Team Möbius continue to rack up the milestones and this week we hit the jackpot that inspired the riddle in the title of this post; What dance step rhymes with Cash (and LOTS of it!)
Does this photo taken on Thursday afternoon give you some clues?
Hint: Something is missing? How about this one?
Hint: Opening door? Still not sure?
Hint: What just appeared underneath? Bingo! “Big Bird” the 72 Wheel Yellow Boat Mover has arrived at Naval Yachts because ……………..
LAUNCH DAY HAS ARRIVED!!
Don’t worry if you have not yet solved the riddle as to what dance step rhymes with “Cash”, hang in there and all will be revealed and be clear by the end.
All the big shipyard doors are opened up full width and Big Bird slides under the all cleared out space (the “what’s missing?” hint above) below Möbius and the countdown to launch begins! Captain Christine is up on Deck doing last minute prep and clean up and the Owner’s Rep is standing around as usual, getting up close and personal with Big Bird. All the while Möbius is being her typical good natured and patient self as she awaits the her big moment to shine in the brilliant sunny day we were gifted with for the big launch. You may recall from previous moves over the years, Big Bird has a series of swiveling hydraulic lift pads along both sides So they are now being readied to lift our girl off her support stands and struts for one last time. Or so we thought at this stage of the “dance”, stay tuned for more on that. The silicone InterSleek 1100SR bottom paint is quite soft and new so they cut up squares of carpeting ….. and slid them in between the hull and the wood lift pads to prevent the rough wood faces of the hydraulic lift pads from damaging this fresh paint. With all the Lift Pads in position 20 hydraulic pistons easily lift Miss Möbius up off her perch and all the support stands underneath can finally be removed for good. The Captain does one final check and packs her bag with cameras and champagne and is ready for the long and winding walk to the temporary new launch site that is much further away as you are about to see. The BIG Day has finally arrived and Möbius takes her first step away from her home of the past 3 years at Naval Yachts and heads for her new home; Mother Ocean. You can almost hear the shipyard and all the other boats saying “Good Luck Miss Möbius, we’ll miss you!” as she makes the turn onto the road that leads over to the inner harbour inside the Antalya Free Zone. She graciously poses in front of the home she is about to leave as she heads out to make her own life at sea eXploring that Big Beautiful World of Water that awaits.
Oh, the places you will go Miss Möbius!!
Three of the pivotal people responsible for building Möbius join in the Big walk. And Möbius’ adopted parents join the parade as well. Rounding the first of several sharp corners is a piece of cake for Big Bird when you have 72 wheels that can all steer! This massive construction of the whole inner harbour of the Free Zone which has ripped out all the launching facilities and necessitated that we take an overland route to Setur Marina and launch all the boats from the Free Zone shipyards there for the next few months. In spite of this major disruption this major construction project of the whole Free Zone port is fascinating and you would probably enjoy watching THIS VIDEO ANIMATION which does a great job of showing how the whole new harbour facility works.
It would normally be quite a shock and surprise to see a ship floating by outside your office window but here in the Antalya Free Zone it is a common and almost everyday occurrence so no one gives it much mind. However, given the uniqueness of the XPM boats and Möbius’ gleaming aluminium silver sides, she definately turned a LOT of heads on her trip to the sea. Normally this is where the Free Zone ends and there is a very large and intimidating gate here topped with concertina wires and lots of security cams but we were given special permission and so they opened up the gate, took down lots of big power cables above and we rolled on through. We took this rare opportunity to do what you are supposed to do with all newly born creatures and introduce them to as many of the other inhabitants of the brave new world they have just arrived in.
Not a bad backdrop! One more 90 degree corner which was no problem for us but ………. ….. startled a few of the truck, car and bus drivers who suddenly found themselves sharing the road with a 24 meter / 78 foot long boat!
Not your average traffic jam! The long and winding road trip eventually led us to this road on the back side of the repair yard section of Setur Marina and the final 90 degree turn to the home stretch to the new launch site. Uğur, who has been with us the longest is particularly happy to see this big day finally arrive, took the opportunity to climb aboard and have his own scene right out of the movie Titanic perched up at the bow as he rode the final land based home stretch. We’ve arrived!
Big Bird rolls to a stop right in front of …..,, …… Möbius’ very handsome date who has been patiently awaiting her arrival. Like walking the Bride down the isle, Big Bird carefully escorts Möbius down the path underneath the turquoise arches of this 200 Ton Travel Lift. There are four of these cabled lift points on each side of the Travel Lift which are now carefully lowered to the ground. Where the looped ends of the thick wide webbing that forms a sling that goes underneath Möbius belly, are pinned to the lift bars. To protect Möbius’ fresh silicone Foul Release bottom paint, the slings have all been covered with soft padding. And then each sling is threaded overtop of Big Bird’s side rails, under Möbius’ belly and connected up to the lift bar on the opposite side. Up go the lifting slings as the weight transfers from Big Bird’s lift pads and they can now all be removed. Transfer complete! Big Bird backs out and heads back to the barn while the Travel Lift carries Möbius …….. ……. the final few meters to the water’s edge. Sccreeeeeeeechhhhhh!!!!!! HOLD IT!!!
Not so fast there Miss Möbius, there are official vows and a ceremony needing to take place before you get your first taste of Mother Ocean’s tasty salt water! Travel Lift obliges and backs up just enough for Christine, Baris and myself to say a few words, announce that “We christen you Möbius” and break that champagne bottle over her hefty keel bar.
Note to those concerned, Christine had carefully wrapped the champagne bottle in silicone mesh so no glass shards were spilled.
The not recorded funny part is that this took two tries as the thick glass of the champagne bottle won the first smash on the keel bar and took this second try which you can see in THIS short video clip which I have also embedded below.
But here at last is Möbius first kiss with Mother Ocean.
Oooooops! Not so fast there Captain! Mr. Murphy has different plans for you today!
Immediately upon splashing into the water and while still in the slings, you spend a few minutes below checking all through hulls and other possible sources of leaks to make sure that everything is sealed and all the salt water is where it is supposed to be; OUTSIDE the boat! As we did so we found a small leak on the Rudder Shaft tube and so we made the call to haul her back out and set her back on land while we tracked down and fixed the leak. Hence the less than excited faces on all of us in the video below as came back out of the water and onto the hard for the night.
Poor Möbius! So close yet so far and yet another example of that paradox of trying to get to your destination by taking steps that are half the distance remaining which means that you get closer and closer but never fully arrive!
The Travel Lift set us back down in front of the launch pad and she was once again blocked up for the night. Later that evening I discovered the source of this leak which fortunately this turned out to be a set of 6 holes that had been drilled into the Rudder tube for injecting Sikaflex around the outer races when they were installing the Jefa Rudder roller bearings for the Rudder Shaft. This happened back in October 2019 while I was back in the US and Canada visiting family so I wasn’t aware of this procedure and the SS plugs had not been threaded into these holes so they were weeping upon entry into the water. A relatively quick and easy fix and I re-tapped/threaded these 6 holes to clean out the threads thoroughly, Uğur & Nihat ran into town to get six M12 x 10mm SS socket head bolts and I mixed up a batch of good ole’ JB Weld to fill the holes and coat the threads and torqued the 6 bolts up tight and we were done before 10pm.
!Next morning, Saturday 20 Feb, 2021 we arose to what was surely the perfect Launch Day with even more sunny and brilliantly Blue skies and NO wind And it was time to back the Travel Lift overtop of us and put those slings back underneath to lift us up and take us those final 10 meters to the water’s edge! Lowering back down so Möbius could have here second kiss with Moher Ocean. Once in we again checked throughout the boat for any sign of seawater inside such as around this Sea Chest in the Forepeak and my first glimpse of the sea below. Not a drop to be found onboard so a quick check of where the real waterline ended up at the stern and we were good to cast off and be gone. We gave the thumbs up to the Travel Lift operator and the slings were fully lowered and he backed away. Due to several complications Möbius did not have a working steering system and the oil for the Nogva CPP gearbox has still not arrived but all the arrangements for getting out of the Free Zone, taking down the power lines, Travel Lift apointment, etc. had been made long in advance so we launched anyway and that meant we had to be towed back to the harbour inside the Free Zone which is why this tug showed up and threw us this line. Fortunately we had thought of these kinds of scenarios well in advance and had designed this Samson post and nose cone for just this purpose and the tow rope was quickly set and we were off. The Free Zone harbour is literally around the corner that is on the Left side where that Blue & White tug is tied up so it was a very quick trip and with no wind it all worked out just perfectly. The large green boat in the center is inside the Free Zone which then becomes the container port on the Right with all the cranes. Rounding that corner on the Left with the Green boat now off on our Starboard side to the Right we can see the slot they have opened up for us to tie up in between the end of the Red tugboat on the Left and the Grey bow of the first of four Arabian Police boats you can see lined up along the same wall. Naval had arranged for a second second small tug to help maneuver the stern and push us into our slot sideways. Because as you can see, the open space was only about a meter longer than our 24 meter overall length so It was a pretty tight fit and they needed to push us in sideways to fit. With the help of some of the great guys on Bozcay IV and III, we got the first line ashore and it was all very quick and easy from there in these windless conditions. Now the second tug on our stern could push us sideways into the wall with just enough room to spare off the bow of the first Police boat. Viewed from up in the SkyBridge, this is Möbius’ first contact with a dock. Stern lines secured and we were soon all tied up for the first time! When Christine and I were first drawing up our design criteria and use cases, one of the things we wrote down was that we wanted to fit right into being docked in a working harbour and stick out like a sore thumb in a “yachty” marina.
So how well do you think we have met that criteria with these as our neighbors astern……… ….. and these two up front? Still lots to do as the real work begins but enough time for a quick snack and celebration with the two founders of our builder Naval Yachts; Baris on the far Left and his brother Dincer on the right.
The rest of the afternoon was equally as Goldilocks time as we enjoyed this stunningly sunny 17C/62F weather being entertained by our two new bow neighbors as they brought this little fella “Lucky Star” in to get loaded up.
Then it was just the Captain and I, and of course Ruby and Barney so it was at last time to celebrate with an unbroken bottle of champagne that we had at last made it to that ever elusive Launch Date!
Peanuts, a box cutter and champagne, what could be more Goldilocks; Just Right, Just for Us?!!! While we never doubted that we would make it we did often wonder just when this day would arrive but that has all made this milestone all the sweeter to experience. We still have LOTS of work to do to get our beloved Möbius fully finished and ship shape so we can head out for those infinite horizons and get back to eXploring this awemazing world of ours.
Oh, almost forgot! If you are still wondering about that riddle, it was the 2-step Splash Dance!
I’ll be back to cover all of that starting with next week’s Progress Update but for now we’ll be sleeping aboard to keep an eye on this new launched beauty and start learning all she has to teach us.
It is Monday August 3rd here in Antalya Turkey and everyone is enjoying the last of this big four day Kurban Bayrami Holiday weekend. Tomorrow is also our anniversary so Christine and I decided to join in and take a much needed break from boat building so we rented a car and drove East along the coast to the lovely town of Alanya for two nights away. It has been a fabulous break and we are now back and I’ll do my best to get this week’s XPM78-01 Möbius Progress Update off to you at last with apologies for the delay.
This will be a shorter update due to both having only four working days last week and also due to the launch of the GreeNaval 60 hybrid boat “Mega-Guard”. This was a long overdue milestone for both Naval Yachts and Mario the owner as this build began a few months before Möbius so this launch has been three years in the making and it was all hands on deck at Naval Yachts to splash Mega-Guard this past Wednesday. I’ve got some photos of that big event as well as this weekly update on the progress aboard Möbius so let’s jump right in.
Mega-Guard Splashes!
The GreeNaval 60 or GN60 is an all aluminium 60’/18.25m diesel electric hybrid yacht which has 2x 370 HP Volvo Penta diesel engines and 2x 150 kW electric motors. GN60, which offers 16knot cruise speed with diesel option can achieve 11,5knot cruise speed with electric motors. This GN60 brochure will give you more photos and details if you are interested in learning more about the GN60. Getting her first full shot of sunshine on her bow as Mega-Guard emerges from the Naval Yachts shipyard this past Wednesday. She is setting atop one of three such boat moving machines that are on call within the Antalya Free Zone and as you can see this one can take much longer and larger boats onto its all hydraulic controlled bed. Looking out of my first floor Workshop/Office inside the shipyard this is the view from the other end as the boat mover starts the several block trip over to the launching equipment at the launching basin within the Free Zone. While the boat mover goes slowly it takes less than 30 minutes to make the trip from Naval Yachts to the launching basin. Next, the big Blue Travel Lift straddles the boat mover and lifts the GN60 up within its slings and moves her over to the launching basin. Where she gets slowly lowered down into the sea water for the first time.
And what do you know? She floats!
Mega-Guard is all the more special being the new prototype and test bed for Praxis Automation Technology based in the Netherlands. Praxis technology is usually found in very large shipping and other commercial vessels but they are now offering equipment for smaller boats in the 18-40m and recreational range so they wanted to have this real world testing and demonstration laboratory and she leaves Antalya on Thursday bound for Rotterdam and then on to Praxis HQ in Leiderdorp NL. We wish Mario and Praxis our very best and hope to be anchored with them in the near future.
We Are Floored!
This week’s title is in reference to the multiple places inside Möbius where the flooring has begun to be laid. The majority of the interior flooring will be interlocking planks of industrial vinyl flooring made by the big Turkish company Ado and you can see a sample of the White/Silver “Aperta 2010” colour we’ve chosen HERE on the Ado website.
One of the key features that makes this vinyl flooring the Goldilocks just right flooring for XPM78-01 Möbius is that it has a significant amount of texture on the top surface which I’d describe as similar in appearance and texture to that of well weathered wood. This a critical safety factor for us to ensure that even when walking with wet bare feet there is no slippage. This LVT or Luxury Vinyl Tile as Ado refers to it is primarily aimed at very high traffic scenarios such as airports, shopping malls and the like and it is also 100% waterproof, fireproof and extremely quiet when walked upon.
It is also specifically designed and engineered to be used overtop of In-Floor heating systems such as the ones we have installed in Möbius. The Flooring team chose this area in the Head/Bathroom of the Guest Cabin to begin to cut and fit the individual planks of LVT and are just getting started but this will give you a good idea of how these interlocking “click-lock” planks are laid down.
In order to access the integral fuel and water tanks below all our floors, there are aluminium tank access plates bolted down throughout such as the one you can see here in the middle of the photo partly obscured by the Rosewood sink cabinet. The flooring overtop each of these hatches will be removable and will be secured by a special SS twist lock device to ensure that these access squares can not fly out in the unlikely event of a full roll over. Directly across from the Head is the Guest Shower and it is having its all composite based flooring installed which is the same material as all the walls and ceiling so everything is fully bonded and sealed.
Same style of lift out section to get at the tank access lids below the shower floor.
The aluminum suction tool in the foreground is how we lift out flooring hatches, wall panels and the like and works eXtremely well. No unsightly handles required, simple, quick and easy to use. Once the flooring was fully cured the pre-installed drain was routed out for the SS drain fitting to be installed flush with the floor which slopes down to this point. The finished floor in both showers will be made of inlaid Teak as this has that just right amount of underfoot non-skid texture and is naturally waterproof. These are two of the three sections of flooring for the Guest and Main showers and there will be a third matching one for the adjoining Head/Bathroom floor in the Master Cabin. Same construction technique as is used for installing all teak decks on yachts, each individual Teak plank is cut, fit and glued to a template underneath and then once the whole panel is laid up, the template is removed and the teak panel is attached to a composite/fiberglass panel underneath. The grooves between each Teak plank allow for expansion and flex and will be filled with a Black rubber like waterproof filler and then the whole panel is sanded flat. These are the two floor panels for the Master Cabin. The longer one in the foreground will become the floor in the Master Cabin Head and the one in the back will be the floor in the Master Shower.
You will be able to see this in great detail in the upcoming Weekly Progress Updates as these floor panels are built and installed so say tuned for more.
Finishing the Corridor:
Just outside the Guest Head Omur has been busy deftly applying the finishing touches to the cabinetry in the Corridor area. This is a very busy area where you make your way down the stairs from the SuperSalon above to get to either the Guest Cabin or the Workshop & Engine Room.
This past week Omur finished installing the “hockey stick” shaped Rosewood BHL or Blue Horizon Line which provides a safe, secure and eXtremely Beautiful handrail when you are transiting these stairs. Biscuits are used to join the Rosewood sections of the BHL Handrail to the wall panels to ensure they are up for several decades of hand traffic.
The ubiquitous aquamarine epoxy strip spans the space between the upper and lower halves of the BHL. And with a bit of ingenious clamping techniques Omur soon has the bottom section glued in place. I’ve peeled back a bit of the protective cardboard and tape coverings to show you how the two halves of the BHL Handhold terminate up at the top of the stairs. Omur has also been finishing off the cabinetry on the opposite side of the stairs where the tall Electrical Panel sits part way down the stairs and then my long skinny Office desk and storage area runs along the Port/Left side of the Hull. Here is what the Corridor area looks like viewed from the stairs looking aft through the WT Bulkhead door into the Workshop. Seen through that WT Workshop door you can just make out the Blue/Green leather covered Corridor wall panels on the Right side and the Office desktop and drawers on the Left.
If you have your orientation down you will know that the Guest shower is behind the foreground wall on the Right and the Guest Head is behind the wall after that.
GALLEY GOODNESS:
Up those stairs and on the Right is the Galley and over in the finishing shop they are finishing all the Rosewood fronts for the many drawers in the Galley, some of which you see here. More here …………………… …… and more here.
Yes we have a LOT of drawers in the Galley and can’t wait to start filling them with food, plates, utensils and our extensive collection of kitchen tools. Once they are all hand rubbed and polished, all these drawer fronts are brought onboard Möbius to be installed. Which is what Omur is busy doing here to some of the drawers under the side “peninsula” of the Galley. And pretty soon they all look like this bank of drawers on the opposite peninsula behind the Dinette Settee.
Temporary Blue painters tape handles for now and just wait till you see what these look like when their permanent SS latches are installed.
ELECTRICAL:
As always, the handiwork of Hilmi and Selim can be found throughout the boat as our two Sparkies aka Electricians, continue to install the wiring and start connecting all the various electrical components together.
This is the inside of the control panel of the 40k BTU Webasto BlueCool V50 chiller. Hilmi has removed the outer cover to make the internal connections to the boats wiring. A few steps away inside the Engine Room Enclosure, the helpfully tall Selim is busy pulling wires into the ER through the penetrations you can see (click to enlarge) up near the ceiling and then securing each wire to the cable trays mounted on the Alucobond covered ER walls. Those cable trays continue to run forward behind the exit manifold on this Sea Chest at the front Port end of the ER. Meanwhile, Hilmi has been busy running more cables across the Front of the ER for things like the High Water pump out valves, Grey Water pumps and various tank level monitors.
FYI, Hilmi is sitting where the front end of Mr. Gee our Gardner 6LXB engine will soon call home. Right here. The two inner facing Engine Bed extensions are where the front engine feet or motor mounts will set and be bolted in place.
Engine Room Hatch Hinges:
Uğur and Nihat didn’t get much time to work on Möbius again this week as they were busy getting Mega-Guard finished and launched but they did get time to make some progress with things such as these hinges for the big Engine Room Hatch which forms almost the entire ceiling of the ER. These hinges are one of the latest examples of the overarching KISS or Keep It Safe & Simple approach we try to use throughout XPM78-01 Möbius. Uğur is very handy on the metal lathe so he quickly turned out these three hinges by drilling out three lengths of sold aluminium round bar to accept the 10mm / 3/8” SS pin he machined.
After leveling this big ER Hatch with the surrounding deck and centering the Hatch in its frame Uğur tacks the ER Hatch in place and welds on the three parts of each hinge to the Deck and Hatch. Removing the tack welds the door swings open easily and is locked in the open position using pin locks to the Vent Box on the Right here.
For those wondering why this ER Hatch is so huge, we designed it such that the complete propulsion package, the Gardner 6LXB mated to the Nogva CPP Servo Gearbox, can be lowered in/out of the ER as one single large assembly.
That won’t happen very often but WILL happen often is that I can open up this big ER Hatch whenever I am down working in the ER and have all that fresh air and natural light pouring in which will make working in there all the more of a treat.
SkyBridge Solar Panels:
However the most exciting bit of progress Nihat and Uğur made the past week was this!
If you were with us last week you will remember that we had lowered the roof frame over the SkyBridge to its hunkered down position that we will use for going up canals with low bridges or when leaving the boat in locations during hurricane seasons. Part of the reason for lowering the roof was to make it easier to install the eight 340 Watt Solar Panels which also form the waterproof roof. I chose to use Sikaflex 292i which is their strongest industrial adhesive to bond the aluminium frames of each panel to the rectangular aluminium tubing that the SkyBridge Roof frame is built from. Prep is always the key to a long lasting bond so all the AL surfaces were cleaned first with a wire wheel and then wiped down with Sikaflex thinner. Then an even bead of 292i is laid down. and each Solar Panel is then carefully set in place. We used a laser level and straight edges to ensure that each panel when in just the right position before being pressed tightly down to squeeze out the Sikaflex on all sides. The tops and side of each panel were also bonded to each other using 292i to create a very well sealed and fully waterproof roof. Using this eXtremely strong adhesive eliminates the need for any mechanical fasteners and made for a very fast installation and met with Uğur ‘s satisfaction as you can see.
In addition to these eight roof top panels, there are three more in a hinged frame on the front and three more on a sliding frame aft for a total of 14 panels with a combined total output of 4.4kWP I did manage to make a bit more progress on Mr. Gee but I’ll keep you waiting and save that for next week’s Progress Update.
Thanks for joining us and special thanks to all those who add their comments, questions and suggestions in the “Join the Discussion” box below and I hope more of you will do the same and add to the richness of this blog.
This coming week will also be shortened down to just four days but hopefully we will have most of Team Möbius back working with us now that Mega-Guard is launched. See again then.
Naval Yachts is a beehive of activity this past week with a big push for launching two other boats in the shipyard. One particularly exciting one for Naval is the the first GreeNaval boat to be launched, their GN60 all aluminium 18m/60ft hybrid electric powerboat whose build began about three years ago just before Möbius. The second boat is a complete refit inside and out of an all steel 16m/54ft sailboat originally built in the 1980’s. Unfortunately this means that most of Team Möbius members have been called on to work on these two boats as they are both due to launch by the end of this month but hopefully they will return soon and progress can resume on our already long delayed launch.
However the remaining Team Möbius members are literally working overtime and weekends so progress on XPM78-01 Möbius is still being made so I have lots for this week’s Show & Tell progress update so let’s jump right into all that.
HOUSE BATTERIES:
Our Lead Sparkie aka Electrician Hilmi had Selim assisting him with pulling some more cables and wires such as these huge cables which connect the 24 FireFly Carbon Foam L15+ batteries to the Main DC Distribution Box seen here and where you may recall they left off last week. The overall House Battery system is shown here and consists of four individual “battery banks” formed by connecting six of the 4V @ 450Ah FireFly Carbon Foam batteries together in Series, Positive to Neg, which is abbreviated as 6S in electro-speak. And here is what 6S looks like in reality when six 4V @ 450Ah FireFly batteries are connected in Series.
* NOTE: If you look closely at this photo (click to enlarge) each of these FireFly L15+ batteries are actually TWO 2V cells inside of one case. This is a very smart way to do things because by simply changing how those black covered copper bars are connected, each cell can be either 2V @ 900Ah OR 4V @ 450Ah, your choice. We are choosing to configure each L15+ as you see here so I will always refer to each L15+ as a 4V @ 450Ah battery .
** TINY TECH TALK (feel free to skip over if not interested)
Series vs Parallel connections:
Each of these four 6S banks are subsequently connected in Parallel, Positive to Positive, Neg to Neg, abbreviated as 4P so the total House Battery is 6S4P:
6S = 4V x 6 = 24Volts @ 450Ah
6S4P = 4 x 450Ah = 1800Ah @ 24V
When connecting batteries in Series the VOLTS of each battery are added together while the amps stay the same so each 6S bank is
6 x 4V cells = 24V @ 450Ah.
As per the House Battery schematic above, the four 6S banks are then connected together in Parallel or 4P where the AMPS are now cumulative and the Volts stay the same so the total House Bank is abbreviated 6S4P and totals 4 x 450Ah = 1800Ah @ 24V. Volts x Amps = Watts so that equates to 43.2kW aka a LOT!
Protecting Wires vs Consumers:
Fuses and circuit breakers can be used for two very different purposes depending on WHERE in the circuit they are installed. if they are installed at the very beginning of the power SOURCE such as a battery or inverter, then they are protecting the WIRE from what is known as Overcurrent Protection. If the fuse is instead installed close to where the consumer or appliance is connected then they are protecting the Consumer/Appliance. It is possible to have one Fuse/Circuit breaker do both by installing it at the very beginning of the circuit aka power source but this means that the amps would need to be the SAME for both the total amps carried by the wire AND the total amps required by the consumer. Therefore this only works in the case where the whole circuit is serving just one individual consumer so that the amperage rating of the fuse matches both the limits for protecting the wire and protecting the consumer.
Putting all that theory into practice, let’s take a look at the case of fuses used for Overcurrent Protection of the batteries and their cables. In this photo you can see that Hilmi and Selim have installed these large T-class fuses directly to the Positive output of this 6S bank using a thick copper flat bar.
The batteries are the very beginning of the circuit so these fuses are being used for Overcurrent Protection of each Red 120mm2 / 5/0 AWG cable. If as is often done when wiring batteries, no fuse is used and the Red cable is connected direct to the Positive battery post then there would be NO protection of that cable as it makes it way from the battery to the Positive Bus Bar inside the Main DC Distribution Panel. With the potential of 24V @ 450Ah a short circuit on this positive battery cable would be VERY bad and a fire all but guaranteed. Hence we use Overcurrent Protection on all our wires and cables.
This adds a degree of expense and complexity but when Safety is involved all other factors take a back seat.
AFT DECK WINCH:
Back in the Workshop looking up at the ceiling right behind the end of the Engine Room Enclosure, we find another job that Hilmi and Selim completed this week by connecting the 24V power cables to the big Lewmar EVO65 winch up on the Aft Deck. This winch will get quite a workout as it is how we lift the Tender off and on the Aft Deck and we’ll cover that more in the coming weeks as the Davit Arch gets built.
As you can see, the motor and gearbox assembly tuck up nicely in this space which will be even more protected with the AlucoBond ceiling panels are put in place.
N2K NETWORK & MONITORING:
On the Starboard/Right side opposite the Winch Hilmi has mounted this Junction box to house some of the connections of the wiring in the Workshop for some of the 24V consumers such as the Maretron Black Boxes and Workshop lights.
Every wire labelled at both ends of course. Zooming out a bit to get the bigger picture you can see how this newest junction box sets nicely up in the boxed corners that wrap all the way around the perimeter of the Workshop and how well that beautify big overhead hatch brings in all the light and fresh air. The large rectangular AL bracket will soon have the DC Distribution Panel mounted to it and all those large Red/Black/Yellow/Green cables will go in their to connect up to the Positive and Neg bus bars, circuit breakers and fuses. Speaking of which, that DC Distribution Panel for the Workshop showed up this week so we now have all three of these Distribution Panels, two of which you’ve seen in previous weeks with one up in the Forepeak and the Main one down in the Basement. All the cable glands have been pre-installed for all those cables you saw in the photo above and keeps each cable both securely mounted with a waterproof connection. You will be seeing more of this panel as it gets mounted inside the Workshop and Hilmi starts connecting all the cables, wires, fuses and circuit breakers. Panning to the Left to this area above the Fuel Manifolds, these are some of the Maretron BB’s and one of the bluish multi-port N2K blocks on the far Right where the N2K backbone connects with the larger Blue cables such as the one visible on the far Right. The small white wires are coming from the various Maretron sensors for things like temperature, pressure, fuel flow, WIF Water in Fuel, etc..
TRANSDUCERS:
Making a nice transition from electrical to aluminium “hotworks”, I finished up the design for this fairing block for the Aft Depth and Bottom Discriminating sounder and Uğur transformed it to solid 30mm thick aluminium in literally minutes.
The Black plastic transducer I’m holding is a Furuno 520-5PSD Bottom Discriminating Sounder which connects to a dedicated Furuno BBDS1 Black Box and then sends the data and graphics like this out via Ethernet cable to our boat computers and the TimeZero navigation software. These sounders are most commonly used by commercial fishermen but having all this detailed information about the contours and materials below us is eXtremely valuable to us for checking out the best anchorage spots. While very powerful, these BD transducers are very sensitive so they need to be well protected where they are exposed on the bottom of our hull from debris and possible groundings. Strangely enough bubbles are the biggest “enemy” in terms of getting maximum performance from this and any depth transducer as they interrupt the pulsed sonar signals being sent and received by the transducer.
This boat-like shape helps accomplish all these tasks; protects the transducer and smooths out the water flowing over the bottom surface of the transducer.
Equally critical is having the bottom surface of the transducer being parallel with the waterline so that the sonar signals are pointing straight down so we tacked the front end to the place on the hull we had strategically chosen and then used the laser level to get the bottom surface eXactly parallel with the “ground”. Even though we had chosen a spot on the hull that was relatively flat there was still a good sized gap at the Aft end where the bottom plates start their sweeping curves up into the prop tunnel. However it only took Uğur minutes to quickly cut some small triangular shapes of 5mm AL plate to fill that gap and then start laying down the first passes of weld to make this all integral to the hull.
Uğur will lay down at least one more bead of weld and then we will grind the block to an even more hydrodynamic shape and finish it up with epoxy fairing putty when we are prepping the bottom for the epoxy primer preceding application of the silicone base InterSleek 1100SR Foul Release bottom paint we are going to use.
One additional detail we designed in for an extra bit of safety with anything that is a penetration of the hull is that I had Uğur weld in a matching boat shaped piece of 5mm thick plate to the top of this 30mm thick boat shaped block before he tacked the whole block to the hull where it touches on the far Left/Forward end. Click to enlarge this or any photo to see this 5mm plate and then the thicker 10mm hull plate above it.
Mr. Gee Mounting System
In last week’s Update I outlined the design I came up with for mounting the Gardner and the Nogva to the beds in the Engine room using large anti-vibration mounting “feet”. This week I finished up those design and construction drawings and Uğur got busy the brackets for Mr. Gee’s four “feet” and the two for his best buddy the Red Nogva CPP Servo Gearbox.
For the front Gardner mounts we need to extend or widen the inside of the Engine Beds a bit where the motor mount feet attach and for the Nogva feet we need to add an underhanging mounting bracket to the beds on both sides.
To help with your orientation in the real world, here is a shot standing up on the Aft Deck looking straight down into the Engine Room. The two long parallel Mounting Beds you see in the rendering above are what you see here running from top to bottom in this photo. Stern is at the top here so that is the Aft end of the Engine Room Enclosure at the top of this photo and out of sight at the bottom is the WT Bulkhead with the Guest Cabin on the other side. Two large transverse Frames # 18 & 19 rare what you see spanning across between the two beds. Inside the ER looking Aft I’ve been busy laying out the exact locations for the mounts. Getting the location of these engine and CPP mounts eXactly correct is eXtremely critical to the overall performance of the propulsion system so even though I’ve modeled every component very precisely in Fusion 360 3D modeler, I double, triple check all the numbers and geometry using independent hand sketches and pulling off real world measurements with tape measures, laser levels and machinist squares and then transferring this all to the aluminium with labels and lines on the masking tape I’ve put down along the beds.
The red flange halves up at the top are the zero reference or base plane that I have used for all my models and measurements as this 2 part flange is where the prop shaft connects to the output flange shaft of the Nogva CPP Gearbox. When it comes time to align these mating flanges we have to get them to be less than 0.002”/0.05mm. For reference a human hair is about 0.07mm in diameter so we don’t have much room for error when it comes time to align the Engine/Gearbox with the propeller flange.
Uğur has cut all the 25mm / 1” thick AL plates to size and prepped them for full penetration welds with the large 45 degree chamfers to form a deep V gulley for his MIG welding passes. I really enjoy working so closely with Uğur and with all the modeling, measuring and marking done and all the plates cut and prepped time now for Uğur to start tacking them in place.
For orientation, the Door into the ER in the upper Left corner and the angled walls of the ER point to the Stern which is on the far Left. The aft most mount for the Nogva Gearbox required this stringer be cut away where the mounting bracket plates will be and to provide enough room for the MIG gun to access. New stringer plate will be welded back in again after the mounts are all done. At the opposite front end, the supports for the bed extension required these slots be cut in the stringer under the 25mm thick Mounting Beds. With all the interfering stringers cut away and slotted, Uğur could start tacking in the mounting plates starting with this vertical brace for the Stbd/Right Nogva Gearbox undermount and get it perfectly lined up with the reference lines I’ve marked on the bed surfaces. He soon has both vertical braces tacked in place. and then tacks in the horizontal base mounting plate. My hand will give you a sense of size and scale. Mr. Gee weighs in as a svelte 1400kg/3100lbs and the Nogva CPP adds about another 250kg/550lbs so these mounts need to stand up to several decades of support for over 17-1800kg / 3750-4000lbs of vibrating propulsion goodness so I am over engineering these beyond even my usual eXtremes.
BTW, Mass is also a big help in reducing vibration and noise so there is that added benefit as well.
At the front end of the beds this Stbd/Right side bed extension is also now all tacked up and perfectly leveled ready for one last check with the laser level and straight edges before final welding begins. Soon all four mounts, none needed for the two in the middle, are all tacked up, checked and ready for welding. Front Bed eXtensions fully welded ready to be ground flat and flush. As are the rear two undermounts with the stringer plates now added back in. And here is a Birds-eye view looking down through the big ER Hatch on the Aft Deck. Meanwhile, one floor up in the “Fitting Room” in my Workshop, I’ve been busy getting Mr. Gee’s new mounting brackets which we finished building last week, all fitted and installed on Mr. Gee himself as we prep for the big day of lowering him into his new home in the ER onboard Möbius.
These are the Aft two mounts that sit in the middle of the ER Beds. The huge flywheel is also being prepped to mount to those six bolts on the end of the Crankshaft.
Seen from the front side and with the anti-vibration “feet” in place, this is what the finished Aft Mounts look like. Front Right mounting bracket and foot test fit and good for final torqueing. On the Front Left mounting bracket I have incorporated this extended base plate where I will soon be mounting the big Jabsco sea water impeller pump that provides all the cool seawater to flow through the heat exchangers for the engine coolant, engine oil and Nogva Gearbox oil before exiting out via the wet exhaust system and back into the seal. In the photo above, the PTO or Power Take Off drive can be seen on the far Left here and then viewed through the two holes in the vertical mount brackets. I’ll be making up a SS drive shaft that will attach to that PTO end and go through those two holes in the mount and then be attached to the shaft of the Jabsco pump. Should make for a very robust and reliable drive setup for this critical pump.
Mr. Gee’s FLYWHEEL;
Mr. Gee’s feet were not the only thing I’ve been massaging this week, I also finally made the time to finish prepping the purposely “obese” flywheel option that Michael at Gardner Marine Diesel kindly provided for us. This mass helps to further even out the legendary eXtreme smoothness of all low revving Gardner 6LXB engines and make Mr. Gee a real smooth operator to quote Sade Adu’s great song. Many months ago I had sent this flywheel out to the CNC Machine shop next door to have that recess with the 8 M-12 threaded holes machined and now I needed to remove these no longer needed bolts and bearings that are used for mounting a traditional Gardner gearbox. The outer circumference of the Flywheel also serves a critical function by having these precise marks that are used for setting the timing of the fuel injection pump. There are three sets of these precision marks and this one is for setting the injection timing of #1 cylinder. I have filled these stamped in marks with fluorescent Green paint to help make them easier to see through the timing window in the outer aluminium Flywheel bell housing. I sanded these areas down to leave the Green paint just filling up the letters and masked them off before spraying on the primer and topcoats. As always, all the time in painting comes from the prep work so after months of that it only took a few minutes to spray on the first coat of primer. Followed the next day by the final topcoat of aluminium paint.
A bit eXcessive for an item that will never see the light of day? Perhaps, but with our last boat having been all steel and Neil Young’s refrain of “Rust never sleeps” echoing in my head, I try to do anything I can to prevent rust happening ANYWHERE on my beloved new boat Möbius! Call me crazy if you like, you’d be in the majority, but I’m a very happy and rust free nutcase!
My anti-rust fetish had me take the time to sand blast the six anti-vibration feet so I could paint them while I had my spray gun out and the aluminium silicone paint mixed up, And shot them at the same time I was shooting the Flywheel so they are now all ready for installation. Final step was to insert this aluminium SAE14 Centamax 1600 drive plate into that recess I pointed out earlier and torque down the eight hardened M-12 bolts. When it is time to connect the Gardner to the Nogva Gearbox, this rubber flex drive which is bolted to the input shaft of the Nogva, will slide snugly into all those matching U shaped grooves in the AL drive plate that is now bolted to Mr. Gee’s Flywheel. This is one more very significant component helping to make Mr. Gee such an eXtremely smooooooooth operator.
This is Exhausting!
The last bit of TLC for Mr. Gee was getting these stainless steel flexible exhaust bellows machined and welded so we can start installing the Halyard exhaust system. These SS woven mesh connectors work really well by absorbing any vibration or movement between the Gardner engine and the dry stack SS pipes running up and over the Gardner on their way to the Halyard Combi Silencer/Separator.
The round SS flange faces up and this is where the first vertical dry stack Halyard pipe attaches. And the bottom square flange bolts to Mr. Gee’s exhaust manifold. You will be seeing much more of this once we start installing the Halyard exhaust system later this month.
Why Drop Your Drawers When You Can SLlllllliiiiiiiiide Them Instead?
We kept dancing to Sade’s Smooth Operator song throughout the week and that certainly included all the work that Omur and Selim were doing in the Main Cabin and the Galley.
Omur continued installing all the beautiful Rosewood drawers in the Master Bed Platform with their super smooth operating Blum drawer slides.
As you may notice, our Chippies aka Cabinetmakers, went a bit overboard last year when they started building the first drawers for XPM78-01 Möbius and made EVERY surface out of Ro$ewood so my pocketbook and I needed to reign them in a bit and use the very nicely contrasting Beech for the insides and undersides and unseeable surfaces of all the rest of the drawers and drawers they subsequently made.
But as you are seeing here in the Master Cabin, all the drawers in the King Bed Platform are Rosewood throughout. All the other drawers and doors in the Master Cabin and throughout the rest of the boat have this very lovely contrast of colour and grain between the dark swirling Rosewood and the honey coloured Beech. Thee upper four drawers in this Bureau of Drawers beside the Master Bed Platform show this well.
The upper four are slide out drawers whereas the bottom four where the hull curves in and makes them narrower have fold down doors. The outer faces will soon receive their Gray/Green leather covered fronts.
I covered these AbFab Blum bottom mounted drawer slides ad nauseum last week so I’ll leave you to go check that out if you’d like and just point out that this is a good shot at the underside of one of the Bureau drawers to show how these slides and their cushioned auto-close mounts work. and here is an interior shot of one of the sliders in one of the bed platform drawers. Looking rearward to the stairs leading up to the SuperSalon, these are the six drawers along the Starboard/Right side of the Master Bed Platform. And these are the five drawers on the forward facing end of the Bed Platform. Last 2 drawers in the Master Cabin are the two Omur in front of Omur located underneath the Vanity Sink at the very front end of this Cabin. Omur soon has both drawers all mounted as well s the door on the Medicine Cabinet above the sink. The Rosewood doors along that Starboard side open up into very large storage shelves with hanging lockers and the Washing Machine behind what will soon be mounted Green/Gray leather covered drawers above the BHL Handhold. Difficult to fit it all into one photo but this shot standing in front of the Vanity sink provides this perspective looking down those doors on the far Left and along the Bureau of Drawers and the Bed Platform on your way to the hanging locker on the Left just before you start up the stairs to the SuperSalon. Speaking of which this view looking straight down those stairs from the SuperSalon lets us see that Omur has also now installed all the solid Rosewood nosing on each of these stair treads. The solid Rosewood nosing and intake air grills for each of the stair treads came back from the Finishing Shop with their multiple coats of PU varnish all rubbed out to a beautiful matt sheen. Omur soon had these all fully installed and awaiting the installation of the final flooring which will be planks of click-lock high end vinyl.
MAIN HELM STATION:
Upstairs Omur and Selim continued to make good progress installing the Main Helm Station which we saw them begin the previous week. The hinged Dashboard is now back from the Upholstery Shop along with the mounting panel for the two 19” touch screens and the cut-outs for the switch panels are in the angled wall on the Right side of the Helm Chair. I was finally able to get a photo of Sinan our Mater Upholsterer standing beside the latest round of ceiling panels for Möbius as well as the three Black Leather covered Dashboard pieces. This is the basic layout that Captain Christine has come up with and is now in place. Kobelt Throttle/Pitch control levers bottom Right, Furuno Jog Lever to its Left and then the Gray cover is hiding the Furuno 711C AutoPilot Head.
Above the Jog Lever is the Maxwell Windlass Chain Up/Down switch with the round Kobelt Pitch Angle gauge to its Right and the ACR Pan/Tilt Searchlight control in the Upper Right corner. The empty hole beside is waiting to be filled by the Vetus Bow Thruster Joystick that has not yet arrived.
The hole on the far Left corner will have a smooth radius ring on it and will allow the Standard Horizon RAM4 VHF mic cord to coil up in the space below.
Vertically mounted on the Right wall is the Nogva Clutch & PTO control switches and the empty rectangular cut-outs will soon have the switch board mounted to control all the exterior flood/search lights and the High Water Bilge controls system. Up on top of the Right side angled wall, that Black Kobelt panel is the Kobelt control station to give control to either the Main or the Flybridge Helms OR give control to this Kobelt 7176 WalkAbout Controller which we are eXtremely eXcited to try out soon. This is a corded remote control which can plug into a receptacle here at the Main Helm or up in the SkyBridge Helm and the 10m/33ft cord then allows us to “walk about” almost from stem to stern with this remote. It is eXtremely multi-functional as the two levers on the sides control the Pitch of the prop and Throttle of the Gardner and then up on top we can control the rudder, the bow thruster and the CPP Clutch. With this in hand we can pretty much control the whole boat while standing anywhere on the boat from the very aft end of the Swim Platform to up on the Bow. In addition to giving you an overview of the whole front end of the SuperSalon and the Main Helm, all those wires hanging down from the ceiling indicate that Hilmi and Selim have been here putting in all the power cables for the LED lights overhead. Most of all though, Christine and I are already fantasizing about sitting in our super comfy Llebroc Helm Chair up here and gazing out through these 360 degrees of windows as we head out towards our next great destination.
Come on Team Möbius, we are counting on you to get us there ASAP!
SuperSalon gets Superer!
It is a hard area to photograph well but the “doghouse” overtop of the Entryway from the Aft Deck into the SuperSalon is shaping up very nicely thanks to Ömür’s hard work.
This shot is looking straight up while standing on the Entryway Stairs. Omur now has the very nicely done Rosewood Hatch liner installed and Sinan has finished the first of the intricate snap in White leather covered ceiling panels on the Right here. More to follow soon.
Here is a different perspective on that same area looking in through the Entryway door on the Aft Deck. The Black Corner Box running across the upper ceiling area will have a snap In/Out panel to give us access to the various electronic gadgets that will live inside.
The SkyBridge is on the other side of the far right side here and ……. …… if I now climb up to the SkyBridge you can see this same Hatch liner from up here and get better oriented. Walking a few steps forward in the SkyBridge and looking back at this same Hatch you can see where the SkyBridge Helm Chair will set in that space to the Left of the Hatch. We have oriented this Hatch lid like this to make it easy for us to pass things back and forth from the Galley and the SkyBridge and to make it easy for us to talk back and forth when we are in these two areas.
GALLEY:
Can you guess where these three little drawers are bound for? Well, I guess the heading of this section makes that easy to guess that they go HERE on the “peninsula” in the Galley that runs parallel with the walkway as you come down the stairs from the Entryway door.
One of the main themes Christine and I prioritized as we worked through the design of XPM78-01 Möbius is what we refer to as “Diversity” by which we mean having a lot of different options for different aspects and areas onboard. in the case of the Galley that means a lot of diversity of size and shapes of drawers and doors so have a look around and see how this design diversity is manifesting itself in the Galley.
BTW, the tall skinny area in the middle of this set of different sized drawers will also be a pull out “drawer” that has no sides and just a series of shelves to store things like spices and condiments and utensils that you can easily access from the side.
Drawer Diversity continues over here on this set of drawers on the Window side of the Galley countertops forward of the double sink. And yet more different sizes and shapes of drawers here on the other “peninsula” running along the back of the Dining Settee on the other side. A bit difficult to see through all the construction but you can see how all the Garages atop the Turquoise marble countertops are also different sizes and depths for yet more diversity of our storage. Our hope is that having all these different options will allow us to optimize all these storage areas and enable us to find the Goldilocks just right spot for everything we want to store in our Galley. Also eXciting for us to see the big double sink be permanently set into the marble countertop. And yes we heard all your questions and recommendations for a undermounted sink instead and we may well agree with you for the next boat, but we are very happy with this top mount and thing it will work well for us.
The large main faucet has a removable spray head with a very effective magnetic holder to keep it in place when not being used. The smaller faucet on the far Right is just for cold drinking water which comes from its own 150 Liter tank that is completely independent of all other water tanks for an extra bit of safety should it ever happen that all six of our integral water tanks should be somehow contaminated. Highly unlikely as they are all filled from our 150L / 40 USG per hour Delfin Watermaker, but just in case ………………
Whew! Even when shorthanded the rest of Team Möbius still makes great progress and we get closer and closer to Launch Date!
Oh, and one last bit or eXciting news, look what we just received!
Holy Pinocchio!
It is NOT a Fake News lie that XPM78-01 Möbius is now a “real boy” as she is fully and officially registered in Jersey and the British Ship Registry!
I realise that this might seem like “just a piece of paper” to many but to us this is such a big milestone that makes our dreamboat seem all the more real and tantalizingly close.
Thanks as always for joining us on this grand adventure and PLEASE add your questions, comments and suggestions in the “Join the Discussion” box below.
Till next week, same time, same Bat station this is your cub reporter Wayne and Christine’s Loving Owners Representative signing off.
Naval Yachts reached an all time high in productivity this week and it is an all time high that I’m not sure even they can top. On Wednesday Dincer, one of our builder brothers and founder of Naval Yachts texted us with the news that he and his wife Nesli had just welcomed their twins into the world! Wow!!
Two very healthy boys, Yiğit, which means brave and Mert which means honest, arrived a few weeks sooner than expected but both they and Mom are doing very well. Dad seems to be a bit tired though?
Both boys measure 42cm tall with Yiğit weighing in at 2.4kg and Mert at 2.2. Congratulations Nesli and Dincer and welcome to this awemazing world Yiğit and Mert! We can’t wait to meet and snuggle you soon! As per this week’s title, if you think we have our hands full, you ought to see our hearts!
Amidst all the celebrations the rest of Team Möbius continued their great productivity with lots of progress being made this past week welding the stanchion sockets into the Rub Rails, tacking up the SkyBridge roof frame and the fore and aft railings, and installing the first wire trays so let’s go check all that out now.
Picking up where we left off last week, Uğur and Nihat continued to tack together the frame for the roof over the SkyBridge. This is the aft end of the roof and each of those eight openings have been sized to have a full size solar panel sealed in place on top to form a fully watertight roof assembly. This front area provides an overhang around three front windows and there will be vent grills in the underside of the front overhang to channel air over the bottom of the solar panels to keep them cool and efficiently cranking the electrons to keep our big battery banks fully topped up every day.
Here is the fully tacked and cleaned up roof frame ready for final welding.
The V shaped on edge flat bars you see atop the plating fore and aft here are just temporary braces to hold the panels flush and will be removed once those joints are fully welded.
In last week’s update I included this rendering to show how the aft end of the dark green roof frame is attached at the aft ends to the hinged upper arch assembly such that they can both be folded down into “Canal Mode” shown in mauve here. This Starboard side view shows what the SkyBridge roof will look like in regular passage making or anchor mode.
With the SkyBridge roof frame completed Uğur moves up to deck level and seems intent on something?
Oh No! Why would he be cutting big holes in those eXtremely strong and beautiful Rub Rails he so meticulously welded in place last week?
Hmmmmm, these short lengths of 60mm thick walled pipe seem to fit in just right. Carefully measured and leveled to be perfectly vertical….
…. then welded in place top …… …. and bottom. Ohhhh!! Duh! Now I remember drawing these up! He is installing the sockets that will hold the aluminium stanchions and railings in place very solidly.
3 Dyneema lifelines running through these 1m/40” tall lengths of 40mm thick walled aluminium pipe will help keep us safely on deck. Barney the Yorkshire Terror is another story but you will note that the bottom lifeline is at a particularly low Barney height. This same type of nylon lined pipe socket will also be used to attach the 40mm pipe railings you can see in Cyan colour in the rendering above where they create very solid hand holds at the side boarding gates and around the bow and stern. You will be seeing more of these stanchions and railings as they get installed in the coming weeks.
Moving inside the boat there seems to be a meeting of the minds in the forward Main Cabin staring Dincer the new father of twins Yiğit and Mert.
Dincer is talking with Yusuf our head electrician as we work out the details of installing all the wiring and electrical systems on XPM78-01 Möbius. Packages of these aluminium wire trays of various widths have been piling up on deck during the week ….
…. and new pieces of flat bar have been showing up between stringers on the upper hull sides.
Each flat bar and each opening slot in the frames are carefully lined with thick rubber glued in place to protect the wires and pipes from any abrasion and keep the trays fully isolated from the hull. Here in the Workshop we will run some of the cables up and across the ceiling to the Starboard side. Like this.
Another set of trays will go below this first route of trays and you can see what those slots and holes in the frames are for. Wires will be routed to keep the high amperage AC and DC cables well separated from each other and we will run data cables on the opposite side. All this to help eliminate magnetic induction and noise interference. And that’s it for this week so we’ll turn out the lights and let Möbius rest for the long weekend bathed in the greenish night lights of the shipyard.
New Years is a particularly big holiday over here so Monday and Tuesday are holidays here and Naval Yachts and Team Möbius will start up again on Wednesday morning.
I’ve put together a short video or this week’s progress and you will find that below.
HOLIDAY BONUS!
We were all working today, Saturday and so wtih Christine’s help we spent time onboard and shot a bunch of video and I’ve used this to put together an end of the year guided tour of Möbius for all of you who have been asking for another and I will create a separate blog post for that with all the drawings and model shots in it so you can refer to these as you wish.
And for a Holiday treat, seeing as you have all been such good little boys and girls throughout 2018, I’ve turned this into a fully annotated video guided tour with drawings and models overlaid throughout to help you visualise the various compartments and layouts. At 23.5 minutes it is much longer than previous videos but I have put in markers throughout for each of the different cabins and areas on the boat so you should be able to fast forward to find what you are most interested in. I have put this new annotated video walkthrough into it’s own post you can find here and I have put a copy of each drawing and render from the video at the bottom of that blog post so you can refer to these “stills” anytime you wish.
As with most things I do I’m a complete novice at this kind of video editing and using all new software tools so please bear with me as I learn and try out new things My apologies in advance for the poor sound in many places. I am upgrading to a lavaliere microphone I can wear in the future and will work on the lighting changes with the camera. Otherwise I would very much appreciate any and all feedback from you as to what you like, what you don’t, what you would like more of, less of and any suggestions that will help me learn and improve to make these videos, or the blog postings, more enjoyable and informative.
Christine and I hope you enjoy the year end tour of Möbius and your celebrations with family and friends as 2018 draws to a close and we welcome in the new year. 2018 was certainly a densely packed year of milestones and memories for Christine and me and 2019 looks to be even more so as our awemazing adventures continue. Lucky us!!
Team Möbius was back to making some very visible progress this week that definately rubs me the right way as you’ll soon see.
A good thing this progress doesn’t depend on me as Christine and I spent most of our time this week renewing all the various aspects of residing here in Antalya for another year or more. Hard to believe that we have now been living here for almost a year now and it was time for us to renew things such as our residency permits, health insurance, vehicle registration & insurance, apartment lease, etc. each with their own labyrinth of bureaucracies to negotiate, some online and some in person. In the grand scheme of things this really didn’t take too much time, just all time away from building boats and writing books which we so much prefer and are now back to.
But enough of such sniveling and let’s get caught up with what’s been going on with the good ship Möbius this past week.
** NOTE: Please Click to enlarge any photo in these blog posts
Let’s start wtih another mystery shot of the most recent shipment of aluminium to arrive here at the new Naval Yachts shipyard and see if you can guess what these are for?? More clues for you …… … there are quite a few of them …… ….. and they are made by bending 10mm/ 3/8” thick aluminium plate into these 6m/20’ long U shaped sections. Hint:; Remember the title of this weeks update and you can see them very clearly here in this quick rendering of the bow.
That’s right, we’ve got Rub Rails baby!
This quick rendering shows these beautifully brutish Rub Rails as the dark turquoise coloured pieces that wrap all around the deck to hull corners.
This short section from the bow to the forward anchor roller cheek was the first to go in and then behind it you can see the first full length 6m long section has also been tacked in place.
Looking straight up from water level along the side of the bow you can get a sense of scale for how these Rub Rails extend sideways about 140mm / 5.5” to create a rim of eXtremely strong “bumpers” from stem to stern.
If you look at the rendering above and you can see that additional gussets will be welded in to fill in that triangular space between the forward anchor cheek and the front Rub Rail to add even more strength and stiffness to the anchor assembly.
These Rub Rails come in eXtremely handy when we are up against big rough wood or concrete pilings as we often are when bunkering (fueling up) at the large commercial fuel docks where the big ships get their fuel and where inflatable fenders are just not up to the task. Up on deck at the bow shows a before and after view with the Rub Rail tacked on the Port/Left side while the Starboard/Right side waits its turn for the same treatment. Before/Without; looking aft down the Starboard side and …… After/With: Rub Rail in place on Port side.
But wait a minute!
What’s wrong with this picture? And this one too?
We seem to have a bit of a square peg in a round hole problem here don’t we?
How are you going to fit such a long 6m/20’ straight 10mm thick U channel up against that beautifully curved edge of the hull? Easy Peasy when you are working with aluminium and have these two strong Push Me/Pull Me helpers! The Mr. Yellow ratcheting chain tackle Pull Me brings the far end in most of the way …. …. while his buddy Mr. Blue Push Me pushes each spot along the length in to just the right spot to line up with the guide line scribed parallel along the length of the deck to show where the inside edge should sit to overlap the deck by 30mm.
Credits due to the supporting cast as well such as the big 25mm thick bridge tacked onto the deck and hull for Mr. Blue Push Me and some smaller bridges to secure some hammered in wedges to get the upper surface flat and parallel to the water. And now just tack and repeat. Have Mehmet prep the edges of the next length ….. ……… prep the end of the previous length ….. Push/Pull into place and tack …. … bring in Sezgin to lay down the first of several continuous beads …. …. along the top and bottom (not shown) edges …. … and you soon have all the Rub Rails in place!
Having no paint policy and just raw aluminium exterior enables us to use these Rub Rails as a fulcrum point up against pilings and rotate the boat as we sometimes need to do when docking in high winds or other close quarter maneuvering.
These eXtremely sturdy Rub Rails will also be home for the vertical 60mm/2.4” AL pipe sockets that will soon be through welded top and bottom along the entire length of the hull for the 1m/40” tall and 40mm/1.6” OD aluminium stanchion posts and railing legs to slide into and create equally super sturdy lifeline and railing system around all the deck edges.
Nylon bushings will line the inside of each pipe socket to keep this joint tight and non corroding for easy removal when needed over the years.
Continuing with the eXtremely strong and eXtremely low maintenance theme, the three horizontal Lifelines will be gray 8mm Dyneema synthetic line running through the three short lengths of 10mm AL pipe inserts you can see in the rendering above along the length of the stanchion tubes. This “stronger than steel” synthetic line provides just the right balance of slight give and yet plenty of strength for us to lean against or pull on, never corrodes and is easy to splice and fit to traditional hardware bits such as turnbuckles and pelican hooks for tensioning and where we have removable gates for boarding along the sides.
Throughout the week there was the constant crackling of MIG welders and the din of angle grinders as work also continued inside the hull. Looking down from the Aft Deck through the big ER hatch into the ER Enclosure for example they are finishing the welding in of these Engine Room Enclosure walls and the water tanks on either side of the engine beds
The swirl marks also show how they are wire wheeling all surfaces clean as we get ready to start gluing in all the nautical miles of EPDM foam insulation on every bit of the interior aluminium surfaces. Meanwhile work also continues on finishing off the new Naval Yachts shipyard building and offices. Speaking of offices, Naval are eXtremely kind and generous in providing a new office for me to work from which is located on the 2nd floor just behind the wall the red arrow is pointing to. And if I stand just outside that door onto the triangular walkway I have this birds eye view of Möbius and her bay mate mv Legacy sitting in front.
Below me on the main floor work continues on what will soon be this bright and airy reception area at the sliding front entrance doors.
Behind the glass windows on the right here are … … offices like this for the engineering staff as well as … … large all window meeting rooms for guests, suppliers and sub contractors.
This also provides shelter for weird white haired old guys who seem to hang out here all the time and work late into the evening with the rest of Team Möbius. Zooming out a bit more to the surrounding area of Antalya, you can see here that we lucked out weather wise on Thursday when we were driving to various offices all over Antalya picking up all the various forms and paperwork I noted at the beginning of this post. This is the view we had to put up with as we waited for our health insurance provider to print out all our paperwork for residency permits.
Our apartment is across the crescent shaped coastline on the right right about where that tall pine tree intersects the west end of Antalya. As you can see it is winter here with all that fresh snow on the mountains right behind us and the whole area just pops with stunning beauty on sunny days like this.
All in all a very good week and back by popular demand I’ve put together a short video compilation of some of the work on Möbius this week. Enjoy!
Please add all your comments, questions and suggestions in the “Join the Discussion” box below and let me know how to improve these posts.
Whew! What a week here at Naval Yachts. The time has finally come to start making the move to the brand new home of Naval Yachts here in the Antalya Free Zone. The building isn’t fully finished yet but the shop side is ready so we started moving boats and as you are about to see Möbius was the first boat to move to her new home on Wednesday followed by Legacy on Thursday. It was quite the experience and I’ll let the pictures and the videos at the end do most of the talking so here goes……..
Team Möbius wasn’t going to let moving interrupt their progress within the boat itself so let’s first take a look at that.
Up on top of the aft end of the Starboard/Right side of the Pilot House roof the massive arch hinges are now tacked in place.
As you’ll recall from seeing this rendering of the aft end of the Pilot House in previous posts, the arch is hinged where it passes through the roof of the Pilot House so that we can fold it down to Canal Mode to reduce our air draft or height above the water to sneak under lower bridges and locks. This rendering shows the arch and SkyBridge roof in both the Green/Grey normal passage mode configuration as well as the purple folded down Canal Mode.
You’ll note too how the bimini roof overtop the SkyBridge cleverly folds down with the arch.
Looking at Port/Left side of what we call the “Wings” at the aft ends of the Pilot House, we can see those hinges being tacked together in the foreground and the 15mm/5/8” base plate for the two compression posts for the Arch tacked into the far inside corner of the Wing box. Those two large 100mm/4” diameter holes on the top of the Wing Box are where the two compression posts will soon be fitted.
Like this.
The Arch itself is being built off the boat as we’ve seen in previous posts and we’ll show you more of that once it has been tacked together and gets fitted to the top sides of those big hinges.
If you look back at the rendering above you will see how the thick 30mm/1 1/4” window glass wrapped around all sides of the Pilot House extends back to the ends of these Wing Boxes so you can imagine how well protected this aft end of the Pilot House and Aft Deck will be.
This will be especially appreciated when you are going in/out of the SuperSalon through that door you see here on the left or up the circular stairs to the SkyBridge on the opposite side.
Meanwhile up front in our Maser Cabin the last of the water tanks are getting their baffles put in and their tops welded on.
Here is a closer shot to show the baffle plate and top flat bar welded in place and you can see what the completed matching tank looks like on the left. These tanks will be used more as ballast than for potable water for us to use for dishes and showers. With our eXtremely large volume of diesel fuel we carry in our central tanks, 14,500L/3800 USG, that as this volume and weight go down during a passage we are able to maintain the same overall displacement and balance of the boat by adding the equivalent amount of water in the tanks on either ends.
Our ability to move water, and fuel, from any one tank to any other also gives us tremendous options for adjusting the ride and balance of the boat as sea and weather conditions change during a passage. Safety, Comfort and Efficiency are our top 3 priorities and this helps us with all three and this is a good example of how we have made the thousands of design decisions for these eXtreme eXpedition Passage Makers or XPMs.
Down on the shop floor the work continued on the big hatch for the Engine Room. Framing is now all tacked in place and you can now clearly see the open channel that surrounds the entire outer perimeter is formed. This will in turn match up with an opposite U shaped channel surround the perimeter of the opening on the Aft Deck to create a very well sealed connection between them.
The matching U shaped channel on the Aft Deck will also create a perfect gutter to catch any water on the outside of the door and make it easy to put in some drains out the bottom of the channel so that when you open this big ER hatch no water ever drips inside and keeps any water from sea or sky on the outside where we like it.
What do you think these two onlookers are looking at?? Could it be watching our Master Welder Sezgin pushing one of the many MIG welders outside?
Or are they checking out how most of the other equipment and aluminium parts have been removed from around and under Möbius? Or could they be wondering what that black Naval Yachts banner is hiding?
Or what are these Team Möbius members doing taking their tea break on this new blue bench that showed up?
Ohhhhhhh, now I get it, it is MOVE DAY! Everyone pitches in to help get the blue boat mover into position. Blocking and supports are carefully set in place. Uğur and Umit quickly fabricate some additional braces to weld to the hull for more support. Möbius steel floor supports are unceremoniously amputated with some quick passes of the Oxy-Acetylene torch. This old white haired buy keeps getting in the way. Then all these people show up….. Deep within the dark shadows we hear the muted roar of a little diesel engine starting up and the whine of hydraulic motors as Möbius gracefully lifts off the floor ….. … and backs her beautiful aluminium butt out the door and into the sunshine. aft deck now all clear and now we see what that Naval banner was covering up! Someone snuck in during the night to chisel out a bit more room for the upper heights of the SkyBridge to fit under! All clear and fully out in the sunshine at last! Backing all the way out and across the street and almost inside of the big Damen shipyard building next door. Thanks to all those turnable wheels she makes the turn onto the street Holds her beautiful big nose high in the air Looking ever so huge and beautiful, she backs her beautiful butt down the street and off to her new home. and a few minutes later she gracefully makes the last turn towards her and Naval Yachts’ new home.
More of that same crowd showed up again to help mark this momentous occasion and you can click to enlarge to see if you can spot any faces you recognize? Calmly waiting while they get the door to her new home open, Möbius sizes up that opening to make sure she will fit. Doesn’t look like any chiseling of the door top will be needed here! Half out …….. …. half in. Everything in life is relative and our big baby now looks more like a little girl as she backs into her cavernous new home. Ahhhh, home at last! Four VERY proud parents with their respective new “babies”:
Dincer on the left and Baris on the right, the two very proud parents of the new Naval Yachts shipyard they have just designed and built.
And Christine and I in between, proud parents of our beautiful little girl Möbius towering over all of us in the background with some of her many attendants all around. Our poor little amputee has her legs reattached. out goes the boat mover and in goes the stands Feeling a wee bit little and lonely, Möbius now awaits her fellow shipmates to join her. Next up is her slightly larger and much heavier sister “Legacy” who requires the slightly larger yellow boat mover. Remote control all ready to guide her around the first corner around the last corner Legacy points her nose into the same bay and heads for her awaiting buddy boat Möbius And soon these two sisters of the sea are nuzzled nose to nose ready for their respective teams to resume work tomorrow. As you can see it was a VERY “moving” week for all of us at Naval Yachts and now the work resumes on moving the rest of the company, a few more boats and getting back to work on completing these awemazing boats.
As one chapter ends and another begins, seems fitting that tonight would end with this beautiful sunset off our back balcony don’t you think?
I’ll admit to being a bit of a pooped pup after such a fabulous week so I’m going to let Miss Google look after creating the videos of you this time. Frankly, I’m not sure I could do much better myself and that would take hours.
So here are the videos which Miss Google automagically created, one from my videos and one from Christine’s.
These are also nice little examples of the very early uses of something I have an abundance of, Artificial Intelligence! But seriously folks it is a fabulous time to be alive and an awemazing time to be living in so both Christine and I hope you will enjoy this post and these videos.
Either way, let us know what you like and what you don’t like or would you suggest to make these blog posts more interesting and enjoyable. Can’t guarantee I will be able to follow all your suggestions but I can guarantee that I’ll do my best to keep making them better each week.
Does this photo taken on Thursday afternoon give you some clues?![PXL_20210219_063714754[7]](https://i2.wp.com/mobius.world/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/PXL_20210219_0637147547.jpg?ssl=1 "PXL_20210219_063714754[7]")
How about this one?
Still not sure? 
Bingo! “Big Bird” the 72 Wheel Yellow Boat Mover has arrived at Naval Yachts because ……………..
All the big shipyard doors are opened up full width and Big Bird slides under the all cleared out space (the “what’s missing?” hint above) below Möbius and the countdown to launch begins!
Captain Christine is up on Deck doing last minute prep and clean up and the Owner’s Rep is standing around as usual, getting up close and personal with Big Bird.
All the while Möbius is being her typical good natured and patient self as she awaits the her big moment to shine in the brilliant sunny day we were gifted with for the big launch.
You may recall from previous moves over the years, Big Bird has a series of swiveling hydraulic lift pads along both sides
So they are now being readied to lift our girl off her support stands and struts for one last time. Or so we thought at this stage of the “dance”, stay tuned for more on that.
The silicone InterSleek 1100SR bottom paint is quite soft and new so they cut up squares of carpeting 
….. and slid them in between the hull and the wood lift pads to prevent the rough wood faces of the hydraulic lift pads from damaging this fresh paint.
With all the Lift Pads in position 20 hydraulic pistons easily lift Miss Möbius up off her perch and all the support stands underneath can finally be removed for good.
The Captain does one final check and packs her bag with cameras and champagne and is ready for the long and winding walk to the temporary new launch site that is much further away as you are about to see.
The BIG Day has finally arrived and Möbius takes her first step away from her home of the past 3 years at Naval Yachts and heads for her new home; Mother Ocean.
You can almost hear the shipyard and all the other boats saying “Good Luck Miss Möbius, we’ll miss you!” as she makes the turn onto the road that leads over to the inner harbour inside the Antalya Free Zone.
She graciously poses in front of the home she is about to leave as she heads out to make her own life at sea eXploring that Big Beautiful World of Water that awaits.
Three of the pivotal people responsible for building Möbius join in the Big walk.
And Möbius’ adopted parents join the parade as well.
Rounding the first of several sharp corners is a piece of cake for Big Bird when you have 72 wheels that can all steer!
This massive construction of the whole inner harbour of the Free Zone which has ripped out all the launching facilities and necessitated that we take an overland route to Setur Marina and launch all the boats from the Free Zone shipyards there for the next few months.
It would normally be quite a shock and surprise to see a ship floating by outside your office window but here in the Antalya Free Zone it is a common and almost everyday occurrence so no one gives it much mind. However, given the uniqueness of the XPM boats and Möbius’ gleaming aluminium silver sides, she definately turned a LOT of heads on her trip to the sea.
Normally this is where the Free Zone ends and there is a very large and intimidating gate here topped with concertina wires and lots of security cams but we were given special permission and so they opened up the gate, took down lots of big power cables above and we rolled on through.
We took this rare opportunity to do what you are supposed to do with all newly born creatures and introduce them to as many of the other inhabitants of the brave new world they have just arrived in. 
One more 90 degree corner which was no problem for us but ………. 
….. startled a few of the truck, car and bus drivers who suddenly found themselves sharing the road with a 24 meter / 78 foot long boat!
The long and winding road trip eventually led us to this road on the back side of the repair yard section of Setur Marina and the final 90 degree turn to the home stretch to the new launch site.
Uğur, who has been with us the longest is particularly happy to see this big day finally arrive, took the opportunity to climb aboard and have his own scene right out of the movie Titanic perched up at the bow as he rode the final land based home stretch.
We’ve arrived!
…… Möbius’ very handsome date who has been patiently awaiting her arrival.
Like walking the Bride down the isle, Big Bird carefully escorts Möbius down the path underneath the turquoise arches of this 200 Ton Travel Lift.
There are four of these cabled lift points on each side of the Travel Lift which are now carefully lowered to the ground.
Where the looped ends of the thick wide webbing that forms a sling that goes underneath Möbius belly, are pinned to the lift bars.
To protect Möbius’ fresh silicone Foul Release bottom paint, the slings have all been covered with soft padding.
And then each sling is threaded overtop of Big Bird’s side rails, under Möbius’ belly and connected up to the lift bar on the opposite side.
Up go the lifting slings as the weight transfers from Big Bird’s lift pads and they can now all be removed.
Transfer complete! Big Bird backs out and heads back to the barn while the Travel Lift carries Möbius …….. 
……. the final few meters to the water’s edge.
Travel Lift obliges and backs up just enough for Christine, Baris and myself to say a few words, announce that “We christen you Möbius” and break that champagne bottle over her hefty keel bar.
Poor Möbius! So close yet so far and yet another example of that paradox of trying to get to your destination by taking steps that are half the distance remaining which means that you get closer and closer but never fully arrive!
!Next morning, Saturday 20 Feb, 2021 we arose to what was surely the perfect Launch Day with even more sunny and brilliantly Blue skies and NO wind
And it was time to back the Travel Lift overtop of us and put those slings back underneath to lift us up and take us those final 10 meters to the water’s edge!
Lowering back down so Möbius could have here second kiss with Moher Ocean.
Once in we again checked throughout the boat for any sign of seawater inside such as around this Sea Chest in the Forepeak and my first glimpse of the sea below.
Not a drop to be found onboard so a quick check of where the real waterline ended up at the stern and we were good to cast off and be gone.
We gave the thumbs up to the Travel Lift operator and the slings were fully lowered and he backed away.
Due to several complications Möbius did not have a working steering system and the oil for the Nogva CPP gearbox has still not arrived but all the arrangements for getting out of the Free Zone, taking down the power lines, Travel Lift apointment, etc. had been made long in advance so we launched anyway and that meant we had to be towed back to the harbour inside the Free Zone which is why this tug showed up and threw us this line.
Fortunately we had thought of these kinds of scenarios well in advance and had designed this Samson post and nose cone for just this purpose and the tow rope was quickly set and we were off.
The Free Zone harbour is literally around the corner that is on the Left side where that Blue & White tug is tied up so it was a very quick trip and with no wind it all worked out just perfectly. The large green boat in the center is inside the Free Zone which then becomes the container port on the Right with all the cranes.
Rounding that corner on the Left with the Green boat now off on our Starboard side to the Right we can see the slot they have opened up for us to tie up in between the end of the Red tugboat on the Left and the Grey bow of the first of four Arabian Police boats you can see lined up along the same wall.
Naval had arranged for a second second small tug to help maneuver the stern and push us into our slot sideways.
Because as you can see, the open space was only about a meter longer than our 24 meter overall length so It was a pretty tight fit and they needed to push us in sideways to fit.
With the help of some of the great guys on Bozcay IV and III, we got the first line ashore and it was all very quick and easy from there in these windless conditions.
Now the second tug on our stern could push us sideways into the wall with just enough room to spare off the bow of the first Police boat.
Viewed from up in the SkyBridge, this is Möbius’ first contact with a dock.
Stern lines secured and we were soon all tied up for the first time!
When Christine and I were first drawing up our design criteria and use cases, one of the things we wrote down was that we wanted to fit right into being docked in a working harbour and stick out like a sore thumb in a “yachty” marina. 
….. and these two up front?
Still lots to do as the real work begins but enough time for a quick snack and celebration with the two founders of our builder Naval Yachts; Baris on the far Left and his brother Dincer on the right.
The rest of the afternoon was equally as Goldilocks time as we enjoyed this stunningly sunny 17C/62F weather being entertained by our two new bow neighbors as they brought this little fella “Lucky Star” in to get loaded up.
Then it was just the Captain and I, and of course Ruby and Barney so it was at last time to celebrate with an unbroken bottle of champagne that we had at last made it to that ever elusive Launch Date! 
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