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.
In July 2016, we launched LEARNATIVITY, our 52-foot steel cutter back into the water after nearly a year on the hard in Fiji. The boat was looking better than ever after a new paint job, and while we loved cruising in our sailboat, we had also been working for more than a year on the plans for our new power passagemaker. As the design had progressed enough, we’d decided it was time to look for a yard to build her in.
Wayne and I knew from the beginning that we would prefer to build our new boat overseas. While we were really looking forward to getting back to cruising as soon as possible, we also were aware that the journey is as important as the destination to us. I know from experience that building a boat always takes longer than you think. We wanted to enjoy living in the place we chose to build, and since we love travel so much, we expected it probably would not be in the US or Canada. Since we would be living there for years, we hoped to find a place where we could learn a new language and culture. Also, we were hoping to find a place with highly skilled workers, but also with labor rates we could more likely afford.
Ever since we had traveled to Turkey in 2014 to do research for a book I was writing, we had had our eyes on Turkey. We loved the people, the culture and the food, so it would be a great place to live. We’d read about this area in Antalya called the Free Zone in an article in Power & Motoryacht Magazine. We knew they had skilled workers for building in wood and fiberglass, but we weren’t certain about aluminum. But we didn’t want to narrow our search too much at that point, so we researched aluminum boat building all over the world. Eventually, we came up with a list of builders.
Our yacht designer, Dennis Harjamaa of Artnautica, put together an estimation package for us that he sent to the boatbuilders on our list. In the end, our list included builders in New Zealand, Holland, Tunisia, Turkey, and later, in Louisiana, USA. We are also cold weather wimps, and while we looked at several builders in the Pacific Northwest, both in the USA and BC (where Wayne is from), we knew they could build us a fabulous boat up there, but the cost of living was high and we were hoping to find a place with a warmer climate.
Wayne decided to travel to meet with some of these boat builders and meet them face to face. In our estimate package, we had defined four stages of the build, and we were asking builders to bid on any or all of the four stages. Stage 1 is the hot works: all the aluminum hull, tanks, decks, and superstructure. Stage 2 is power away. Stage 3 is all boat systems installed with rough interior. Stage 4 is turn-key finished boat. For this trip, Wayne had scheduled meetings with two builders in Turkey, one in Antalya, one in Izmir, and another in Bizerte, Tunisia.
While Wayne was off meeting with the builders in Tunisia first, I was in Nadi, Fiji aboard LEARNATIVITY at Vuda Point Marina. We had a young Fijian man working for us to complete the last bits and pieces of our refit. He was installing the new insulation in the engine room and painting the bilges. In addition, I was writing a new book, which is my real day job and helps to keep us in provisions. As I Skyped each day with Wayne and got more and more excited about our new build, I decided to post on the Trawler Forum website about Switching from Sail Cruising to Power Passagemaker. I was asking if anyone had information about building aluminum boats in Turkey.
Those of us who read these posts on this forum know that it is an international group. There is a vast amount of knowledge among the group, and I was a bit tentative when I posted. I was hoping mostly about making a connection with another cruiser who knew of boats that were being built in Turkey. It never occurred to me that builders would be reading my post.
The difference in the time zones between Fiji and Turkey is huge, and Wayne and I could only Skype in early morning or late evening. I remember checking my email at the same time Wayne was in Antalya, and there was an email from a builder I’d never heard of who was also in the Free Zone: Naval Yachts.
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Hello Christine,
I saw your ideas about your plans to build an aluminum boat in Antalya in a forum. We are aluminum boat builders in Antalya Free Trade Zone, center of boat building industry, and also we give engineering and design services as well. We are currently building our aluminum hybrid motoryacht: GreeNaval 45. I don’t know what is your status now about building a boat but please feel free to ask your questions. Your contribution is very well appreciated as a sailor with enthusiasm.
please find us : www.navalyachts.com and www. greenaval.com
Best regards,
Baris Dinc
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Talk about serendipity! Wayne was in Antalya at that very moment. He had finished his two days of meetings with the other builder, and at that time he was asleep. His Sunday morning would soon be dawning, and he was expecting to leave in the morning to start the drive up to Izmir. I forwarded the email to him and somewhat doubtful that they could make a connection on such short notice – and on a Sunday, to boot.
When Wayne awoke the next morning, he saw the email and wrote back to Baris:
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“My wife Christine just forwarded this Email from you and as luck would have it I am in Antalya right now and very close to the Free Zone. However I am about to leave and drive up the coast to Izmir to meet with some other boat builders up there. I am almost out the door and going to leave Antalya in a few minutes however I would certainly like to take advantage of being here to meet with you personally if you happen to be around this morning?”
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Amazingly, Baris checked his email a few minutes later and answered. He arranged for Wayne to go to their yard that morning, and they showed Wayne around their sheds and the different projects they had underway.
They next time we Skyped, Wayne was bubbling over with enthusiasm for both of the yards in Antalya. We felt so fortunate that he had been able to connect on such short notice with Baris and Dincer, the partner brothers who own and run Naval Yachts.
It was months before all the bids were in, and we continued to work with Dennis on all the thousands of small design details that go into making a boat. In October, we left Fiji and sailed to New Zealand where we met with Dennis and had a meeting with the New Zealand builder. Eventually, we narrowed it down to the two builders in Antalya, and one year after the first visit, Wayne flew back and met some more.
In the end, on March 15th of this year, my birthday, we signed a contract with Baris and Dincer Dinc of Naval Yachts, the builder we chose due to serendipity and the help of the Trawler Forum.
A doubly big day here for Team Möbius; the very first welding of the first two pieces of AL plate that will soon be joined by hundreds of others to create the complete hull happened AND this Möbius.World blog went live today. Such a big day that it also called for a commemorative cake for the whole team.Möbius
You’re reading this so you have obviously know that the new Möbius blog is at http://mobius.world/ If you would like to receive an Email notification whenever a new blog post goes up simply click on the SUBSCRIBE button on the top right of the home page. You will receive a confirmation Email a few minutes later and once you’ve responded to that you are all set up to automatically receive an Email notifying you of each new posting. New posting will also send an update post to FaceBook and Twitter for those who prefer following along that way. And we will also have a YouTube channel for all the videos we create and will let you know about that address as soon as it is live. The blog, like this reporter is very much a work in progress so we ask your indulgence as we work to bring this up to speed and write better articles for you.
Hope you enjoy it, warts and all, and please let others know you think would get value and fun from joining us on this grand adventure.
As exciting as it is for us to finally have the web site and blog up and running, the even bigger milestone today was that the very first two actual AL pieces of the hull itself were welded together. Might strike you as confusing as you’ve been seeing lots of welding going on in the past two weeks if you’ve been following the previous FB posts of if you’ve been catching up by reading the other blog posts already available here on the blog, however that was welding of the jig that had to be built first to provide the base or foundation upon which the hull itself can be built. So the big deal, to use anyway, about today’s weld is that this is the first weld of the first two pieces of the REAL Möbius.
With a building drumroll in the background, here is the prep work leading up to that first spark of the MIG welder:
If you’ve been paying close attention to the previous postings you’ll recognise this as the spot where the first two pallets of AL parts came in last week. The one in the foreground has been emptied as that was where all the AL parts for the JIG which is now just about finished.
The pallet in the back here holds some of the actual 8mm AL plate parts of the hull itself and so we needed to sort through this a bit to find the two pieces that had bravely stepped forward for the honour of being the first to be welded.
We were looking for 2 of the pieces that would be part of the transverse Frame #16 which is situated about midway through what will be Christine’s Office and convert into a very lovely Guest Cabin complete with its own Head (boat speak for toilet) and shower. Didn’t take too long to find them and in the process we started to process of sorting them into respective groups for easier access when it is their turn to join the hull construction.
You can make out the curve of the hull at Frame #16 in the rear piece and the one in the foreground makes the curve up the sides of the hull to about deck level. The holes you see will be used for wiring and/or plumbing runs and also help to reduce weight. And you can see more clearly now some of the specialise slots that I’ve been referring to in previous posts where the longitudinal stringers will lock into place. The addition cut outs you see in each slot provide access for welding the stringers in continuous beads.
What’s going on in the picture is the preparation of the two edges that will be welded by grinding a 45 degree bevel to create a nice V groove when the 2 pieces are joined and allow full penetration of the weld through the 8mm plate.
A sacrificial length of AL angle is tack welded to the underside for clamping the joint of plates completely flush.
It will be ground off later.
And here is a sped up video clip of what it all looked like in action.
But WAIT! Who is that foreign welder guy that snuck in there at the end to do the first weld???
Dincer, we need to pull that guy’s welder certificate and check him out.
What can you do for an encore to that? Eat cake!!
In his typically thoughtful fashion Dincer and his team at Naval Yachts had made arrangements to celebrate this very big milestone marking by setting up festive tables outside the shipyard and invited the whole team.
To help eat THIS phenomenal cake made up very special for this occasion.
These are the two guys I work with most closely every day here; Dincer the co founder and owner of Naval Yachts (along with his brother Baris who was away traveling on business) and Burak our lead CAD guy.
You are both one of a kind Dincer and one of MY kind of guys!
This post covers the fist two weeks, April 2 – 13, 2018 with an overview of the very beginning of building the hull for our new 24m expedition Passagemaker named Möbius. Before we can build the hull we need to build the jig that holds the hull as it is being built and that’s what I’ll do my best to summarise below.
** For those of you who prefer or have less time I have compiled a video of these past two weeks and put it at the end of this post., so you can scroll down to the bottom to see those now if you’d prefer. Please be forewarned though that I’m new to video and not had much time for editing so far so they are pretty rough but hopefully add to the text and pictures here to give you a better sense of this project. I’ll work on my videography skills as time goes on and thanks for bearing with me.
* Click on any image in any post to see them full size
With all the AL hull plates welded in place, which vary in thickness from 6mm at deck level and increase through 10, 12, 15 and 25mm as you move down towards the center keel the hull becomes about as bullet proof as possible. Much more about the hull plating in future posts as the purpose of this post is to talk about the jig which is the first thing being built because it is the jig which will hold all those frames in just the right position as this skeleton of interlocking frames and stringers is assembled and the hull plates are welded on.
Given that the hull will initially be built upside down it will look more like this and it may help to keep this image in mind as you read through the rest of this post and see the jig being assembled in the coming days. Note however that the Pilot House structure which sits up on top of the deck will be built separately off to one side and then lifted up onto the completed hull after it has been flipped right side up.
The purpose of this jig is to provide an accurate base upon which to erect and assemble the hundreds of CNC cut aluminium ** parts as they are assembled pretty much like a “big boys” Erector or Meccano set if you’re old enough to have such fond memories of building things with those kits like I do. Or you can think of it like those large 3D jig saw puzzles of things like dinosaurs and such.
** Yes, this is the right way to spell aluminium but I’ll often just refer to it’s elemental symbol of AL as aluminium is element 13 on the periodic table. It seems that Sir Humphry made a bit of a mess of naming this new element, at first spelling it aluminium (this was in 1807) then changing it to aluminum, and finally settling on aluminium in 1812.
The internal framework consists of transverse FRAMES spaced about 1 meter apart and then longitudinal STRINGERS which fit into interlocking slots cut into the frames to tie it all together.
Different builders and welders have different preferences for building hulls and as is most common practice the experts on Team Möbius prefer to start building the hull upside down. Reasons for this upside down beginning are many and include making it easier to accurately position all the vertical frames in just the right spot along the 25mm center keel bar which starts way up at deck level of the bow and continues all the way down and back to the very aft end of the hull at the swim step. With these frames erected and locked in place on the jig, the longitudinal stringers which in most cases run the entire length of the hull, will slide into slots along the edges of the frames.
As each interlocking stringer is slid in place the whole skeletal framework aligns itself more and more precisely due to the self correcting nature of this technique. Yet another benefit of accuracy and time savings achieved by building the virtual boat in 3D CAD and then feeding this data to the CNC plasma cutter. Once this underlying framework has been assembled and mostly just tack welded together it will be double checked with laser sighting levels, transits and lots of measuring to ensure it is completely true to the 3D model.
Being upside down it will be easier to position the precut and shaped hull plates and weld their outer seams. At this stage the jig will have served its purpose and be disassembled so that the hull can be moved out of the building and using a pair of large cranes the hull will be very carefully and slowly “flipped” right way up and moved back into the bay. While all this hull building has been going on the Pilot House structure will have been built in a bay off to the side and ready to be positioned on top of the deck and the complete hull can now be welded up. Finishing all the welding or “hot works” marks the end of Stage 1 of our 4 stage process to build the fully finished boat. We estimate this Stage 1 will take about 5 months so the current rough estimate is that we hope to have all the “hot works” done by the end of September and be ready for Stage 2 which is the fitting of the engine, CPP propulsion and most of the systems onboard for HVAC, water, electrical, etc.
But let’s get back to the current task at hand; building the jig for building the hull.
To help you make sense of what you see in the videos and photos here are some photos of the drawings the guys are using to build the jig. This first one shows an isometric view of all the AL components of the completed jig.
This is a plan/top view of the hull building jig and if you click to enlarge this you can see all the dimensions they use to bolt all the vertical supports to the concrete floor.
There are a total of 22 frames spaced one meter apart and sequentially numbered with Frame #1 located aft of the bow and frame #22 at about the end of the aft deck. Add in the meter in front of Frame #1 for the bow and almost 2 meters aft of #22 for the last bit of the Workshop and then the outer swim step and boarding area and you have a 24 meter boat.
Keeping in mind the hull will be built upside down on this jig, and depending on your spatial thinking abilities, this profile view of the jig might help you make sense of what you’ll see in the videos and photos. The top of the jig surface is at about deck level and as you move from left to right on this profile/side view, you first see the aft deck which will be overtop of the Workshop, the Engine room and then Christine’s office/Guest Cabin. Next comes the spot on deck where you will step down to the floor level as you enter the Pilot House or what we are calling the SuperSalon. Being upside down this means the jig needs to go up and then where the Super Salon ends the forward deck begins and extends to the bow on the far right of this drawing. The first 4 meters or so of the bow are sloped down as you move forward toward the bow as this is the anchor deck overtop of the forepeak storage area and we want all the muck and water from washing down the anchor as it is raised to easily run off the deck at the bow.
This is the bay, approximately 30 meters long overall where the hull for Möbius will be built but as you can see the first order of business was to clear and clean it out and there was one rather large item to remove in particular. This is the GreeNaval 47 or GN47 electric hybrid which has been been fully powered up and already run through some initial sea trials (video here). Now she is waiting find her new owners so they can make the decisions on the interior build. In the meantime we need this bay to build the hull for Möbius.
One of the many benefits of being located in the Free Zone is the ready access to any amount of support equipment and services and so after taking down the surrounding scaffolding and clearing out all the materials that were surrounding the boat one of several boat moving machines was called in to relocate the GN47 elsewhere in the Naval shipyard.
This blue mover is the smallest one but plenty big enough for the GN47 and the operator, using a wireless remote control box soon had it positioned under the hull as you see here.
If you look closely in the foreground of this shot you can see the tread marks on the concrete floor of how the GN47 was lifted up by the hydraulic rams running down both sides of the mover and then deftly moved forward and around this corner where she will live while we are building Möbius.
This next size up boat mover is available for moving larger boats and this one is about the same length as Möbius. Here you see one of the boats in the neighboring shipyard being moved from the yard where all her hotworks (welding) were completed and over to the yard where she will be fitted out with engines, props and systems.
And Voila! an empty bay ready to be prepped for building the hull.
The first thing that needs to be done is build the jig as explained above and the next series of pictures will walk you through that process.
Because the jig provides the base for building the hull it needs to be measured out very precisely as indicated in the paper drawings you saw above. Using a laser line sight, tape measures, etc. the floor is marked out to match the drawings from the model and holes are drilled to bolt the square steel plates you see here.
Concrete expansion studs are inserted and the base plates bolted securely to the floor.
Steel L or angle iron lengths ae cut and welded to each plate to provide the vertical supports for the jig base itself which will be made from CNC cut AL plate.
Each leg has been drilled for bolts which will secure the AL jig plates.
And soon the outline of the boats begins to emerge.
The first shipment from the AL supplier/cutter up in Istanbul arrives with the jig parts in the foreground and the very first set of AL pieces of Möbius in the back. After more than two years of dreaming and designing Möbius is becoming real as I get to hold an actual physical piece of her in my hand for the first time! But more on that in future posts, let’s get back to building the jig first.
The AL jig parts are laid out on the floor and cleaned up ready for mounting on the steel legs.
Using the laser line level for heights and a sight string running precisely down the center of the hull, the AL jig pieces are bolted to the steel legs.
Here we are standing behind the hull looking forward so this is the aft deck area. Keep remembering this is all upside down so that curve will end up creating the convex camber of the deck to assist with shedding water well.
This aft deck area is about 7.5m/24ft long and about 5m/16ft wide and will be home to the large AL tender on the Port/left side as well as our outdoor eating area with sink, BBQ, etc.
The observant amongst you will notice the vertical slots in all the jig pieces and these are where the longitudinal jig pieces will be fitted and welded in place next week.
I climbed up higher to better see the overall size and shape of the hull at deck level.
If you remember the paper drawing above showing the side profile of the jig the raised section in the middle of the jig is about where the floor level of the raised Pilot House or what we are calling the Super Salon. You will step down into the SuperSalon which is our primary living space having the galley, eating and lounge areas as well a main helm station at the front.
And that raised area as the jig moves toward the bow? That’s where the deck steps down and slopes forward to separate the anchor deck area and make it easy to wash all the anchor muck off the decks and out the big drain and snubber hole in the very forward end of the bow. More on all that in future posts.
This photo looking aft from the Pilot House aft provides a sense of size and scale to the jig and the aft deck
And that brings us up to date for Friday April 13, a very lucky day and milestone for Team Möbius as the jig is up and the building of Möbius truly underway.
NOTE: We will divide the boat’s aluminium structure into two halves, the hull itself from the keel up to the deck as one part and then the second part will be the Pilot House and what we are calling the SkyBridge which are the structures which sit above deck level. What you are seeing in these initial videos is the preparation for building the first part, the hull structure and the second part will be built in a similar fashion in the bay on the other side of the one you are seeing so far. Work on the 2nd Pilot House structure will get started a bit later but both parts will be worked on simultaneously and then when the hull portion is flipped right side up the Pilot House structure will be lifted into place and welded to create a single unified structure. It should all become clear as the build goes forward and cover all this in future posts.
VIDEO: As promised at the top, I’ve put together a very rough compilation of different videos I shot over the past 2 seeks of the jig being built. Apologies in advance for my extreme amateur videography, all new to me and I hope to improve as I do more for this project. Möbius is not the only thing that is a work in progress, I am too! So please do send me any and all comments and suggestions you have to improve any aspects of these posts. I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to implement them all but rest assured I will read them and use them to keep making this blog more useful and interesting for you.
Hope you enjoy the video and this blog as we bring you into the ground floor of the building of the good ship Möbius.
It means a lot to both Christine and I to have you joining us on this grand adventure and I look forward to bringing you more as the progress continues. .
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. 
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?
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. 
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. 
Packages of these aluminium wire trays of various widths have been piling up on deck during the week ….
Here in the Workshop we will run some of the cables up and across the ceiling to the Starboard side.
Like this. 
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.
This is what Möbius would look like naked. That is if you stripped off all her outer skin by removing all her hull plates. Easy enough to do in the 3D CAD model as shown here by simply turning off some layers and this lets us see her lovely “bones” in the form of all those transverse aluminium frames and the interlocking longitudinal stringers which provide the just right combination of maximum strength and rigidity and minimised weight. 
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