We are eXtremely grateful to be continuing to enjoy both wonderful summer weather and full work weeks here in Antalya and at Naval Yachts this past week.  As per the title of this week’s progress update Team Möbius has been working on everything from floors to ceilings as you will soon see in this week’s update.

It is Saturday June 20th as I sit here writing this and we are under an unusual lockdown for the weekend where everyone other than students are asked to not go out between the hours of 9am and 4pm while all the students are busy writing their annual exams.  We’re not sure of the exact story but apparently the concern is that it has been typical in the past that lots of students and their families like to celebrate once the exams are over, which we can all relate to, and so they are trying to reduce this and people’s exposure for this weekend and next when there are more exams. 

However for Christine and myself this is hardly any hardship and we welcome and applaud Turkey’s continued vigilance and caution to help keep their already low numbers to stay that way.  The apartment complex we live in has three 12 story buildings with only two apartments on each floor so it is not very densely populated.  I’ve just snapped the photo on the Left from our 9th floor balcony and as you can see the swimming pool opened for the season last week so we now have that to enjoy as well. 
Otherwise we are busy as usual working from home on all the “administrative” aspects of building a new boat so Christine has just successfully gotten Möbius officially registered and flagged and I’m focusing on designing and modeling the mounting system for Mr. Gee and the Nogva CPP propulsion system inside the Engine Room so that Uğur and Nihat can start building those on Monday morning.

So with that as a brief introduction please join me for a tour of all the progress that Team Möbius has made this past week.

FLOORS:

We’ll start this week’s Show & Tell up in the Forepeak where Uğur and Nihat have been busy putting in the framing for the flooring in there.  Framing is a bit complex in terms of shape but simply made by welding lengths of aluminium L-bar around the perimeter of where the composite grate flooring will sit.

Standing at the Aft end of the Forepeak looking towards the Bow.  Exit Sea Chest on the Right, Chain Bin on the Left.
Standing in the front looking Aft at the WT Bulkhead with the Master Cabin on the other side. 
Nihat and Uğur are a great team and in no time flat they have all the L-bar framing welded in place, cut the composite grating cut to size and set into their frames.

The added step on the upper Left protects the large PVC ball valves that control the Black and Grey water exiting to either the shoreside pump-out or the Exit Sea Chest seen here in the bottom Left corner.

Black Water tank in the Upper Right corner, DC and AC cables crossing the WT Bulkhead in the cable tray up top and miscellaneous plumbing runs for Black, Grey and Potable (fresh) water below.
Climbing up onto the Foredeck and looking back down into the Forepeak to get this overall shot of the whole floor inside the Forepeak.  They also put in the little step in the lower Right corner which serves double duty to both protect the wiring in the cable tray underneath and provide a final step as you climb out which Captain Christine tested out yesterday and is VERY pleased to have.

The Forepeak is where we will store most of our ground tackle such as shore lines, fenders and the like so when we are anchoring or docking we access this area quite a lot and being able to get in and out quickly and safely was a top priority as we designed it and it is already eXceeding those design goals.
Looking at the Starboard/Right side you can see another way in which we have built in an easy and safe design for getting in and out by welding 40mm/ 1.5” pipe to the edges of all the longitudinal stringers in the Forepeak to create a build in ladder or set of steps to clamber in and out with great handholds the whole way.

Now having the additional grated first step at the bottom and that little one at the top you can just  see in the bottom Right corner here has really worked out well. 

When the stringers were first being CNC cut, we had all the little moon shaped cut-outs done create super secure hand holds everywhere and these also give us hundreds of perfect spots to hand lines, clip on fenders and tie things to.  This is going to be a fabulous space to work in and such a joy to have so much storage space compared to any other boat we have had.

While they were working up in the Bow and Anchor Deck area they also polished off another To Do list item by welding in the slats on the two fold up Dolphin Seats.
Uğur ran the testing program and gave it full marks as did Captain Christine when she came for her weekly Owners Inspection on Friday.  We will probably sew up some cushions that can be tied onto these for even more comfort and we can already imagine the joy of having these seats live up to their name as we watch our frequent Dolphin visitors frolic in our bow wave as they always love to do.
Moving back to the Port/Left Aft Deck they also quickly installed the last of the three eXtremely robust fairleads into the Rub Rails.  These are super helpful to run shorelines though and take them over to the huge Lewmar 65EST winch in the center of the Aft Deck. 
However most often we will use these two fairleads with Dyneema soft shackles tied to turning blocks for our Tender Davit Arch system.  More on that as we get to building it.

ENGINE ROOM SEA WATER STRAINERS

Making the transition from their aluminium work up at the Bow, Uğur and Nihat joined forces with Cihan the plumber down in the Engine Room to finish installing the two bit sea water Strainers on the large Intake Sea Chest.

Last week they had finished welding in the dual 70mm / 2.75” ID aluminium pipes coming off the Sea Chest with flanges for Cihan to now start mounting these two Vetus strainers.
Next week they will build and install the common manifold that both SW Strainers will T into and will run parallel above the long AL pipe closest to the ER wall. 
You can see the side outlet on the Right Strainer where the AL pipe connecting it to the manifold will attach.  Same flange comes out of the bottom Strainer towards the wall where it will T into the manifold.

Standing in the entry door towards the Front Stbd corner of the ER provides this perspective of how this all fits together. 

Mr. Gee will soon be mounted to the 25mm/1” thick Engine Beds running on either side of the equally thick center Keel Bar that runs the full length of the boat.

ER exhaust duct just visible in the Upper center with the curved Duct for the exiting air vent from the Workshop on the Left of it.

The two big PVC ball valves enable us to switch from a Sea Strainer that clogs to a new clean one with one simple 90 turn of one of those Blue handles.  Strong, Simple, Safe & Efficient, the priorities we design, build and sail by.

STEERING:

Cihan spent most of his time again this week putting in all the hydraulic plumbing for the Kobelt Steering system.
This schematic from Kobelt in one of my former home towns, Burnaby/Vancouver British Columbia will let you see how all the Kobelt steering components are interconnected. 
All quite simple but takes some time and ingenuity to figure out how best to route and run all these big hydraulic hoses throughout the boat and Cihan is a wizard at doing all this.

Looking down the Stbd side steering cylinder where it connects to the solid AL Tiller Arm you can see what the reality of the schematic above looks like in reality.  These lines are the ones you see in the center of the schematic where the lines connect to #5 Safety & Bypass Valve.
Cihan has been getting his exercise going back and forth between Möbius and the swaging machine in the workshop as he makes all the high pressure hydraulic hoses like these with all their different end fittings.
Sitting atop the center Keel Bar Looking up at the underside of the Upper Rudder Shelf to get this overview of how the hoses connect to the cylinders and that #5 Safety & Bypass valve.
Up above on top of that shelf Cihan has just about finished installing the hydraulic hoses for the two Accu-Steer HPU400 24Volt steering pumps. 

#11 AutoFill Valve on the far wall with the Blue Hydraulic Oil Tank on the Right.
Four of the 500Bar/ 7250Psi ball valves mounted on the bracket Cihan has installed on the Aft Transom wall.  These will be normally open like this but allow us to switch either cylinder out of the system if there was a leak and still maintain full steering capability.
One of the big jobs Cihan took on this week was routing these three hydraulic hoses from the very Aft end of the Workshop here all the way up to the manual hydraulic steering pump in the Main Helm station.

He started by exiting the center Steering Pump area to take the hoses over to the Port/Left hull under the HazMat locker you see above.
Then they come up along the side of the HazMat locker on the far Left and start making their way along the upper Ceiling box……..
………. along the lower cable tray on the Port side of the Workshop towards the WT Door out of the Workshop into the Corridor beside the Guest Cabin.

BTW, that cable tray is for the N2K and Ethernet data cables so having these share a tray with the hydraulic hoses is no problem.

Through the penetration in the Frame into the area behind my Office Desk wall.
Down the side decks behind the Fridge & Freezer cabinets in the SuperSalon.
And finally ending up here in the Main Helm.

And why are there hydraulic steering hoses going up here you ask?
  This should give you a clue to the answer.
As will this aluminium bracket that Uğur & Nihat have fabricated and are starting to install inside the Main Helm.
Exactly!  This is the Kobelt Manual hydraulic steering pump that is one of many levels of backup we have for our steering system.
In the unlikely event that both Kobelt steering cylinders and both Accu-Steer pumps should all fail then we can insert a steering wheel onto the SS shaft of this pump at the Main Helm and steer the boat the good old fashioned way.

Another one of these systems that we hope to never need to use but we SWAN Sleep Well At Night knowing it is there just in case.

ELECTRICAL:

Our ever busy Sparkie aka Electrician aka Hilmi, had another productive week so let’s see if we can find him.

First sign of Hilmi’s work we find over on the forward Stbd side of the SuperSalon in this Junction box that he has reopened to install four of the 11 LED Dimmer Controls.
three dimmer controllers mounted on the top and one on the lower Left corner.  All interior lights are LED and are on dimmable for use while on night watches, including the interior LED lights in the ceilings and the indirect lighting in the toe kicks and BHL handrails that run throughout the boat.
Hilmi & Yusuf found some of this new style of LED strip lights so we tested them out and REALLY like them! 
Difficult to capture but what is new and different is the continuous round strip of translucent silicone that runs along the thin edge.  If you look close or click to enlarge you can see the two round translucent silicone edges facing each other here.
This was as dark as I could make the Master Cabin but you can see what we like so much about this new style where the light is a perfectly even strip of soft diffused light along the entire length.  No spot dots of lights as in other LED strip lights so they provide a very even and very soft light.
Being all silicone construction, these strips are eXtremely flexible as you can see here.  This also makes mounting them very easy as we can simply press fit these pliable strips into the grooves that have been cut into the upper edge of all the Rosewood hand rails and toe kicks around all the cabinetry.  Similar grooves run under the edge of the nosing on all the stair treads which bath all the stairs in very soft safe light at night.
Very easy to cut these to any length you want with a utility knife and then solder the +/- 24V wires to the two little copper dots you can see on the inside of the bottom Right end here.
Terrible colour with all our work lights on but hopefully you get the idea of how diffuse the light is inside the BHL Blue Horizon Line Handholds on the Left here where we have temporarily pressed a short LED strip in the upper groove.
Hilmi was also busy down in the Basement this week filling up this Aft Battery Bank compartment with the last six FireFly L15+ Carbon Foam batteries.

The Grey PVC pipe is the extraction vent for all these battery compartments which are integral to the bottom of the hull.
This thick walled composite catchment tray goes in first and fits between the L-bar frames welded to the compartment floors which sit atop the upper edge of the central Keel Bar.
Then the six batteries can be easily lowered into the catchment tray.  Each L15+ FireFly Carbon Foam battery “only” weighs 43kg/94lbs which is relatively light compared to many of these large Traction style batteries so a single person can move them around quite easily.
In the Main DC Distribution Box in the background above, Hilmi has started to install the three shunts for the Victron BMV712 Smart Battery Monitors and this is the design I’ve given him to install these shunts onto the solid copper Negative Bus Bars.

Shunts A & B monitor each of the two 900Ah @ 24V battery banks and then Shunt C monitors their combined 1800Ah capacity.

On the opposite side of the Main DC Box is this AC Shore Power & Transfer Box which Hilmi  has now fully wired with the switches for the two shore power inlets, fore & aft and the 120V inverter selector switches.

Having all four voltages; 12 & 24V DC and 120 & 220V AC onboard provides us with complete flexibility but does require careful installation and management to do well.

GUEST SHOWER:

Having lost Omer who was our lead cabinetmaker for the Guest Cabin, Office, Head/Shower, Corridor and Ships/Wayne’s Office there has not been too much progress there of late but fortunately he had completed almost all of the work in there before he left to work for another shipbuilder. 

But Omur and Selim did manage to finish the marine plywood walls, floor and ceiling in this Guest Shower so it is now all ready for the Composite/GRP Team to come in and cover all this with a seamless epoxy and fiberglass surfaces.
Red/Blue Hot/Cold PEX lines ready for the installation of the Shower Towers and the floor is framed to provide access to the tank access port on the Left and the Shower drain on the Right.

A removable solid teak floor will set atop this with water draining off all sides onto the sloped composite floor and out to the Grey Water tank or Sea Chest.

MASTER HEAD & SHOWER:

Up front in the Master Cabin you can see how the Heads and Showers are finished.  Shower in the foreground and Head/Toilet in the background with all their walls, floor and ceiling already glassed in. 

Wood template is being prepped here to go to the glass shop where they will cut a piece of 15mm/ 5/8” thick clear glass that will form a separation between the Shower and the Head areas.
The Rosewood Hatch Liner has now been installed inside the inner AL frame of this big 700mm / 28” overhead hatch that brings in LOTS of light and fresh air. 

As you can see in the photo above, the glass partition helps to bring in both light and fresh air to both the Shower and the Head areas.
Frames are all clamped in place.
And look like this from up on the Foredeck. 

The groove around the outer perimeter provide the space for the inner leg of the rubber hatch seal system which wraps around the 8mm thick AL edge of the inner hatch frame.
Looking down the side of one of these hatches you can see how the inner and outer AL frames create a gutter to trap water and drain it out through one of the two holes in their bottom which you can see in the middle here.

SuperSalon CEILINGS:

Most of Omur and Selim’s time this week was spent working on the ceilings in the SuperSalon.
Each of these 10mm/ 3/8” thick plywood panels will be covered in White leather and use FastMount fasteners to snap in place to the Black ceiling grid.

The two sets of 5 circular holes seen here are where the air diffusers will be installed that bring fresh air into the Main Helm up front and the Lounge, Dinette and Galley aft.
For those not familiar with it, the FastMounts are a fabulous product out of NZ that create super easy snap in/snap out panels which we are using for all the ceiling and wall panels throughout the boat.

Two part system with these Male halves mounted to the inner surface of each ceiling panel.

With a matching Female socket threaded into the Black ceiling grid above.

Just as quick and easy to install as they are to snap in/out and give complete access to what is behind them.

Almost all the ceiling panels in place, just a few at the very Aft end which they finished installing on Friday.

Smaller Soffit panels down each side are also removable and finished in White leather.
They have trimmed the corners around the Plinth where you walk through the Entry Door from the Aft Deck with these generous 50mm / 2” radiused corner moldings.
Which made a quick trip to and from Naval’s Upholstery Shop to get their matching White Leather applied.
Doesn’t take too much imagination now to see how the ceilings will look once all these panels are also covered in their White leather with the contrasting Black epoxy in the adjoining spaces between each panel.

Have I mentioned that we are LOVING the way the whole look and feel of the interior is now coming into view?

These three ceiling panels over the Main Helm also just returned from the Upholstery Shop covered with their Black Leather and quickly snapped in place. 
The three panels behind these will also be covered in Black Leather to further reduce light reflections at the Main Helm on night passages.

Selim finished off the upper stair before week’s end so they are now all framed and insulated and ready for their Rosewood Risers and trim.
And to finish things off in the SuperSalon for this week, Omur has started to fit the sloped top of the angled Stbd/Right side of the Main Helm.
This will be hinged at the top to provide easy access to the electronics and storage areas inside.

Mr. Gee Gets His Head(s) Screwed on Tight!

Not to be left out I was able to give Mr. Gee our Gardner 6LXB main/single engine a bit more TLC this past week.

If you were with us last week you saw me install the two fully rebuilt cast iron cylinder heads onto the Cylinder Block and this week I was able to get put in all the nuts and fully torque both of Mr. Gee’s heads down nice and tight.
Most of the nuts on Gardner engines do not use any washers but I do use the appropriate strength thread locker on all of them for that wee bit more assurance that they won’t ever come lose yet can be easily removed if needed.
Having two individual heads side by side, you need to first clamp a straight edge along the edge of both to ensure that the exhaust/intake manifold sealing surfaces are fully aligned before tightening the Heads to the Cylinder Block.
With both heads fully torqued down it was time to install the new valve train.  Push rods go in first and connect the valve lifters sitting atop their cam lobes on the camshaft down below.
Next up are the Valve Rocker Arms which transfer the Up/Down movement from the Pushrods over to the Intake and Exhaust Valves on the opposite side.

The Gardner 6LXB has three shafts that run down the center of each head with two Rocker Arms hinged on each.  You can see one of these shafts lying at an angle at the far end here.  The shaft in the center is on its way to slide through the two Rocker Arms in the foreground.
Here is how that looks from the other end with that first shaft now in place supporting the two Rocker Arms.
Looks like this closer up. 

Spring in between to keep each Rocker Arm up against their outer thrust surfaces.
All these little soldiers all in place and ready for the initial valve clearance adjustment. 

Easy to see how simple this age old valve arrangement works with the Up/Down movement of the Push Rods down the Right side being transferred by the Rocker Arm in the center to Open/Close each Valve on the Left.
One additional and rare feature for the valves are these two shiny Aluminium levers which when rotated push up on the underside of each Intake Valve to hold them open and not allow any compression in the cylinders and are therefore called Compression Release Levers.

Why would you want to do that you might ask?  Several reasons but the two most important to me are;

1.  With no 15:1 compression to resist, this enables me to easily turn the engine over by hand for doing adjustments or to build up a bit of oil pressure before starting to name but two examples.

2.  But THE best and most important reason is that this also makes it possible for me to HAND START this engine! 

Hand crank starting used to be a very common feature on early cars, trucks and tractors of which I have restored quite a few so I know first hand.  And some of you may recall seeing scenes in movies or documentaries of people starting their Model T or other cars in the early 1900’s by turning a crank they inserted up front.  In smaller gasoline engines the compression was small enough that you didn’t need a compression relief system but in larger engines and especially diesel engines which have much higher compression ratios the resistance from the internal compression was too high to turn by hand so they had this kind of compression release system which enables a well fed highly intentioned person to get the engine spinning over fast enough to then flip the compression back on and Umph Umph Umph each cylinder fired and you were off to the races.

Seriously folks, I am NOT joking with you or pulling your leg about this. 

Need more proof, well check out this illustration of what will soon be Mr. Gee’s Hand Starting system!  indeed this is a VERY serious safety feature for Christine and I in our single engine boat. 

In fact when I first told Christine about this ability to hand start a Gardner before we found and bought Mr. Gee, her words were “You had me at Hand Crank Start.  I want a Gardner on MY boat!”  and the rest as you are seeing is history.
More proof?  OK, here is a photo of the Gardner Hand Start system “in the wild” courtesy Michael at Gardner Marine Diesel.

While we of course carry a full compliment of spare parts such as bearings and brushes for our massive 24V Gardner starter there is still always the outside chance of a catastrophic failure of any starter which I could not repair at sea or some complete loss of DC power which would render us quite literally “dead in the water”.  So having this ability to hand start Mr. Gee if we needed to is an eXtremely big deal and could be a life saving feature so we count this as one of our top safety items onboard XPM78-01 Möbius.

I’ll leave it at that for now and go into more details once I start restoring and installing the Gardner hand start system on Mr. Gee so stay tuned for that riveting entertainment to come.

And with that I’ll sign off for this week and go enjoy the rest of this wonderful summer evening with my Beautiful Bride aka Captain Christine.  A very big and sincere thanks to YOU for joining us and congratulations if you made it this far!  I know I am seriously “brevity challenged” but you know where the Page Down key is on your keyboard or how to swipe down to get here quickly if need be.

See you again same time, same place next week.

-Wayne