After several holiday shortened weeks we had a full 5 day work week here at Naval Yachts and Team Möbius took full advantage to make great progress in the cabinetry, aluminium and plumbing work aboard XPM78-01.  Let’s go take a look and see.

Starting with our primary Aluminium team, Uğur and Nihat were busy with several different projects this past week.  They continued working on the remaining handrails such as this one that will be mounted ………
……… in the middle of the very aft end of the Aft Deck directly above where you see it here.
Like this. 

The WT door on the right is the entry into the Workshop and Engine Room areas and the smaller one on the left is the HazMat locker that is fully sealed off from the interior of the boat.  Möbius is a single fuel boat so no propane or gasoline onboard but this sealed storage provides the safest way to stow hazardous substances such as engine oil, diesel fuel, paints and any other potentially flammable, poisonous or dangerous materials.

As you can see the Swim Platform and Aft Deck areas are shaping up very nicely with the symmetric stairs on each side, the super strong double post cleats and now the handrails. 
They also finished up this additional handrail which creates one of the entry gates used when boarding from a side tie dock or when boarding to/from the Tender in some situations where there is too much motion to board safely on the Swim Platform. 
With these side gates much closer to the center of the boat there is much less differential between the motion of the boat, the Tender and the water and makes for safer boarding.
We modified the intake Sea Chest in the Engine Room a bit to position the large dual strainers closer to the ER walls to add a bit more clearance when walking around the Gardner engine so Yiğit quickly modeled up the changes and Nihat and Uğur soon had this version 2.0 all tacked up.

With such eXtremely large integral tanks capable of carrying up to 15,000 L / 3800 USG of fuel and 7100 L/1900 USG of water the position of the Waterline WL varies at different parts of a passage but always sits above the top of the these two supply pipes to keep them filled with water at all times. 

The round top flange is about 50cm/20” above the WL so its Lexan cover can be removed at any time to clean out any debris that might be sucked inside and also makes cleaning the insides very easy while still in the water.

Each of those short vertical inlet pipe will be threaded for a 50mm/2” ball valve that connects to one of these large Vetus strainers pictured below which then feed into a common manifold where all sea water consumers draw from.

Having two independent sea water supplies if the active one should ever be clogged or otherwise stop working it is fast and easy to simply turn the other one on with a turn of the ball valve.  This Intake Sea Chest feeds consumers such as the various heat exchangers for the Gardner’s coolant, engine oil, CPP oil and then the wet exhaust.
Moving up to the Guest Cabin area we find more evidence of Uğur and Nihat’s handiwork as they cut open the stairs leading up to the SuperSalon to provide easy access to the various pipes and hoses using this area to join up along the Port hull side and through the WT Bulkhead into the Basement.

BTW, For those wondering, the red lines are from the laser level.

They welded a flat bar flange inside all the edges and then drilled and tapped a series of holes to refasten the cut-out stairs.  It would be rare that I need access to this area but you never know and so we make sure that all systems and equipment is readily accessible in the future.
Up on Aft Starboard deck the newly machined black Delrin bushings are being pressed in place ready for the solid pipe handrail assembly to be installed next and provide super strong and safe protection to this area and when moving up/down the stairs to the Swim Platform.
The 670L / 175 USG Day Tank is back in the Workshop laying on its side to show these new mounting tabs,
Which connect to matching tabs welded to the side of the ER Enclosure and along the back side to the three vertical WT Bulkhead stiffeners.  The neighboring portion of the Workbench is temporarily bolted in pace to make sure it all fits well with lots of clearance. 
The top and front of this Day Tank will soon be sprouting a set of fuel manifolds and ball valves which manage the various fuel supply and return lines from each of the 6 fuel tanks, the Gardner engine and Kabola diesel boiler.

Switching to wood cabinetry and moving into the Guest Cabin we find Omer and his team continuing to make great progress there.  They have the white epoxy coated grid all in place on the WT Bulkhead of the Basement and have just brought over the wall resting on its side here that will separate the Cabin from its Head/Bathroom.
This closeup of the bottom of this wall shows its hollow foam filled core construction which dramatically reduces the overall weight of our cabinetry.  The marine plywood is also a new super lightweight product which Naval has found and yielded the greatest cabinetry weight reduction. 

A few of these vertical voids are used to run electrical wires down to switches in the wall and the rest are filled with foam for added acoustic insulation.

Seen from up in the SuperSalon level looking Aft and Starboard provides this perspective.  If you look closely in the bottom right corner near the first stair tread, (click to enlarge any photo) you see how one of those walls above is now being test fit in place.
Stepping Starboard this angle shows the other wall as well which separates Christine’s Office desk area on the left from the Guest Shower on the right.
Cihan was too much of a moving target for me to catch in a photo this week but if we look closer at that Aft Starboard corner of the Galley we can see that he is busy installing the flexible insulated aluminium ducting which extracts the Basement air out to the Starboard Wing Box on the Aft Deck.
A bit later and back down outside the Guest Cabin we can peek through the doorway created by those two walls into the forward wall of the Guest Cabin to see how Omer now has the white epoxy coated 8mm plywood skin glued and screwed to the underlying grid of that upper stepped grid transition between the Galley cabinetry and the Guest Cabin. 
Along with the two stepped aluminium frames you see in these last four photos provides a very stiff and strong platform for mounting the cabinetry that attaches to both this Guest Cabin side and up in the Galley.

Turning 180 degrees to look across at the Aft Port corner of the Guest Cabin, Omer is showing Yiğit and me how the the bookshelf he has temporarily hung overtop where Christine’s desk will be, fits against that wall with the Guest Shower on the other side.  We were working out how the leather covered panel will snap into that light coloured upper half of the wall and fit around the bookshelf.
With those details all worked out Omer soon has the grid on that aft cabin wall all sheathed in plywood and he now prepares that inside corner for mounting Christine’s desk.
Lastly for today we find Ömer and Selim up front continuing to make great progress in the Master Cabin.  In the upper left background you can see that they have the wood grid in place along the Port side of the hull and they are now custom fitting the plywood cover for it.
Fits great and along with its matching lower panel and they provide a very solid substrate for mounting the cabinets, countertop and glass separator.  There will be similar cut outs in this upper panel as in the lower one to provide ready access to any pipes, wires and hoses running along the hull sides.
With the wall panels in place they quickly assembled the insert for the raised flooring to provide space for the drains under the shower and bathroom floors. 
The floors themselves will be two removable teak panels that are slightly convex so that water runs over all four edges onto the fiberglassed floor underneath and then out drains which to either overboard via the exiting Sea Chest or into the Grey Water holding tank in the Forepeak.  The two “missing” walls in the foreground will be made with two plates of floor to ceiling etched glass.

This angled plywood panel was cut and test fit in place and will now be used as a template to send out to the glass supplier.  This triangular glass half wall will separate the shower area from the counter and wall cabinets on the far side in the Head. 
Standing in the bathroom area looking up you can see how the divider glass panel is positioned just below this big hatch so that all those fresh breezes and light can flow into both spaces.
Next up they prepared this aft section of the Port hull for the wood grid.  The two horizontal lengths of marine ply are attached directly to the aluminium frames with bolts and adhesive to provide attachment points for the grid itself.
As with the rest of the interior these wood grids provide the secure framing to attach the marine plywood surfaces and create strong stiff wall surfaces for mounting cabinets and attaching the wall panels with FastMount clips.
Whew!  As you’ve seen a very busy and productive week thanks to all the super talented members of Team Möbius.

Several of you have been asking about the two youngest members of Team Möbius and Dincer was finally able to send me this shot of his three boys in the nearby playground; the  twins Yiğit and Mert in the swings being pushed by their big brother Demir.

Dincer, Baris, Yiğit and I will all be at the Cannes Boat Show all next week manning the Naval Yachts booth and checking out all the latest and greatest in power and sail boats at this big annual boat show.  Christine the the rest of Team Möbius will be holding down the fort here in Antalya and she will be the official blog photographer so rest assured that next week’s progress update will be ready for you as usual.

– Wayne