Similar story this week as the past few; excellent results and exciting progress on Möbius wherever Naval craftsmen have worked, just not as many of them working as are needed to finish and launch Möbius as quickly as possible when they are assigned to work on other projects in the shipyard.  But forward progress towards the eventual Launch Date made none the less.

As I gathered all my photos from the past week together there seemed to be a theme of light than shone through many of them in different ways and hence this week’s title.  So let me go shine some light on all of these and jump right into this week’s Show & Tell and show you some of those eXcellent results and eXciting progress from this first week of September 2020.

INTERIOR PROGRESS

Lots of Light shining through in the interior such as this is one of very many LED light fixtures which are inserted into the removable ceiling panels in all the living spaces.  These are made by the big Italian lighting company BCM and we are using their BCM Charlotte 80 LED lights for most living areas.

These are the newest generation LED lights which are significantly more efficient so their wasted heat is very small and the large heat sinks you may be familiar seeing on such LED fixtures are no longer required so these lights are much smaller and cooler, both literally and figuratively.

Typical Italian craftsmanship and quality, they are easily set into the holes cut into the ceiling panels by folding the two spring loaded arms out of the way and then orienting the outer polished SS frame however you wish.

All our lights are LED so our overall energy consumption and heat generation is kept to an absolute minimum and all lights are on dimmer switches so we can easily have the Goldilocks Just Right lighting in every location and situation.

Lights over larger living spaces such as these overtop of the Lounge on the Left and the Dinette on the Right are a Warm White, about 2700 – 3000K.

Whereas task lighting situations such as these in the Galley are a cooler  Neutral White of 4000-6000k.  We also have some up here in the SuperSalon that can be switched to a coloured Red/Blue light when we are on night passages and want to maintain our night vision.
Serkan, our interior hardware installer, continues to make his way throughout the interior installing all the positive locking latches and gas struts the many cabinet drawers and doors.
I’ve shown these to you before but I’m still madly in love with what are to me jewellery like SS lifting latches for all our drawers and cabinet doors.

Single finger lift like this to unlatch and then they are spring loaded so they automatically self latch when the Blum soft close feature of each drawer slide gently pulls the drawer closed.
Hakan ordered this range of telescoping gas spring struts so we could try them out and chose the ones that were just right for our Garage Doors and fold down cupboard fronts. 
In the case of these Galley Garage doors, when you lift the latch the gas springs automatically raise the doors to their fully open position and hold them there while you get at whatever you need inside.
Whereas for cupboard doors such as these lower two in my Corridor Office where the space behind is too shallow for a pull out drawer, the gas struts gently lower the door down when you unlatch them.
In the case of “regular” drawers such as these below Christine’s Office desk, no struts are needed because when you unlatch them the drawers slide out effortlessly on their Blum SS roller bearing drawer slides and then close automatically with the soft close feature when you give the drawer a gentle push to close.
The removable Teak floors inside the Heads and Showers have moved on to their next stage of completion with the Black joining compound now all sanded down to a flush surface and are now ready for their fiberglass bottoms to be applied.

ELECTRICAL PROGRESS:

Hilmi our one and only “Sparkie” or Electrician continues to make steady progress with all things electrical onboard Möbius which covers a LOT of different aspects from lights you see above to cabling, connections, circuit breakers, switches, controls and other electrical devices ……………

………. such as this UDST 800 Ultrasonic Depth/Temperature/Speed transducer in the Bow.  As you may recall seeing last week this transducer is installed inside an otherwise unused integral tank in the hull so that in the unlikely event that we somehow managed to scrape the whole transducer off the maximum amount of water we could take on would be small and self contained within this WT compartment.
Hilmi has now installed the N2K cable from the transducer up out of the WT compartment through this cable gland which keeps the tank fully watertight.
Up in one of the highest spots on Möbius, Hilmi has all these MC-4 connectors installed in SkyBridge roof for each of the eight 320kW solar panels that form the roof as well as the other six solar panels fore and aft of this.  In addition to a fully sealed twist lock connector, we use this model that contains a 15A fuse inside which can be easily replaced with a simple twist.
All the wiring in the SkyBridge roof is now installed in these two cable trays that run down each side of the center rectangular AL extrusion that forms the ridge of the roof and then travels down the inside of the Main Arch tubes to make their way down to their connections to the 14 Victron 100/20 SmartSolar MPPT controllers in the Basement.
One last bit of electrical detail for those interested are these Swiss made Belimo 24V vent air damper activators.  These connect to a set of louvers inside the Vent Box and Open/Close them as required.  They are normally closed until they are activated as part of the start up sequence for Mr. Gee, our main engine, and allow fresh air in through the Port side Vent Box and extract it back out through the Starboard side Vent.
The dampers are also part of the Automated Fire Extinguishing System which would immediately close off all these vents and shut down Mr. Gee so that the aerosol Fire Extinguishing gas stays trapped inside the Engine Room with no air able to enter or leave and the fire can be quickly extinguished.  This heat activated sensor adds an additional level of Safety if the FFE does not work by closing the louvers anytime it senses a temperature higher than 72C/160F.  There is also a manual crank that you can use to close/open the louvers at any time in case of an electrical failure.

Fire is probably the scariest thing aboard a boat so we take it VERY seriously and take no shortcuts to ensure that we are alerted as early as possible  to any rise in temperature, any smoke or gas or heat and can take action immediately as needed.

AFT SOLAR PANEL BANK:

Light of a different kind or at least purpose was also the focus this week as Uğur and Nihat, along with our student intern “Omer” from Istanbul Tech University, took time away from building the Tender to Möbius to build the racks and mount the three 320kW solar panels that mount on the cantilevered roof above the Aft Deck Galley.

We have 14 solar panels in total which are in Purple in this quick render.  3 on the angled & hinged frame overtop of the Pilot House, 8 which form the roof over the SkyBridge and 3 on the Aft Roof.

Total Solar Wp (peak watts) is about 4.5kWp and each panel is wired to its own Victron 100/20 MPPT controllers in the Basement.
As always we did our best to KISS or Keep It Safe & Simple, the design of these racks to mount the three Solar Panels.  Four lengths of 30mm / 1” aluminium L-bar with mitred corners.
It took Nihat minutes to cut, fit and weld these frames and then he and Omer tested them with the actual solar panels to make sure it all fit just right.
With the solar panels removed the three frames were easy to lift up onto the roof where they were tacked together with the center panel offset Aft to match the angled end of the roof and reduce shading from the Main Arch and Paravane A-Frames in front.
To make it easy to attach and remove the solar panels, these short lengths of 50mm/2” L-bar were welded to the roof and matched up with same size L-bar brackets around the edges of the Frames which can then be easily through bolted to the brackets on the roof.
This enables the solar panels to be through bolted to each Frame and L-bar bracket when they are standing up and their underside is easily accessed.  Then the assembled Panel + Frame assembly can be bolted to the roof brackets.

As you saw earlier, the + and – cables hard wired to each Solar Panel have a standard MC-4 twist lock connectors.  I had purchased the matching MC-4 connectors wtih built in 15A fuses and the crimping tools for these which Hilmi is using here to make quick work of installing these MC-4 connectors on each cable that will carry the output from each Solar Panel down to the Basement where they connect to their dedicated Victron 100/20 SmartSolar MPPT controllers.
Hilmi worked hand in hand with the Framing team to have them mount this cable tray to safely carry the six cables from the Solar Panels over to the cable penetration they welded into the roof.
Where the cables are then fed over through the penetration into the interior of the Pilot House where they get routed down into the bank of 14 MPPT controllers in the Basement in an uninterrupted run.
All three Solar Panels now bolted securely into their frames, wires routed on their underside and ready to be carefully laid down onto the awaiting brackets on the roof.
Like this!

All the other 11 Solar Panels have been fully mounted and connected to their MPPT controllers so these three now complete the Solar Panel installation and all 14 MPPT controllers have their indicator lights blinking away.

Well done Team!

TENDER BUILD CONTINUES

Picking up where we left off last week, Uğur and Nihat make more swift progress on building the Tender to Möbius this week.  You seem to be enjoying the rapid fire series of photos as this Tender takes shape so I’ll do the same this week and run through a chronological series of photos so you can watch the Tender come to life.

Here is where the Tender was on Monday morning.  Hull plates all tacked in place along with some internal framing and the start of the offset center console.
Seats which double as fuel tanks wrap around the Bow on the Right and upper angled section of the Console in the Left foreground.  Floor framing and hull plates below.
Console on the Right, seat behind and “Engine Room” as Uğur likes to jokingly call it at the aft end.
Uğur, checking out the visibility when seated at the Console.  He gave it his thumbs up.
Raised Bow pulpit shaping up.  We wanted to have a wide flat area on the bow to make it easy to board with the bow pressed against a dock of the transom of Möbius. 

See the Tender render above to see the whole upper perimeter will have a dense tough foam Fender about 250mm/ 10” wide attached which makes the flat at the Bow even wider and good for being a mini tugboat to push other boats or be the auxiliary power for Möbius in an emergency.

20mm/ 3/4” thick Transom plate tacked in place now. 

Note the etched lines with the “Mickey Mouse” ears which will be CNC cut out later.
In addition to this cut out in the transom, the cast aluminium frame in Blue here is supplied by Castoldi and will be welded into the bottom of the hull plates to create the opening where the Castoldi 224DD jet drive will slide in and be bolted in place.
You can see how the cast AL body of the Castoldi 224DD on the Right will fit into the frame in the bottom of the hull and how the thick vertical plate in the middle will through bolt to the Transom plate.
Partially wrapped in bubble wrap from the factory, this is what that cast AL frame looks like.

The three cross bars are temporary braces to keep the frame fully aligned while it is welded into the hull and then these will be cut out and the Castoldi jet drive slid in place and through bolted to this frame.
20mm / .75” thick engine bed plates tacked up.
Pulling the two upper hull plates into position to create the Bow.
Upper Hull side plates being led Aft and tacked in place.  Flat bar tacked below to set the curve of this joint.
Scrap bits of AL tacked across the hull plate joint to keep it flush while tacking both in place.
Working in Tandem, Nihat presses the two plates into alignment as Uğur moves along with his MIG gun tacking the two plates together.
All tacked up and ready to be fully welded once some of the internal frames are set in place.
Bow all tacked up.
Nihat cleans up the welds before the Bow is welded closed with the top plate.
Stepping back to see that the Tender is shaping up nicely.
Tack – Tack –Tack.

Bow is ready for welding.
Tack – Tack –Tack.

Sides and bulwark tops are all in place.
Integral floor framing added in next.
Starting to look like a boat!
Uğur spends the better part of a whole day laying down the final welds of all those tacked up plates.
Like this.
And this.
Working on his Ninja Warrior Welder look, Uğur cleans up one of the Engine Beds he has welded up and is ready to be welded into the Hull.
Like this.
Inside of Hull plates finish welded as is the lower strake and the frames for the floors and the sides of the Engine Bay.
Floor plates in the Bow seating area lay down quickly along with those leading along the walkway on the Port/Left side of the Tender.
Inner side plates now ready to be installed and the Console seat box is tacked up.
Captain Christine is called over for a test fit when she is piloting the Tender while seated at the Console.
And standing. 

The Captain is happy with both so the work can proceed!
Console and seat is emerging.

OK, quitting time on Friday so we will pick up from here in next week’s Progress Update.

Hope you enjoyed this rapid fire Tender Build sequence.

STARTING Mr. GEE – TWICE!

No not quite ready for his first real start up, but I did get time this week to finish rebuilding his 24V electric starter motor.

This is a new set of clutch plates which lock the starter gear to the motor shaft as it slides forward to engage with the big ring gear on the flywheel and spin Mr. Gee to start.
This is the working end of the starter; the bronze starter gear that engages with the ring gear on the flywheel.
A quick visit with the sandblaster and two coats of epoxy primer have the starter ready for its final paint job.
In shiny Black.
However the start of the starter show IMHO are these bits and bobs which have also been blasted, primed and finish coated with Black epoxy and will soon be assembled into the Hand Cranking starter for Mr. Gee.

Hand Crank lever is in the middle here.
This chain drive gear uses the lever at the top to engage with a slotted drive gear on the crankshaft such that when you turn the hand crank handle the crankshaft spins.  With the compression release holding all six intake valves open you can get the giant flywheel up to speed, flip the compression release levers off and Womp – WOmp – WOMP, Mr. Gee comes to life!
And I can’t wait to show all ye with so little faith, just how this works in the video I will shoot for the first start-up with both the electric and the hand crank start.

So don’t touch that dial!  Stay tuned here for the next episode of “As Mr. Gee Turns”

Thanks for joining us and see you again next week.

-Wayne