Wow!  What a week this August 13-17 was here at Naval Yachts with the building of the hull for Möbius.  Let’s just say for now that we are so excited that we are flipping with joy and let the photos and the videos below to show you why.

Picking up where we left off last week, Team Möbius continued to work at getting the last pieces of hull plate into position, tacked and then fully welded together.  This shot looking aft on what will be the Starboard (right) side of the hull when she is right way up shows how two adjoining plates are held in place with their outer surfaces perfectly flush.  The short vertical bridge plates or Strong Backs span both sides of the joint to be welded and the longitudinal flat bars hold the edges of the previously welded plate on the bottom.

Zooming in for a closer you will notice this aluminum foil tape running the length of the joint between the two plates to be welded.  This is an advanced technique used to provide the just right gaseous and heat environment for the molten aluminium during welding and result in a completely flat and flush weld surface on this outer side.

Looking closer you can see that the tape is holding a set of ceramic tiles with a slight groove running down the centerline.  The welding is done from the opposite side and allows the welder to get full penetration with the first weld pass as this ceramic backing maintains the just right setup for the molten aluminium to flow through the gap and maintains the Argon gas environment from the MIG weld gun throughout. 

Moving aft to take some better shots of the fin like skeg which provides the support for the prop shaft log tube and slices the water cleanly on either side and up through the prop tunnel to provide the best possible flow of water to the propeller. 

The two thin vertical bars you see here were left in place by the CNC cutter to ensure that both sides of this 25mm thick keel plate stays perfectly aligned during the build and then they will be cut away to allow the prop shaft tube to slide through the round supports and be fully welded in place. 

The CPP Controllable Pitch prop shaft comes from the factory as a complete single assembly with its own outer tube to fully encase the prop shaft and hold the bearings and seals all in place.  To install, this prop shaft log assembly will slide inside the aluminium tube that is welded in place here and the gap between these two tubes will be pumped full of an epoxy like material that will then permanently bond the two tubes together.  This allows us to get a perfect alignment of the prop shaft relative to the hull and creates a massively strong and vibration reducing prop shaft support.

As the team all pitched in and worked their welding magic to finish welding up all the hull plates this load of square steel tubing showed up on Wednesday.  I thought we were building an aluminium boat so I wonder what that could be for?

Enver and Umit seemed to know and started cutting and welding these steel tubes like this.

Meanwhile the rest of the team had been busy cleaning up the area underneath the hull and removing sections of the jig that was bolted to the concrete floor and upon which the hull had been built. 

Hmmmmmm, I think I’ve got an idea what they are up to.  Do you??

Those steel stands were then slid in under the deck plates of the hull.

More and more of the jig was removed as the stands took on the role of supporting the hull and pretty soon the jig was all gone.

Hmmmmm, I don’t recall seeing these brackets in the 3D model?  But I think they might provide more clues as to what is about to happen. 

Then this little diesel powered blue oversized skateboard wandered into the shop,

and the hydraulic cylinders on each wheel easily raised the hull so they could slide wood blocks between the hull and the stands to get the boat up high enough ……

… for the blue machine to drive all the way in underneath.

There was then a flurry of activity as the weight of the hull was transferred from the stands to the blue boat mover.

I think you might know where this is all headed next?

That’s right, it is moving time for Möbius as she heads outside to get her first bit of direct sunlight.

Out she comes, meter by meter

The bow seems to be a bit shy and not quite ready for the sun and public viewing given how naked she is right now.

Then these two yellow guys showed up.  They seem to be the more burly and heavy duty cousins of the preying mantis like cranes that you’ve seen before used to lift the heavy hull plates up onto the framework.

And I think you know what is about to happen next and know what those four big brackets we saw welded to the sides of the hull are for right?

Yup, you guessed it, it is Day # 133 since the build began and it is FLIP DAY!!

Check out the video at the end of the whole sequence.

They start with both cranes on the same side, one with cables going to Port side brackets and one to Starboard side.
Then they lift the hull up off the boat mover and then one pulls up while the other lowers down and the hull is soon hanging in space held up by just the one crane closest to the building.

Then the other crane drives around to the other side and lifts up the lower hanging side ….

… so the hull is now level and right way up for the first time. 

Lowered carefully back onto the blue boat mover and …

…. she noses her way back inside, very happy to be right way up at last.

Stands go back in and the hull is lowered onto the center keel bar, wood wedges are driven into place and the boat mover slides back out.

Three angled support struts are welded in place on each side,

and a ladder provides a temporary stairway to heaven, the right side up inside of Möbius!

Next week I’ll take you on a whole tour of the boat up on deck and inside each compartment but I can’t resist the chance to share a few shots for now.

I’m standing on the aft Stbd corner of the aft deck to give you a sense of the overall deck length and layout.  The big opening in the center is for lowering the engine and transmission into the engine room below and the tender will stow on the Port (left) side of this hatch and you can get a sense of the size of this aft deck area.

Moving forward, the small cut-out on the far left of this short wall is the bottom of what will be the WT door providing entry down four steps into the SuperSalon compartment which contains the Galley, Dining nook, main helm station, lounge area and stairways front and aft down to the Master and Guest Cabins..

Just imagine standing in this area looking out through the 360 degrees of glass windows that wrap around this entire opening and you will see why we call is the Super Salon.

Walking forward to the front deck you can see the SuperSalon from a different perspective. The Galley will be on the upper left or aft most corner and extend over to the doorway.  Moving around counter clockwise the L shaped dining area extends forward from the Galley along the Stbd side windows (left side in this photo), stairs down to the Master Cabin will be in the lower left corner, main helm station front and center between the two I beams you can see here, our lounge area forward Port side and then stairs down and aft to Christine’s Office, the Guest Cabin and the Engine Room and Workshop.

Turning to look to the bow you can see the nicely recessed anchor deck and how it slops forward to drain out that large aluminium nose tube you’ve seen in previous posts.

I’ll do my best to give you a more complete video walk through tour next week but for now you’ll find some video time lapse summaries of this VERY big week below.

Oh, and lest you think all the action at Naval Yachts was happening here, the new shipyard building also had a very big week with the erection of the steel framework for the two large ship bays.  If the schedules work out Möbius will have the whole hull completed just in time to move a few blocks over to this fabulous new home a few months from now.

Videos as promised below and I think you’ll really enjoy seeing the whole flipping process in action.