of being ready for the unexpected by assuming that the unexpected will happen so rather than trying to prevent it I try to be prepared to deal with the unexpected when it happens. A common way of doing this for me is to run through as many scenarios as possible of situations we could run into and things that could go wrong and use these to text how well prepared we are to deal with them.
I think you and I see things quite similarly with your suggestions to ask ourselves “How would your passagemaker fare” in different conditions? We ask ourselves that question all the time both when out there on passages and throughout our work now on designing and building this new boat. This approach has served Christine and I very well for all the nautical miles we’ve logged so far and we continue to work at using it to improve our boats and ourselves in using and maintaining them.
I hope I have understood your comments correctly John and please correct me if not. It is questions like yours which motivate me to continue writing these posts and chronicle our experiences because they add so much to my thinking and push me to do more so my sincere thanks and I look forward to more.
Wayne