Crazy weather here in Antalya today with lots of thunder and lightning storms and now some hail.  There was even a nasty tornado which blew in from offshore a ways north of us that did lots of damage apparently but nothing of the sort down here fortunately.  However things continued to be hot and heavy at Naval Yachts as Team Möbius progresses through another week of building our new 24m XPM eXtreme eXploration Passage Maker aka mv Möbius.  The new TIG welding gun that was the focus of attention in last week’s posting continued to be used nonstop as Sezgin enjoyed breaking it in and I think he also enjoyed the change from months and months of nonstop MIG welding during the build of the hull.  Lots to show you so let’s get started……..

Quick test to see if you were paying attention in class last week and remember the name for these notched area you put on pipes that join perpendicular to another pipe?

I think this shot really helps to show you why these are called “birds mouth”.  You can almost hear them chirping to be fed some tasty TIG welding rod!
These ones are for the stand offs on the hand rails that wrap around both sides of the Pilot House roof.
Safety is our top priority and these rails add an extra place to hold onto as you walk along the side decks.  With the 1m tall stanchions and lifelines on the other side we can safely move fore and aft no matter how much Mother Nature might be trying to throw us off balance.
Here is a shot looking forward along the Port side decks with the handrail pipe running long past the hinge for the lowerable Arch as everything is tacked in place.  It will end with a 90 degree elbow about midway along the hinge plate to give plenty of room to get the hinge pin in and out.
These handrails should be all finished up to show you next week but this will give you a good idea how they work.  These upper side decks on the inside of these rails are easy to access when you are up in the SkyBridge so these rails also help ensure your feet don’t slip off the edges.  All deck surfaces will be covered with non skid material as well to ensure very safe footing.

Along with some D rings that will go along that upper sloping surface these rails will also provide good spots for lashing things like our inflatable kayak down to this nice out of the way storage area.
Sezgin and his mighty TIG gun finished up the three upper sections of the Arch that you saw being fabricated last week.
So they now await their turn to be taken up on deck and tacked together and mounted on the hinge plates and we’ll show you all that as it happens.
We also saw last week how they were welding in the SAE5 round threaded flange plates into all the fuel and water tanks and they are now making up parts such as these pickup tubes
We run both the pickup and the return tubes right to the bottom of the deepest part at both ends of each tank.  The ends match the angle of the hull plates where they intersect with the big keel plate to help ensure that they pickup every bit of fuel or water in the tank. 
Normally pickup tubes sit a bit above the bottom so that any debris remains on the bottom of the tanks but in our case we want to pick up any dirt or water that might make it into these tanks so it can be removed by the Alfa Laval centrifuge as it regularly polishes all our fuel.

We also run the return tubes down to the bottom at the opposite end of the tank returning fuel does not create any foam and so the incoming fuel will stir up any debris that might somehow get in there and help the supply tubes vacuum it all up.
Inside the tanks we have cut away parts of the baffles so that I have plenty of room through each inspection port for my hands and tools on annual inspections and I can access each baffled area.
Making our way into the Basement under the SuperSalon the steps down to our Master Cabin have been finish welded and ensure that the Basement area is fully watertight.
And along the hull sides in the Basement we see that they are finishing off the coffer dams around the framing for active stabiliser heads should they end up being installed.  Once these flanges are welded in place they will be threaded for the plate lids to be bolted and sealed in place to make them fully watertight in the event of a breach.
As we move around inside the boat we find more examples of Sezgin’s TIG handiwork …….

.. with the hand rails on the stairs up from the SuperSalon to the Aft Deck now all finished.
And now we find him putting the finishing welds on the staircase steps …..
…..  and the base of the Port side handrail leading up to the SkyBridge.
Moving on now to this week’s riddle photograph.

Any guesses what these little fellows are for?

Molars extracted from a giant aluminium dinosaur perhaps?

Or is Nihat prepping this for a dino dental implant?
Nope, these are for the four Crane Cleats that are about to become integral parts of the hull
and provide lifting points for slings to attach to in the event we might be in a location that has a large crane to lift the boat in/out of the water.
These 50mm/2” thick behemoths extend down through these slots in the deck plates …
…. with their slots straddling a 12mm frame member and fitting up against the inner hull plate surface.
Sezgin soon follows with the magical TIG gun above and below decks and they’re done and ready to literally lift the boat.

One of the many eXamples of why the X in XPM stands for eXtreme!

Those of you familiar wtih boating might wonder about the need for these when marinas have have dedicated equipment such as Travel Lifts for taking boats in and out of the water. 
In many parts of the developed and more populated world when we need to haul the boat out of the water we do have access to such equipment.  However we have been in more remote or less developed areas where marinas, shipyards and such dedicated lifting equipment just doesn’t exist but these areas usually do have commercial shipping and building so there are cranes being used to lift heavy cargo and with these Crane Cleats we are all good to go.

Progress was not limited to just boats apparently as I made progress along the chronological charts and completed my 66th circumnavigation of the sun.
My Beautiful Bride was in cahoots with the rest of Naval Yachts and snuck into the yard singing “Let them eat cake!”.  And so we did!

Thanks again for joining us on this adventure and here is a quick little video to help summarise some of the progress this week.