First and foremost Christine and I, along with everyone on Team Möbius here at Naval Yachts, we want to wish all of you a VERY Happy New Year and the hopes that 2020 will be the best circumnavigation of the sun for all of us.  It is shaping up to be a VERY good year for us as we all work relentlessly towards launching the very first XPM and our new home Möbius in the next few months. 

While it does often remind me of that saying “when you are up to your neck in alligators, it is hard to remember you are there to drain the swamp”, this adventure continues to be an awemazing experience for us and very much remains a labour of love and combined work of art and engineering. 

And while we gladly chose to use a “pay it forward” approach to this blog and do our best to openly share all aspects of turning our vision into the reality of the very best Goldilocks just right, just for us boat, we REALLY appreciate the thousands of you who chose to subscribe and join us on this grand adventure.  It means a great deal to us and you add a huge value to the whole experience so a very heartfelt THANK YOU! going out to all of you as we get this new year and this new decade started.

Click to enlarge the photo to see the first of many New Year’s Eve kisses standing in front of our already beloved Möbius with some of the crates in front that are piling up as more and more new equipment arrives. 

When you are married to your best friend and your Captain who also happens to be the most Beautiful person you know, you take EVERY chance you get to kiss her!

Naval Yachts sent everyone home at noon on New Year’s Eve and reopened on Jan 2nd so we all enjoyed a 3.5 day work week.  Christine and I enjoyed the chance to have time together to engage in deeper discussions about the thousands of decisions needing to be made and new learning about such scintillating topics as NMEA 2000 network topologies so we spent much of our “time off” comfortably sitting in front of our large 50” monitor at home to have all our reference info easily displayed for both of us to see, point to and modify.  Different strokes for different folks right and being the crazy couple we are, this was great fun for us.

In the foreground you can see that Christine is getting lots of help from Commodore Barney aka the Yorkshire Terror and if you click to enlarge and look closely on the couch behind Christine’s back you can just make out Ruby the Wonderdog who is also supervising her work.

New Year’s Day dawned with clear blue skies and sun to light up the mountains which surround us and showed off their freshly snow covered tops.
Not what many people imagine when they think of Turkey but we love this country and even more so her people, food and sights.  We are very anxious to move aboard Möbius and get back to life at sea but we will also miss this special place that has been our home based for over two years and our Goldilocks location to built our Goldilocks boat; just right, just for us.
We did take a bit of time off on New Year’s Day to go for a long walk to some of our many favorite spots along the Med coastline that is only a few blocks away and a large newly constructed park along both sides of the new inlet they are putting in which will eventually have a large superyacht marina in the waters you can see here.
If we were to have any regrets it would only be that we don’t get or take enough time to enjoy our incredible surroundings every day.  This spot along a beachfront walk is at the very far West end of Antalya and only a few blocks from both our apartment and Naval Yachts in the Antalya Free Zone. 

In the background you can see how the city of Antalya stretches along the crescent coastline to that point you can see in the distance in the upper middle of this photo.

All very beautiful and fun BUT even we couldn’t top the news the next day that Naval Yachts had expanded VERY significantly with the arrival of the very first girl in the Dinc family for several generations.

Meet the newest member of the Dinc family; Okyanus Ida, born Jan 02, 2020 at 2.65kg.  Baby and Mom both doing great.  Dad Baris, we’re not so sure?!

Welcome to this most awemazing world Okyanus Ida!  Oh the places you will go and the Love you will know.

Well, I certainly can’t top that but let’s get back to boat building shall we?

ELECTRICAL:

I’ll start with a brief update on what the Sparkies or electricians have been up to this week and see if you can guess what Hilmi, our electrician seen here driving the forklift, is moving up onto the front deck of Möbius?

Hint, they are VERY heavy!
Many of you will have guessed correctly that these are the two pallets full of our batteries.  I know many of you have been patiently awaiting my Tech Talk discussing our new battery choice and the details of our whole DC system and I’m afraid I need to test your patience a bit longer as I just have not had the time to finish that article, but it should be done and posted within the next week or so.
The not so well kept secret many of you have already figured out is that we changed the battery type we are using for both the 24V @ 1350Ah House Battery Banks and the Gardner Start Batteries from OPzV Gel type to Microcell Carbon Foam batteries by FireFly International.

This graphic which you’ve seen in previous posts will give you the high level view of the overall Electrical System on XPM78-01 and I’ll be doing a much deeper dive into these components in future posts.
Back onboard, Nihat is working on the cross members for what we are calling “the Victron Wall” as it will soon have all the big blue Victron boxes mounted which include:

• 3 Multi-Plus 5kW 220V Inverter 120A Chargers
• 2 Multi-Plus 3kW 120V Inverter 70A Chargers
• Isolation Transformer
• Centaur 90-265V 50/60Hz “World” 24V @ 60A charger
• 2 Orion DC-DC 24-12V @ 7A  converters
• 14 100/30 MPPT Controllers
  

With apologies for the poor quality this photo of the sketch onboard will show you the basic layout for this wall and some of its components.  The main high amp DC circuit distribution panel will be in the middle flanked by the Victron components. 

The 14 MPPT Controllers will mount on the other side along with several other DC related equipment.
One of the many advantages of building wtih aluminium and having this cavernous Basement area under the whole SuperSalon floor is that we can put in these “walls” anywhere we like to create an enormous amount of surface area for mounting equipment. 

Having so much area means we can space the equipment out to make access eXtremely easy and in the case of heat producing components like these Victron units, keep them much better cooled. 

The whole Basement is also fully ventilated wtih both passive and active fan assisted ventilation which is separate from the same level of ventilation in the integral  Battery Boxes which you can see on the Right.

Just about done, Hilmi  with his back to us helps hold in the flatbar cross member that will soon be home to some of the 14 MPPT controllers.

PLUMBING:

Cihan was moving too fast for me to catch up with this week I only caught him in this one shot to show you some of his latest handiwork with the plumbing on Möbius.  This shot is taken inside the Engine Room looking at the forward Starboard/Right corner. 

Here he is connecting one of the water supply hoses to fill the Starboard ER water tank.  Intake Sea Chest is right behind him and you can see the white perforated tray running across the WT Bulkhead which will soon fill up with more water hoses.

Nogva CPP Servo Gearbox in the bottom Right and Mr. Gee our Gardner 6LXB will soon be bolted in front.

Evidence of Cihan’s work is also evident up in the Master and I think some of you will be quite interested to some of you how we are going to handle draining shower and floor in the Master Cabin so let’s take a look.  We are going to try out this relatively new Whale Gulper IC drain pump system.  With our floors sitting on top of all the integral fuel/water tanks it is challenging to be able to use gravity to drain the water from the floor of the shower and the Head and this Whale IC system is the perfect solution.

If you click to enlarge the photo (works on all photos BTW), you can see the diagrams showing how this works.

This model handles two drains by having each drain hose go straight into the round yellow 2 way manifold you see on the right.  Inside is a small electronic water sensor which is the IC Intelligent Control in the name and when it senses water it sends the signal to the Gulper diaphragm pump on the left to turn on and pump the water out of the manifold and into either the Grey Water holding tank or Sea Chest.  When there is no water in the manifold sensor it shuts the pump off.

Here is what the drain looks like mocked up on the floor in the Master Cabin Shower.  There is a matching one off to the Right just out of this picture which will drain the floor in the adjoining Head/Bathroom.  A hose will connect the Yellow manifold to the horizontal Grey fitting coming from the shower floor.

You can see the Yellow 2 way manifold hiding  in the center background and on the Left atop the White S trap is where the drain in the shower floor will be.  Floor height is raised in the Heads to provide enough drop to gravity feed the manifold.  The pump will mount on the other side of the WT Bulkhead in the Forepeak so the drain will be completely silent.

All very simple and automatic compared to the more common marine solution of having to turn on a pump manually or building in a shower sump box with a float switch and centrifugal pump which typically clogs very easily and requires frequent maintenance.  Music to my ears and one of the XPM theme songs; Low Maintenance!

ALUMINIUM WORK:

Uğur, Okan and Nihat who is pictured here, continued where they left off last week putting in the grid for the removable Alucobond sheeting on the walls and ceilings of the Workshop and ER.  You can see the aluminium L-bars in the aft most end of the Workshop are now in place and ready to receive the Alucobond sheets.

Nihat is also putting in some of the last bits of EPDM insulation foam on the Aft Transom wall where Cihan will soon be installing the two shelves for the Accu-Steer HPU400 Steering Pumps to mount directly overtop of the Rudder Post and Tiller Arm Head which sit right about where Nihat’s knee is.

Rotating about 90 degrees to the Left looking at the Starboard/Right side of the hull we see that the L-bar mounts are in place and ready for the Alucobond. 

The Black/Yellow tool box and Blue bucket are setting atop the AL Workbench and cable trays on the ceiling and Port side wall are starting to fill up with electrical cable and plumbing.
First two of the AlucoBond panels to be fitted along the Starboard/Right side of the ER and overtop the Day Tank.  Sticks being used to hold the individual panels in place while they are being fitted.
Sporting his fashionable New Year’s haircut, Uğur puts in the next panel Aft of the two above.
Same story on the opposite Port/Left side looking Aft from the WT door from the Guest Cabin into the Workshop.  The walls are next in the queue to have their Alucobond panels fitted.
Pardon the poor focus but this is the system we will use to fasten all the Alucobond panels to the L-bar.  Self drilling and tapping screws which have that special brass washer that is threaded on the outside circumference and the chrome cap is threaded on top.
Looks like this all assembled and makes for a nice finished look.

Whenever I want to remove one of these panels to access what’s behind I just twist off the caps and undo the screws.  KISS, Keep it Simple and Safe.

GUEST CABIN/OFFICE CABINETRY:

I tend to save the Cabinetry Team’s work for the end because otherwise their work with this Rosewood tends to steal the show and with doors like this make that quite easy to understand.

But now let’s go check in with Omer, Omur and Selim and see what’s new this week.
Omer is in charge of the cabinetry in the Guest Cabin, Head, Shower and Corridor Office and we find him working on that “Swiss Door” we showed you last week when he was fitting it into place in the door frames onboard Möbius.  Now he is trimming the solid edges with their radiused corners and rabbits/grooves for door seals.
There are French Doors, Dutch Doors, Pocket Doors and so we’ve come up with this Swiss Door moniker for the two doors we’ve designed into the boat, one in the Guest Cabin and another in the Main Cabin.  Both of ours are off the boat right now and this type of door is not well known but I was able to find this shot online that shows how they work.  A single door which swings shut on two different doorways.

We figured these doors are a bit like a multi purpose Swiss Army knife and hence Swiss Door! 

We had one on our former sailboat “Learnativity”, the source of a lot of ideas we are bringing with us onto Möbius.  They eliminate one or more doors so a big weight savings and cleans up areas on the boat where you might have multiple doors all competing for space and swing room.  More KISS

On Möbius here is what that door looks like looking out through the entranceway out of the Guest Cabin into the Corridor where my “Clean Workbench” office runs along the Port/Left hull.  Swiss Door on the Right now closing off the Head/Bathroom, Shower on the Left.  Door is hinged on the far side nearest the Corridor.
Stepping out into the Corridor and looking forward to the stairs that lead up to the SuperSalon shows that same Swiss Door with its hinges about where the blue tape is.  Your imagination shouldn’t have too much trouble seeing how it will swing open from here and shut against the door jamb in the foreground when our Guests would like some privacy or when Christine is working at her Office in there and wants to keep her pesky husband out!
Back in the Cabinetry shop these are some of those door frames and door jambs ready to be glued up and finished.
Laminated cores wrapped in Rosewood veneer and solid edges makes these both super strong and beautiful.  Not that I’m biased or anything.
Omer also worked on finishing up the Pullman Berth inside the Guest Cabin and for orientation here is a rough rendering of what the Guest Cabin looks like with the Pullman Berth hinging out of the Upper Right side of the back wall which runs along the Starboard/Right hull.  It folds up to be out of the way as it is here and then easily folds down like Pullman Berths on trains and ships or a bit like a Murphy  bed in homes.
Here Omer is working on the single bed sized frame that folds down to make the Pullman Berth. 
Flipped over to show how the mattress will be fit inside this frame and stay secure as it is folded up and down.
Before he glued it up, Omer took time to show this good example of how the biscuit joints work to create super strong glued joints.

But what are those five holes for???
Aha!  Yunus, our Stainless Steel guru has whipped up these SS hinges for the Pullman.
One mounted in the lower sides of the outer cabinet which the Pullman Berth frame sits inside of.

Vent grills on the top are where the cold/hot air will come into the Guest Cabin/Office.
With the Pullman bed frame all glued up and sanded, Omer added these strips of Beech to provide that thin gap running inside the corner between the strips and the frame sides.  This is where they will tuck the leather that wraps around the outer surfaces of the Pullman and are pulled tight.  More on that in coming weeks as the interior finishes begin to be added.

GALLEY COUNTERTOP GARAGES:

Not to be outdone, Omur and Selim were also hard at work on the cabinetry for what we call the Galley Garages that set atop all the Turquoise granite countertops as you can see rendered here.

Dinette or Settee in the foreground with Galley behind on the Left side, entry door and stairs down from the Aft Deck on the far Right side blocked a bit by the tall twin fridge cabinets and Lounge on the far Right.

This overhead shot puts the whole SuperSalon into perspective.  Stairs down from the Aft Deck and second set down to the Corridor and Guest Cabin in the bottom Right.  Continuing counter clockwise; Lounge area with Eames chairs, Main Helm chair center Left, stairs down to Master Cabin upper Left, Dinette/Settee, Galley in upper Right corner with Garages wrapping around all the countertops.

Omur checking the fit of the Garage doors on the Garages that run along the Stbd/Right side windows as prepares for laminating the Rosewood veneer to finish these off.
Same set of Garages seen from the back edges that will run along the 28 mm glass side Pilot House windows.  The cut-out where his hand is are where the vertical aluminium I-beam frames and window mullions set.
Selim has been busy similarly finishing off this set of Galley Garages that run along the seatback of the Dinette/Settee.  The glue bottle will help give you a sense of size and scale of the interior.
Same glue bottle inside this other set of Garages which run along the Aft windows to show how these interior volumes vary.

You can see how Selim and Omur have finished off all the solid Rosewood edging around each door frame and have carefully filled and sanded all the outer surfaces flat and smooth.  All this is in preparation for the final step of applying the carefully matched Rosewood veneer to all these exterior surfaces.
If you check out the shapes of these Garages in the renderings above and notice the mitred corners where each set meet and make the 90 degree turn, you can appreciate how much of an Origami like puzzle it is to figure out the shape of the single piece of Rosewood veneer needed to wrap around all these exterior surfaces.

Here is on Garage’s veneer all carefully selected and taped together ready to be laminated to the cabinet behind.
But just how are they going to manage to glue this single sheet to all those surfaces keeping everything lined up and getting the veneer tightly squeezed against the cabinet surfaces?

Clues to the answer lie in the strips of black tubing you may have noticed in a few shots and this one on the left.  And you will also note how the open end of this cabinet has all been stuffed full of foam?
Hmmmm, more of that black tubing running around all the corners and edges ……….
More clues here with this vacuum gauge……
Which is part of this big vacuum pump and what you see in the background answers the riddle.

Yup, they are going to vacuum bag all the Garages and glue the Rosewood veneer on in a similar way in which the new high tech composite fiber such as Kevlar are being laminated in their molds.
Each cabinet takes it turn being wrapped up in this special vacuum forming plastic and you can now see the purpose of that black tubing……..
…………. and the foam is to keep the plastic sheeting tightly sealed as it goes around corners and the foam is to keep the plastic from being sucked inside any openings on the ends as they take the vacuum up to about 600mmHg. 
That’s a LOT of vacuum, and you can see evidence of that in this shot where the veneer spans one of those cut outs for the window mullions we saw earlier and notice how the veneer is being pulled down into the vacant space by the vacuum inside.
Hakan is helping Omur to monitor the progress and keep everything sealed as they pull down more and more vacuum on this largest of the four Garage cabinets and use the internal vacuum to apply huge amount of evenly distributed pressure on the veneer to adhere it perfectly flat against the inner core of the cabinets.
This shot looking down the full length of this cabinet the reflection helps show how well the vacuum pulls the veneer tight and flat against the underlying cabinet.
The fully vacuum bagged cabinets are left for at least 8 hours for the glue to fully set and then the vacuum is released and the plastic pulled off.

Now they can remove all the black plastic tubing and foam.
The overlapping veneer can now be easily trimmed off with a sharp knife and others are cleaned up with a hand router.
Like the caterpillar that finally emerges from his cocoon and becomes the most beautiful butterfly our Garages emerge from their plastic cocoon to reveal THIS beauty! 
I had to touch it to make sure it was real.
I could stare at this all day and this is the ROUGH out of the bag finish!
And just wait till you see what these Garages look like once they are all joined together in the Galley sporting their swirling Rosewood grain all matched up.  Omur showing us some of how that magic happens as he checks out the next pieced together sheet of matching Rosewood for the Garage which runs perpendicular to the long one on the ground to the left that we just watched emerge from its cocoon.
Selim helps to carefully position the veneer in just the right spot which is marked off on the tape to register with a matching mark on its Garage cabinet as it gets ready to be vacuum bagged.
A closeup of the long cabinet showing how the veneer and the solid edging match up.
Next step is to radius all these corners with a 5mm router bit for that “quilted” look I so like and has been done throughout all the cabinetry on Möbius.

But WAIT!  There’s MORE!!!!

Upstairs in the Finishing Shop, that team has started to apply the 5 coats of clear PU varnish to some of the cabinetry that has recently been finished so let’s finish off this week’s Progress Update with a peek in there.
These are some of the cabinets from my Clean Workbench/Office in the Corridor we saw earlier.  Check out how well the Rosewood contrasts with the inner Beech surfaces.
Only 2 of the 5 coats of PU and already looking awesome to my eye.
Here is the cabinet you may remember seeing a few weeks ago inside the Guest Cabin Head with the little White sink on top.
Some might say why bother to finish off areas like this bottom of my Office cabinet with the groove for the indirect LED floor lightning strips when only a mouse would be able to see it?

Why?

Because I know it’s there and it makes me VERY happy knowing it.
But I don’t think anyone will question why we are going to such lengths and expense to use Rosewood for all our interior when you see results like this starting to emerge.
Mother Nature is as close as I come to religion which is a big part of why I am so filled with profound joy when I’m out at sea.

IMHO, she outdoes even her awemazing self with examples like this.  Do your eyes and your soul a favor and click on this image, ideally on a very large and very good screen and join me as I just sit in awe as I stare at this perfectly flat surface that convincingly fools my eye into thinking it is a beautiful brown curtain being pulled back to reveal that creamy depth inside.

NOW you might understand why I refer to Möbius as a combined work of art and engineering.
I can’t top Mother Nature so I will leave you here as I go back to stare at her latest magic.

Thanks for joining us again this first week of 2020 and year of the launch of XPM78-01 Möbius.

-Wayne