I am VERY pleased to be able to report that everyone on Team Möbius including Christine and myself are all doing well and managing to stay safe, fit and healthy. As per the title the only thing we are “infected” with is enthusiasm and progress. We certainly hope this will continue although the numbers of cases and deaths in Turkey while still relatively low compared to most other countries, have continued to climb. There is a general “stay home, stay healthy” recommendation for all and requirement for some, face masks are now required in grocery stores and the like and more and more cities, including Antalya where we are, have been closed for travel in or out. Hopefully the escalation of these defensive restrictions and regulations which will outpace the virus and be effective in flattening the curves.
On the good news front, I was delighted to end my two weeks of self isolation after our trip to London last month and rejoin the rest of Team Möbius back at Naval Yachts on Monday. I have made several changes though such as moving my office into my Workshop so that I can now spend 98% of my time still quite isolated and well distanced and I now only go aboard Möbius when everyone else is off the boat on their tea, coffee and lunch breaks. This has been working well and I have been able to get back to photographing all the progress so let’s jump right in and show you what’s been happening this past week.
I think I will organise this weekly update by starting at the front of the boat and working my way aft so let’s go up to the Bow.
FOREDECK ANCHOR GEAR
If you read last week’s Update you recall seeing that Uğur and Nihat were getting ready to mount the Maxwell VWC 4000 windlass and this is the final location they have marked out. The long line is the centerline of the anchor chain as it comes back off the shank of the 115 kg/242 lb Rocna anchor though that side mounted bow roller chute. The circle is the main body of the windlass gypsy and capstan and the small holes are where the studs from the Windlass body go down through the 15mm/ 5/8” AL deck plate and are secured from below to the 24V motor and gear assembly. Down inside the Forepeak looking up at the spot where the Windlass will mount you can see the extensive 10mm / 3/8” stringers underneath that 15mm deck plate. Some of you were asking about our Chain Bin so here is a better shot of that. Having a relatively small and round area for the chain to pile up in helps keep the chain from “castling” very much and falling over on top of itself which prevents the chain from becoming tangled and difficult to put out.
The Chain Bin itself is about 70cm / 28” in diameter and about 1.5m / 60” tall with a drain in the bottom which exits out through the side of the hull just above the waterline. I had put in a similar drain in the chain locker of our previous boat and it worked extremely well to automatically drain any water and muck right back out and a good rinse from the washdown hose every once in awhile kept it clean and pretty much odorless.
There will also be a clear plastic “gaiter” fastened around the top of the Chain Bin and the bottom of the deck to contain any water and muck that might want to fly off the chain and mess up the Forepeak.
Just aft of the Chain Bin I can show you this detail of these two built in SS Quick Connect fittings on the aft end of the Anchor Deck. One connects to the Fresh Water wash down pump and the other to its Salt Water sister which makes cleaning up the chain as it comes aboard very easy as well as keeping the whole Foredeck nice and clean.
The White PVC pipe is the Compressed Air line that runs the entire length of the boat for pneumatic tools, blowing things up and cleaning. The larger clear hose is one of the vent lines for the large water tanks below the Master Cabin sole.
Uğur and Nihat were also able to finish up one of the two Fresh Air manifolds that go up in the ceiling of the SuperSalon. This is the forwardmost one that sits overtop of the Main Helm and then a second one is about 2 meters aft of that in the center of the SuperSalon. Looking on the other side these 5 vent tubes set well above the bottom of this air plenum or manifold and have manually activated vent lids which can be pulled down tight to seal off each vent entirely if things get really rough and we want to shut off the air flow entirely and keep any errant water out. Looking up inside one of the vents you can see the simple cross knob that you can easily turn by hand to move the lid with its rubber seal up/down as needed. Keep it Safe and Simple or KISS it right?
MASTER CABIN
Moving Aft into the Master Cabin, Selim and Şevki have been continuing installing the ceiling grid and snap in panels. This is standing beside the Shower on the Right looking towards the Aft Port/Left corner of the Master Cabin.
Bed on the far Left with all its drawers underneath and the dropped ceiling above. Some of the leather covered snap in wall panels on the Right have been remove while Cihan is putting in the black ducting behind the wall grid for the AirCon/Hot Air to flow from the Air Handler underneath inside the narrow floor you can see in the photo above up to ………………….. …….. this beautiful Rosewood vented air box up on the ceiling. Turning a bit to Starboard you can see the stairs leading up to the SuperSalon are ready for their treads to go in and Christine’s Bosch Washing machine, with WiFi no less, is setting atop the bed frame ready to be installed in its forward cabinet soon.
For those wondering, they have painted the ceiling grid Black to create a nice contrast to the narrow space between each of the White leather covered ceiling panels when they are snapped into their FastMount fittings in each of those small holes. Spinning around 180 to look forward you can see they have done the same to the rest of the ceiling grid up front.
Master Shower in the Left foreground with its adjoining Head/Bathroom behind. The rough ceiling panels have now been fitted and snapped into place in that forwardmost area with the Bathroom/Head on the Left, Vanity sink area in the center and the Wardrobe cabinetry along the wall on the Right. The washing machine will be installed in one of these upper cabinets. Zooming in on this nice bit of detail where three of the ceiling panels meet up on the small corner around the Bureau of Drawers that is on the far Right.
MASTER SHOWER & HEAD/BATHROOM
The Master Shower/Bathroom continues to get fully glassed in.Shower is in the Left foreground and the corner walls here will be etched glass. Shower seat on the bottom Left with the Bathroom countertop extending all the way to the far wall with the toilet mounted on the raised floor platform to the Right.
There will be a clear glass half wall inserted in that slot between the Shower seat and the Sink cabinet on the Right which will separate these two compartments and keep the Bathroom dry. The two upper “Medicine cabinets” as I grew up calling them have been clamped in place ready to be glassed in.
There are removable backs inside these cabinets to provide easy access to the plumbing behind the wall.
The hole in the ceiling is where fresh air flows in from the Dorade Vent above and you can just see the corner of the large hatch above the Shower and part of the Bathroom to bring in more fresh air and LOTS of natural light.
VacuFlush toilet mounts to this black flange on this raised platform and the rectangle in front is to provide access to the water tank access port underneath.
The Shower and Head will each have lift out Teak covered floor plates so all the water drains off their edges into the seamless floor pans below and out the drains into the Gray Water pumps. Just outside the Head/Bathroom door frame on the Left is the Vanity Sink with its own upper cabinet on the wall and another big hatch above.
SUPERSALON & MAIN HELM AREA
Omur and Selim made lots of progress in the SuperSalon and Main Helm areas this past week. Looking towards the Bow and down the spiraled stairs you can see all the drawers on the side of the Bed in the Master Cabin below.
Arm of the Settee in the bottom of this photo and Main Helm above. Standing in the opposite corner at the bottom of the other stairs coming down from the Aft Deck gives a better sense of the overall layout of the Galley on the Right, Helm up front and double Fridges cabinet on the Left.
Hatch into the Basement in the center. A good glimpse at some of the craftsmanship details of this Port/Left corner of the Helm area. Our ubiquitous BHL Blue Horizon Line continues winding its way through the boat. Peering down inside this triangular cupboard gives you an idea of just how cavernous and deep this space is thanks to the dropped ceiling overtop the head of the Master Bed below. There will be a Black leather covered lift up triangular door on top here to reduce any glare in the negatively raked window glass at night. This center area of the Helm will have a sloped dashboard panel with two 19” touchscreen daylight readable monitors set in behind it just in front of this center window. On the Right side of the center Helm Chair this sloped wall provides more area for Helm controls and switches.
Forward electrical panel inside this area and Hilmi has started to fasten in some of the many cables coming up from the Basement. Most of our 24V circuit breakers and some electric system monitoring gauges will be inside. The far Starboard/Right side of the Helm has a matching triangular storage area. This one isn’t quite as deep to provide plenty of headroom through the doorway below. Can you guess what Omur and Selim are making up here?
Hint; they also go into the SuperSalon area hence my including them here. Full marks if you were able to guess that these are the corner brackets to make the transition between the top of the window frames to the ceiling. These will go all the way around the whole perimeter of the SuperSalon windows. One detail some of you fellow DIY and Makers might appreciate is this thin phenolic based layer they laminate to the marine plywood surfaces to provide a perfectly smooth surface for paint and leather to be applied. Quick and easy to laminate onto the plywood surfaces and then trim the edges flush with a router bit. Glue and paint stick tenaciously to this material without any raising of the grain of the plywood or need for multiple coats to fill the porous wood below. Another detail I received several questions about is this thin acrylic sheet I have in my dirty little fingers here. It starts out as a sheet of thin 2-3mm clear acrylic which we then had our aquamarine swirl photo printed onto the underside surface. Once back from the printer these are easily sawn into strips for the Blue Horizon Line which you can see stacked up in the background.
A heat gun softens the strips where they need to wrap around radiused corners and are easily glued into the recesses behind the Rosewood hand holds and other edges such as these winding around the Settee bottoms.
GALLEY
More of our 360 degrees of BHL snaking its way around the Galley cabinets just under what will soon be the aquamarine granite countertops. Galley Garages are back from the Finishing Shop and being fit in place. Foundation framing being completed so that the rigid foam floors can be put in place and the grooves for the In-Floor heating PEX tubing can be cut. Once he had all the last of the floor frames adhered to the AL plates Selim got to work cutting and fitting all the rigid foam insulation. He then cuts and fits the 10mm / 3/8” marine plywood flooring. These are just dry fit for now as they need to come up for the installation of the In-Floor heating PEX tubing before they are finally glued and screwed to the frames. The finish floor will be strips of some new “click locked” vinyl flooring that is now used in airports, shopping malls and other high traffic applications.
GUEST CABIN
Down below in the Guest Cabin, Omer and Muhammed have been hard at work putting in the removable ceiling panels. Same system as we saw earlier in the Master Cabin with the Black ceiling grid to provide some depth and contrast in the space between the White leather covered ceiling panels when they are snapped into place like these three overtop the bookshelves hiding behind their protective cardboard coverings. And these ones overtop the Pullman Berth and …. …… Christine’s Office Desk with its own Bookshelves above.
Rosewood box on the Left of her desk provides some of the support for the Pullman when it is pulled down as well as being ……………… ……………………… a removable cover giving access to the Air Handler inside that corner cupboard. They have also been busy installing the sink cabinet and surround in the Guest Head with more of the BHL of course! Ro$ewood countertop being attached. Sink will be atop the counter on the far Right with storage cupboard below. On the other side of the Bathroom wall Omer and Muhammed have been started work on the BHL and handrail leading up the stairs.
Boat Office (aka mine!) on the Left. Carefully fitting and gluing the BHL strips into place.
ELECTRICAL WORK
On the opposite side of the photo above, behind Omer’s back we see some of Hilmi’s handiwork putting in the nautical miles of cables and wires.
This is the Aft Electrical Panel which will be home to most of our AC DIN rail circuit breakers as well as some more 12 and 24V equipment. This is the Forward Electrical Panel we say earlier on the Right side of the Main Helm which holds most of our 24V circuit breakers, switches and gauges. As you can see Hilmi has most of these cables coming up from the Basement, zip tied to the bottom for strain relief and ready for connecting all these wires to their respective circuit breakers, switches, controllers and gauges. Down in the Basement he has also been hard a work putting in more of the N2K network and Maretron monitoring system. Another AL panel in the diagonally opposite corner of the Basement with more Maretron black boxes and one of the blue multi-port boxes on the N2K Backbone. Looking up, we can see that the wire trays are starting to fill up with all the different cables and wires going in and out of the Basement which is purpose built to be Grand Central Station for all these systems.
PLUMBING
Back in the Workshop, Cihan’s plumbing handiwork is evident with examples such as this set of ball valves for the sea water going in/out of the Sea Chests in the Engine Room. These four are the sea water supply and return lines for the Delfin Watermaker’s low pressure Feed Pump and the Webasto Chiller’s circulation pump. Above these ball valves are more lines for Domestic Hot & Cold Water, Chiller water and bilge pumps. Looking forward alongside the Engine Room walls on the Left and the Day Tank in the upper Left corner you can start to see just how much work Cihan has been doing putting in all these hoses and ball valve manifolds for everything from fresh and salt water, Bilge and Gray water lines, fuel lines and compressed air. Here for example are some of the many hoses going in/out of the Engine Room on the Left with the deep sump of the Day Tank above with its blue handled ball valve for easily draining off any water and dirt that collect there. Up on top of the Day Tank Cihan is starting to plumb in the fuel lines to their respective ball valves across the top.
WORKSHOP FLOOR
One of the more exciting new developments this past week was Uğur and Nihat’s work putting in the framework for this very cool composite grid that Yigit found for us. This is normally used for walkways in high traffic industrial settings and marinas for example. It is about 35mm / 1.4” thick and comes in sheets about 1m x 4m long. Easily cut with a circular saw or hand tools and impervious to everything from fuel to acid so should work really well for flooring in the Workshop, Engine Room and Forepeak. So Uğur and Nihat got busy putting in a whole framework of L-bar for this flooring grid to attach to. This is the floor alongside the Port/Left side of the Workshop/Engine Room with the WT door into the Guest Cabin/Office area at the far end. On the Stbd/Right side Uğur tacks in the L-bar frames around those Sea Water ball valves we saw earlier. Doesn’t take him long to get this all tacked up and all leveled as it extends all the way forward to under the Day Tank. Using this system we are able to keep the Workshop floor all on the same level by framing around the Prop Tunnel as you can see here. There is a center workbench directly overtop the bulge of the Prop Tunnel with storage below so the large thick arched frame member does not impede walking around the aft end of the Workshop.
AFT DECK
Nihat and Uğur were in top form this past week as they also put in this very special milestone; the installation of the Aft window frames and …… ……. Aft Entrance door from the Aft Deck into the SuperSalon.
These have been purposefully left out up to now to make it easier to bring all the cabinetry and large equipment in/out of the interior but with all that now done these last bits of the aluminium framing can go in.
If you look closely at the top of both vertical door frames above you can see these oval cut outs which enable us to use them as well protected chases for wires and cables running from up in the SkyBridge and down into the SuperSalon and Basement. On the outside on the Aft Deck you can see how the window frames provide the same recesses for the 28mm / 1.1” tempered glass windows. Once the welding was done and cool, Nihat started putting in the EPDM insulation on these new AL surfaces. They were also able to cut these large holes in the Upper Aft corners of the SuperSalon which connect into the Upper Wing Vent Boxes that extend aft on both side of the Pilot House. There will be a large axial extraction fan inside each of these Vent boxes to pull air out of the Galley (shown here) and SuperSalon areas and keep a good flow of fresh air throughout this large living space.
AFT DECK VENT BOXES & OUTSIDE GALLEY
But Wait! There’s still more from the Dynamic Duo of Uğur and Nihat
Clearly “infected” with enthusiasm Nihat and Uğur also worked on lots of details on the two large Vent Boxes you’ve been seeing take place over the past month.
This is one of the Extraction Fan boxes which Yigit cleverly designed. A large axial fan will be mounted inside this box pushing air out the top 5 slots and the bottom is sloped so that any water that gets in here can quickly drain out those bottom slots. Here is another extraction fan boxes of Yiğit’s same design and this one mounts on the Lower Wing Vent Box just outside the Aft Entrance Door. Inside, you can see 2 of the round air ducts coming up out of the Corridor and Guest head below with the same shut off lids we saw at the beginning of this post so that these vents can be completely closed and WT if things get really nasty outside. Also in the Vent Boxes and something I received several questions about was these Mist Eliminators so I wanted to provide some more examples and explanation. These flush mount on the inboard sides of the Vent Boxes and their specially designed set of fins inside cause the incoming salty air to give up most of its moisture and also break up any full hits of water that might splash up this high. If you look closely inside (click to enlarge any photo) you can see the fin shapes and also the drain in the bottom that will have a drain hose attached to take the water back out to the deck. Looking down deeper into the Port supply air Vent Box you can see the entryway duct heading down ….. ………….. into the Engine Room through this long AL duct which brings the cool dry outside air down to the floor of the ER to help maximize the natural flow of air as it warms and rises up to exit out the extraction vent up on the ceiling of the opposite side of the ER.
PROP SHAFT in the RUDDER
Finishing the tour at the very Aft end of the boat to show you this last bit of aluminium work Uğur and Nihat completed this week with the final welding of the prop shaft removal tunnel in the rudder. A small but highly valued feature that makes it possible to remove the Prop Shaft without having to also remove the Rudder which is not a quick or easy thing to do. Nice work boys!
Mr. Geeee!
Spending almost all my self imposed “shelter in place” time at the shipyard in my reorganised Workshop, one advantage is that I am now able to devote more time to Mr. Gee as we affectionately call our Gardner 6LXB main engine.
In previous weeks I had sandblasted, scrubbed, pressure washed and primed all the main aluminium castings and this week I was able to apply the top coats.
He has cleaned up very nicely for a 50 year old guy don’t you think?
Brief Tech Talk:
For those interested, I’m using a special high temp silicone based paint and the primer is rated for up to 600C/1112F and the top coat here is rated at 300C/572F which is way beyond any temps Mr. Gee should experience. The topcoat you see going on here, is basically aluminium dust mixed into clear silicone. Works great and looks like brand new aluminium which was my goal. I was originally going to leave all these castings in their natural “raw” sandblasted aluminium state but the nature of cast aluminium is that it is quite rough and porous which tends to retain oil and dirt. So I decided to paint all these surfaces not only because I wanted Mr. Gee to look good, I also like to have light coloured and very smooth surfaces on my engines so that they are easy to keep clean and more importantly easy to spot any leaks right away.
I found that even when the aluminium top coats were fully cured, when you rubbed these surfaces with your fingers or a clean cloth, some of the aluminium dust particles suspended in the silicone would come rub off, so I put on two coats of clear to create a smooth and impervious final finish.
LOTS of work as you might imagine, but well worth it and I am eXtremely happy with the end result both now and over the next few decades of Mr. Gee’s next life.
Various cast AL covers which bolt to the Crankcase also received their fresh new aluminium and clear coats. This first half of the flywheel housing will soon be bolted to the end of the crankcase above and then …… ……. has its other half here bolted on to complete the housing with the monstrous flywheel fully enclosed inside.
The SAE1 bolt pattern on this housing mates with the SAE1 pattern on the Nogva CPP Servo Gearbox to create a single solid propulsion unit that drives the 65mm/2.6” diameter Nogva prop shaft. This is the “tiny” little cast aluminium oil sump/pan which I’d estimate weighs over 22kg / 50lbs by itself. Ask me how I know! It holds 27 Litres of oil.
All surfaces are fully finned to increase the cooling of the engine oil and then there is an additional dedicated engine oil heat exchanger that was the next focus of my attention this week. This is the solid bronze engine oil cooler which runs along the side of the crankcase.. It is a heat exchanger style cooler with sea water pumped into it through the bronze 90 degree elbow in the Right foreground and out the arched pipe you can see on the far end and in the photo below.
Engine oil is pumped into the flanged fitting in the Left foreground ……… ………. which then exits out a similar fitting on the far end which has an external copper pipe that carries the cooled oil back into the oil sump.
There is a dedicated gear driven oil pump to move the oil through this cooler.
Keeping the engine oil at a consistent temperature is one of the keys to the eXtremely high efficiency these Gardner engines have, hence this dedicated oil cooler. Didn’t take me too long to disassemble the oil cooler and you can now see how it works. The hot engine oil flows through that cool looking crimped bronze tube in the middle here and the cool sea water is pumped through the two part square cast bronze tubes on either side. Classic Gardner over engineering that I never get over.
Not seen here, but there is a replaceable long thin strip of zinc anode that runs inside the full length of the cooler so that it rather erodes rather than the brass or bronze parts due to the natural galvanic corrosion that is a function of dissimilar metals immersed in electrolytic sea water.
One of Christine’s many birthday presents! This close up of one end lets you see how the sea water flows through the outer square area surrounding the round crimped brass tube in the middle which has the hot oil flowing through it.
NEW ARRIVALS:
Last but definately not least for this past week was this newest arrival.
Can you guess what’s inside? While you ponder that, I want to be sure to give an eXtremely big XPM Möbius shoutout to the people who were so great to work with to make this happen:
Thanks to Rob Westermann who runs Artnautica EU over in Hindeloopen Netherlands along with with our XPM designer Dennis Harjamaa at Artnautica HQ over in Auckland New Zealand. Rob has become a good friend of Christine and mine as well as Naval Yachts and it was only thanks to his extensive network within the marine industry and especially in the Netherlands that we were able to work out this Goldilocks water heating system with Kabola. I’ve been a big Kabola fan since first encountering their super efficient diesel water heaters or boilers more than ten years ago so it brings me great joy to finally have this aboard our new home Möbius.
I also want to thank Othni and Roelof at TCN Techno Center Noord the Kabola distributor in Sneek NL who worked with me through all the technical detailing and engineering of our diesel fired hot water system.
And most recently, kudos to Hugo at Clion-Marine Eberca B.V. who was an ace at getting this shipment through to us in these challenging Corona virus times. Fortunately air freight flights and the global supply chain still seem to be up and running in most parts of the world and I’m hopeful this will continue. Fortunately we now have pretty much all the equipment we need for the build so shouldn’t need too much more but with boats there is ALWAYS something more you need it seems.
Thanks to all of you!
So as you might have guessed by now, this week’s New Arrival was our Kabola KB45 EcoLine Combi diesel fired water heater fresh off the plane at Antalya airport from where they are made in the Netherlands!
These newer Kabola EcoLine models now have all digital controls and thermostat by Siemens and they average about 94% efficiency. You can hold a white rag over the exhaust outlet and not catch a trace of soot and I’ve seen some of these being opened up for maintenance after 2+ years of steady operation with almost no soot in the burner itself at all. We ordered the full Kabola exhaust system which helps to keep the exhaust almost silent when it exits out the hull and very low heat escapes through the double walled heat exchanging exit pipe.
The “Combi” version of these Kabola EcoLine boilers has two independent water circuits; one to help heat the Domestic Hot Water in the central Calorifier aka Hot Water Tank, and the second circuit to heat the interior air in the boat via the Webasto A-Series Air Handlers in each room. Here is how that all works:
1. One of the circuits in the Kabola boiler heats fluid circulating through one of the two heat exchanger coils inside the IsoTemp Calorifier (Hot Water tank) which is the source of all the DHW Domestic Hot Water that circulates throughout the boat to supply each sink and shower.
This cutaway model at the Dusseldorf boat show lets you see inside a single heat exchanger coil model.
Our model of these Webasto Indel IsoTemp Calorifiers has a second heat exchanger coil inside that circulates some of the hot fresh water/antifreeze coolant from the Gardner engine so we get “free hot water” whenever Mr. Gee is running.
And if you look closely in the cutaway model above, you can see that there is a third heating source in the center which is a traditional 230V electric coil. Not being connected to shore power we would rarely use this but could prove useful sometimes.
2. The second circuit being heated by the Kabola KB45 boiler heats fluid going to any of the four fluid to air heat exchangers inside each of the Webasto Air Handlers or “Fan Coils”; one in each Cabin and one on each side of the SuperSalon. When supplied with hot water these heat exchangers or Air Handlers, transfer the heat from the fluid to the air blowing through them and warm up the space this way.
These are the same Air Handlers double as our Air Conditioners in hot climates simply by having the Chiller feed them chilled water instead of hot. Single units, dual purposes, which we try to do with as many of our systems as possible.
Of course whenever we are in colder or Polar climates we will most often use our In-Floor heating system which runs through three independent zones; Master Cabin, Guest Cabin and SuperSalon. The In-Floor heat also comes from the Domestic Hot Water circuit coming out of the Calorifier so we get to capitalize on that super efficient Webasto boiler to keep us nice and toasty no mater how cold it is outside. The day I was born in Whitehorse in the Canadian Yukon it was minus 53 degrees out so I know what Cold is!
BTW, at these temperatures you don’t really need to bother with Centigrade/Fahrenheit conversion as –40 C = –40F but if you want to be more precise, –53F = –47C which is more often known as simply k k k k K K K K K K KOLD!!!
OK, that wraps up the latest Möbius World Weekly Progress Update and I hope it helps provide some good reading and distraction for all of you who are similarly practicing some form of isolation as we all try to navigate our way through this most unexpected global storm. All of us over here hope that all of you out there are finding ways to to keep yourself, your family and friends safe, healthy and happy throughout.
Thanks Elton, couldn’t agree with you more! I’m not happy with the way the Red colour turned out so I’m working on tinting that to a darker colour that I think will look a bit better visually but otherwise I’m doing my best to make Mr. Gee proud of his new look for his new life.
In addition to still having one of the highest thermal efficiencies of any production diesel ever made, another huge efficiency factor driving our decision to use this older Gardner engine is the fact that we are reusing an existing engine rather than requiring a whole new one to be manufactured. I will avoid the very strong temptation to ride off on my favorite horse called Tangent at this point, but suffice it to say that I think that if we all truly wanted to get serious about things like pollution, waste, energy efficiency, etc. then we would put the majority of our focus on RE USE of existing materials and “things” rather than our long standing propensity to buy new. IMHO this would include not only manufactured “hard goods” but also and especially things like clothing and textiles given how much energy and water these require to produce. Oooops! Tangent is pulling at his bit and we’ll soon be galloping if I don’t rein him in so ’nuff said on this for now! Plus I know I’m singing to the choir in talking about this with you and I know that we are in “heated agreement” on this one as we are on many topics.
Appreciate your continued interest and comments Elton. Hope you and your family and friends are all finding ways to stay safe, healthy and happy as we all navigate our way through this latest global storm and keep reminding ourselves, as we do in storms on other passages, “This too shall pass”.
Thanks for the generous compliments Evan, we are eXtremely happy with the way Möbius is taking shape as well.
Appreciated your comments on the composite flooring grid and I put in some more details and photos on this in last week’s Update. The grid will stay open to below and I share your concern for things falling through those grid openings. The other contenders we considered for flooring in the “working” areas of the boat; Workshop, Engine Room and Forepeak, were diamond plate aluminium or expanded mesh AL and the openness of these different materials was a factor. The downside of the flooring being open to below is just as you noted, that things you drop that are small enough to fit through the openings in the floor will go through and sit on the AL hull below. However the much bigger factor which had me rule out the diamond plate option was Safety in the sense of being able to see at a glance what was going on down below the floor in terms of any leaks or other anomalies. “out of sight, out of mind” is NOT a good thing on a boat and we have made it a priority and a design decision to keep as much of our systems, equipment, plumbing, electrical, etc. as open and accessible, both access wise and visual wise. so this Safety/Openness priority won out easily and drove the decision to rule out the use of the AL diamond plate for the removable floors.
I gave serious consideration to using expanded mesh aluminium but and we tried some out but it didn’t pass the “feet kindliness” test in that it was VERY uncomfortable to walk on in anything other than thick soled shoes, which we just don’t wear much of the time we are aboard. Worse still, the edges of the expanded mesh were sharp enough to cut your skin quite badly even just walking around on it and especially if you ever knelt on it or took a tumble. Think cheese grater and you’ll get the idea.
When we came across this composite grid sheeting it ticked off all the boxes; solid, non flexing, visually open or see-through, easy to cut and work with ordinary tooling, etc. Another big factor which helped to rocket this to the top of our list is that the material it is made of is essentially inert. This material is often used in walkways in big industrial and chemical plants so it does not react with chemicals even if immersed in them. It is also non conducting so completely neutral electrically which is another nice bonus in the “just in case” category. All together then, you can see that this composite grid material was a clear winner and an easy choice for us and our use case scenarios.
Getting back to our shared concern about things falling through, what we’ve done to mitigate this is made the individual plates small enough to be easily removed so that when something does fall through, certainly not if, then it will be very easy to see it down below and quickly lift out that plate to retrieve the little runaway item. The other thing I will do is to have some of those nice “squishy” mats they make for places where you are going to do a lot of standing on concrete or hard floors and put these in places such as along the Port workbench which will be where I do most of my actual workbench work and will be most prone to my dropsies. Won’t eliminate Mr. Murphy ensuring that some of the things I drop will fall through, but should reduce them a bit at least and also keep my feet happy.
So that’s the logic behind this decision on working area flooring and please keep such thoughtful questions and concerns coming.
I’ve seen this material used on floats at a few local marinas. It seems very dimensionally stable, rigid and quite grippy underfoot. I think you made a good choice there. Your idea of a work mat near the work bench makes great sense and should keep some of the small nuts & bolts out of the bilge; a real Goldilocks solution that!
Yes, we think this composite grid material is going to be a great Goldilocks solution for the flooring in our three workspaces; ER, Workshop and Forepeak. I’ve had some “anti fatigue” type floor mats in pervious workshops and they have worked very well to keep my feet and back very happy so that’s what I’ll pick up and try out one or two in the Workshop. Maybe keep a longer thinner one for any extended time I need to work on either side of Mr. Gee in the ER and want to sit, kneel or lay down in there to do so if the grid itself proves a bit uncomfortable for such situations as I think it would. Not likely needed up in the Forepeak as I wouldn’t likely spend any length of time standing/working in there but easy to throw one down if needed.
Otherwise I think the grid floor is going to work out great and all of us on Team Möbius who are already working in the Workshop, are really enjoying having a floor for the first time in there to replace the wood planks we’d been using and we are still smiling with how well this grid flooring is working; solid, no flex, quiet, non skid, etc.
Your brand new 50 year old diesel engine looks fantastic!! 🙂
Thanks Elton, couldn’t agree with you more! I’m not happy with the way the Red colour turned out so I’m working on tinting that to a darker colour that I think will look a bit better visually but otherwise I’m doing my best to make Mr. Gee proud of his new look for his new life.
In addition to still having one of the highest thermal efficiencies of any production diesel ever made, another huge efficiency factor driving our decision to use this older Gardner engine is the fact that we are reusing an existing engine rather than requiring a whole new one to be manufactured. I will avoid the very strong temptation to ride off on my favorite horse called Tangent at this point, but suffice it to say that I think that if we all truly wanted to get serious about things like pollution, waste, energy efficiency, etc. then we would put the majority of our focus on RE USE of existing materials and “things” rather than our long standing propensity to buy new. IMHO this would include not only manufactured “hard goods” but also and especially things like clothing and textiles given how much energy and water these require to produce. Oooops! Tangent is pulling at his bit and we’ll soon be galloping if I don’t rein him in so ’nuff said on this for now! Plus I know I’m singing to the choir in talking about this with you and I know that we are in “heated agreement” on this one as we are on many topics.
Appreciate your continued interest and comments Elton. Hope you and your family and friends are all finding ways to stay safe, healthy and happy as we all navigate our way through this latest global storm and keep reminding ourselves, as we do in storms on other passages, “This too shall pass”.
-Wayne
Beautiful Work. A spectacular result is taking form.
I can’t help asking about the workshop flooring though. Will that grid be open to below or have a smooth surface under the grid?
I know that with my propensity to drop small parts, screws etc. the open grid would make that a very challenging surface when working on a project.
-evan
Thanks for the generous compliments Evan, we are eXtremely happy with the way Möbius is taking shape as well.
Appreciated your comments on the composite flooring grid and I put in some more details and photos on this in last week’s Update. The grid will stay open to below and I share your concern for things falling through those grid openings. The other contenders we considered for flooring in the “working” areas of the boat; Workshop, Engine Room and Forepeak, were diamond plate aluminium or expanded mesh AL and the openness of these different materials was a factor. The downside of the flooring being open to below is just as you noted, that things you drop that are small enough to fit through the openings in the floor will go through and sit on the AL hull below. However the much bigger factor which had me rule out the diamond plate option was Safety in the sense of being able to see at a glance what was going on down below the floor in terms of any leaks or other anomalies. “out of sight, out of mind” is NOT a good thing on a boat and we have made it a priority and a design decision to keep as much of our systems, equipment, plumbing, electrical, etc. as open and accessible, both access wise and visual wise. so this Safety/Openness priority won out easily and drove the decision to rule out the use of the AL diamond plate for the removable floors.
I gave serious consideration to using expanded mesh aluminium but and we tried some out but it didn’t pass the “feet kindliness” test in that it was VERY uncomfortable to walk on in anything other than thick soled shoes, which we just don’t wear much of the time we are aboard. Worse still, the edges of the expanded mesh were sharp enough to cut your skin quite badly even just walking around on it and especially if you ever knelt on it or took a tumble. Think cheese grater and you’ll get the idea.
When we came across this composite grid sheeting it ticked off all the boxes; solid, non flexing, visually open or see-through, easy to cut and work with ordinary tooling, etc. Another big factor which helped to rocket this to the top of our list is that the material it is made of is essentially inert. This material is often used in walkways in big industrial and chemical plants so it does not react with chemicals even if immersed in them. It is also non conducting so completely neutral electrically which is another nice bonus in the “just in case” category. All together then, you can see that this composite grid material was a clear winner and an easy choice for us and our use case scenarios.
Getting back to our shared concern about things falling through, what we’ve done to mitigate this is made the individual plates small enough to be easily removed so that when something does fall through, certainly not if, then it will be very easy to see it down below and quickly lift out that plate to retrieve the little runaway item. The other thing I will do is to have some of those nice “squishy” mats they make for places where you are going to do a lot of standing on concrete or hard floors and put these in places such as along the Port workbench which will be where I do most of my actual workbench work and will be most prone to my dropsies. Won’t eliminate Mr. Murphy ensuring that some of the things I drop will fall through, but should reduce them a bit at least and also keep my feet happy.
So that’s the logic behind this decision on working area flooring and please keep such thoughtful questions and concerns coming.
-Wayne
Hi Wayne,
Thanks for the comprehensive answer.
I’ve seen this material used on floats at a few local marinas. It seems very dimensionally stable, rigid and quite grippy underfoot. I think you made a good choice there. Your idea of a work mat near the work bench makes great sense and should keep some of the small nuts & bolts out of the bilge; a real Goldilocks solution that!
-evan
Yes, we think this composite grid material is going to be a great Goldilocks solution for the flooring in our three workspaces; ER, Workshop and Forepeak. I’ve had some “anti fatigue” type floor mats in pervious workshops and they have worked very well to keep my feet and back very happy so that’s what I’ll pick up and try out one or two in the Workshop. Maybe keep a longer thinner one for any extended time I need to work on either side of Mr. Gee in the ER and want to sit, kneel or lay down in there to do so if the grid itself proves a bit uncomfortable for such situations as I think it would. Not likely needed up in the Forepeak as I wouldn’t likely spend any length of time standing/working in there but easy to throw one down if needed.
Otherwise I think the grid floor is going to work out great and all of us on Team Möbius who are already working in the Workshop, are really enjoying having a floor for the first time in there to replace the wood planks we’d been using and we are still smiling with how well this grid flooring is working; solid, no flex, quiet, non skid, etc.