As the title of this week’s XPM78-01 progress update suggests it was a multi faceted action fest all week.  First fitting of the built in furniture in the Master Cabin picked up where we left off last week and then a flurry of new components entered the scene with the big new hatch in middle of the SuperSalon floor, hoses for fuel, water and sewage (Black & Gray Water) were mounted and the new cleats and stanchion sockets were welded into the Swim Platform. 

Let’s go take a look ……………………….

Picking up where they left off last week Ömür on the left and Selim planned out the details of proceeding with the assembly and fitting of the cabinetry along the Starboard/Right side of the Master Cabin.  You are standing with your back against the Forepeak WT Bulkhead looking aft to see the cabinets that went in last week from the entryway door in the far aft corner here up to the two hanging wardrobes and cabinets in the foreground.  The assembly laid down on the floor is going in next and will hold the washing machine in its upper cabinet.
Speaking of Ömür I would be very remiss if I didn’t mention that he and his wife added their contribution to the Naval Yachts extended family with the birth of this little cutie, Merve Eda who arrived two weeks ago.  Unfortunately (I’m nuts for newborns!) I have not been able to hold her yet but I am told that Mom and Merve were home from the hospital in 2 days and are both doing very well. 

Congratulations Ömür!
This GA plan view will help you visualize the layout of the Master Cabin as you watch it being assembled.  Sweeping stairs take you down from the upper SuperSalon into the Master Cabin with the King bed on your left and one of the hanging closets on your right as you enter.  Forward of this closet along the Starboard/Right hull is a long bureau of drawers, then more hanging lockers and cabinets for the washer and dryer. 
Vanity sink on the far right at the very front up against the WT Bulkhead of the Forepeak and then the toilet and sink in the Head/Bathroom with the walk-in glass walled shower aft. 

Back to the real Master Cabin, you can see that there is a lot going on along the Starboard hull sides and this is just some of the runs of wiring and plumbing that will go into these spaces. 

When designing these boats we are always thinking ahead and working through questions like how will we service and maintain this infrastructure, how will we keep things clean, how will we access hidden areas such as the gutters in the margin plates below the cabinet bases, how do we prevent condensation, etc..

The answers to some of those questions can be seen above for example with the generous space left behind the outboard ends of these cabinets so that there is plenty of room to run all these hoses, wires and pipes.  The backs of each cabinet will be removable marine plywood panels screwed in place to seal off each cabinet and still enable ready access to the entire area behind each cupboard.

Right all these components are temporarily clamped in position and all the dividers are dry fitted in place so that once every piece is perfectly aligned and in their final position, clearances are checked, doors are temporarily mounted, drawers are fitted, etc. it can all be disassembled, and carefully carried over to the finishing shop for final sanding and application of multiple coats of polyurethane varnish.  Once all the systems, plumbing and wiring are installed then the finished components of this massive jig saw puzzle can be taken aboard and more permanently mounted.

When the bases are finish mounted, back panels installed and the insulated and heated floors in place, the whole area behind all these cabinets will be quite well sealed off from the interior air to prevent any circulation of this air in there.  This is one of the ways we eliminate any condensation forming in cold climates. 
Another layer of defense is the 50mm / 2” of EPDM foam (all the black you see) which effectively keeps the interior temps very consistent and minimizes the effect of the outside air/sea temperatures as we roam the entire spectrum of climates and conditions from high latitude polar seas to tropical waters on the equator.

With the Starboard side cabinets mostly fitted they switched sides and started mounting the front wall of the Head/Bathroom on the Port side.
I balanced the left door jamb on its end here to give you an idea of how the layout you see in the GA plan drawing above looks in reality.  The white epoxied foundations leading aft of that door jamb will help you see where the full height etched glass shower walls will run.  The two rectangles of white framing around those 4 fuel tank access hatches will provide the support for removable flooring hatch that will cover them.
I received a lot of comments and questions (thank you!) about how the double duty, one door/two jambs, doors work so I’ve taken this set of photos to try to show this more clearly. 

Here the door is in position in the first door jamb to close off the hanging wardrobe.  I have balanced the vertical portion of the second door jamb on the right.

You can see our “Horizon Line” handhold running across the door and the surface above it will be covered in light gray leather.

This is the half way point with the door in between the two jambs right and left ….
….. and here is the door now closed into the second door jamb to close off the doorway to the stairs leading up to the SuperSalon.  Check out the video at the end to see this door in action.

This inside surface of the finished door will be a full length mirror.

That’s all there is to this ingenious solution enabling one door to serve both purposes.  As some of you will note, this does mean that when the door is in this position you can see into the closet but in our case with only the two of us aboard 99% of the time, this door will rarely be closed like this and will most often be closed onto the wardrobe as in the first picture.

These kinds of doors have been around for a long time as I’ve seen them in a few very old homes in Europe and a few older hotels but I have never been able to find a proper name for these or the story behind them.  So if any of you happen to know more about these please share in the “Join the Discussion” box at the bottom.  I was fascinated by the very first one I saw probably 40+ years ago and we also had one in our previous boat and we find them to be just brilliant in form and function.  Less is more rings true here especially when it comes to multiple doors in the same area on boats and the way we have implemented them here they are another example of how we KISS or Keep it Safe and Simple.

Moving back to the Starboard side of the Guest Cabin you can see that we’ve been hosed!  In a good way.  Cihan was a very busy boy, along with many helpers as he continues to lay in hundreds of meters of hose.  The large mostly vertical running black/red hoses are 50mm/2” fuel hose for Filling and Venting the fuel tanks.  Looking up you can now see how those nifty catchment boxes work with the Fuel Fill box on the right and Vent Box on the left with just one tanks vent hose attached here.  These containment boxes ensure that any overfilling or foaming when fuelling up is fully captured inside these boxes and drained back into the fuel tanks.

The black horizontal running hoses on the bottom are fuel supply and return lines from some of the fuel tanks in the Basement and the clear hoses above are for transferring potable water between the six large integral water tanks.

Cihan hamming it up a bit as Uğur shakes head and they start working on getting the fuel vent and fill hoses in place on the Port side.

They soon have this mirrored setup on the Port side by the stairs leading up to the SuperSalon.

Check out the video at the bottom of this posting to see more of Cihan’s handiwork and get a better sense of how all these pipes and hoses run throughout the boat.
We tried out many different commercial hose brackets from different companies but none of them floated our boat so instead we made our own in house with a little bending jig on the hydraulic press that made short work of forming the AL flat bar into these just right shaped brackets which are riveted to the welded L-bar supports. (covered with EPDM foam in this photo)
The radius of the curves was made large enough to allow a thick band of rubber to be glued on the inside and ensure that there would be no movement and now chafe between the hoses and the brackets.
Checks all our boxes; Super secure, easy to access and KISS.  What’s not to like??!!
Evidence of Cihan’s hard work was easily seen in the Basement as well.  He has also been checking throughout the installation of the hoses that the fuel system remains fully sealed which is why he has the loop here to close off this tank for pressure testing. 

Looking closely in the center bottom and in the upper right of this photo you can see the white sanitation hose, still in its protective clear plastic wrap, connecting to the Gray Water tank on the right of the fuel tank.

Turning 180 degrees to look forward along the same Port side of the hull as above, with apologies for the low quality photo, we see more of Cihan’s handiwork.  Two of those black EPDM insulated lines zip tied to the cable trays have PP-R (similar to PVC) pipe for the chilled water to run up to the AirCon Air Handler in the Master Cabin and the third one is the hot water loop that runs throughout the boat providing instant hot water at every tap and shower.
Gray cables are 220 and 120 volt circuits, black is 12V and 24V DC.  Clear hoses transfer water from the water maker to the six tanks as well as allowing us to move water from one tank to another to adjust trim of the boat.

Apologies for the poor quality photo but the white pipe running above the three black pipes carries compressed air from the compressor in the Workshop all the way up to inside the Forepeak.  There are SS threaded inserts in T fittings like the one on at the right end of this white pipe which will have quick connect compressed air fittings along the way. 

Compressed air is super handy for some of the tools I use, for blowing out anything that might get sucked up into the intake sea chests, cleaning out difficult to reach crevices, and lots of other super handy tasks.  It is the little details that make the BIG differences right?

Oh, and did I mention that we’ll have an air horn that runs off this same compressed air for when we want to sound like the Queen Mary in the fog!

Mystery photo.  Any guesses????

Drain pipe from Guest shower into the integral Gray Water tank on the other side of this WT Bulkhead in the Workshop.
Uğur and Nihat are our relentless aluminium magicians and this week they turned their attention to this large 900mm/ 36” square hatch in the SuperSalon floor to access the Basement. 
L-bar framing went in first around the perimeter which will have a thick rubber gasket on the bottom to keep it quiet and sealed.

** Blue tape and scrap plywood is protecting the fuel manifold below from any welding spatter.
The hatch was quickly fabricated from 6mm plate with L-bar frame and flat bar stringers underneath and then ……
….. checked to be a nice fit into the hatch frame.

Flat bars on the right extend up to the height of the finished floor where the SS piano hinge will be attached.  Opposite side from the hinge will be a SS latch to keep this hatch tightly sealed in place and two SS gas lift cylinders will make it an easy one handed operation to lift up and hold the hatch open while taking large items to and from the Basement.
With the Basement Hatch done the Dynamic Duo of Nihat and Uğur moved on to the next item on the list; installing the two cleats in the aft corners of the Swim Platform.  We spent some time trying out different angles and locations and settled on this one.  Does not impede people boarding from the Tender or diving off the Swim Platform, leaves a clear open space at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the Aft Deck and stays squared off to lines running ashore when anchoring stern to in narrow fjords and other situations requiring such.

Plasma gun makes quick work of punching holes in the Swim Platform deck plates ….
…. and the hull underneath.  (all above the WL)
Cleat tubes are set down to have same 150mm /6” clearance to the deck plate as all the other cleats along the Rub Rails up on deck.
While we are at it and have the equipment out let’s put in the two outer stanchion sockets and get them tacked in place.
One final check that it all looks just right.
Let’s tidy up these busy outer corners where the hull sides, bottom stair, stanchion sockets and Swim Platform all converge by putting in an angled plate to make a clean smooth transition between all these elements. 

It was faster to make up a quick template out of pink foam board rather than fire up the 3D modeler to get this tricky transition shape just right and Uğur soon had the plate all ready for Nihat to welded everything in place.
Another job checked off the list!

Sezgin will come along later with the TIG welder to lay down the top finishing weld and make these joints look even nicer.  Similar to the welds you see on the horizontal cross bar and the vertical posts of the cleats.
Last but not least, this week’s short time lapse video showing more details of the work completed this week.  Enjoy!

Whew!!  Another busy, productive and hot week with daytime highs in the30’s here this week and even higher degrees of progress aboard the good ship Möbius this week of July 29th through August 2nd, 2019.

Super happy to have you along for the ride and thanks so much for all your comments, questions and suggestions.  Please keep them coming by typing in that “Join the Discussion” box below and we’ll see again next weekend with the next hot progress update from all of us here in Antalya at Naval Yachts and Team Möbius.