Another full 5 day work week, well six really as some work is being done today (Saturday) as well so lots accomplished and lots to show you in this week’s Möbius Progress Update so let’s just jump right into the Show & Tell.

Now THIS is EXHAUSTING!

If I give you the clue that this week’s title is in reference to one of the last big ticket bits of kit that we need to complete the building of XPM78-01 Möbius, can you guess what 66kg/146lb worth of mechanical goodness is inside this latest crate to arrive at Naval Yachts this week?
Does it help you guess if I remove all the outer shrink wrap?
OK, I’ll give it away with this shot of pure boat jewelry.

Yup, our exhaust system finally arrived from Halyard in the UK.  I only say finally because I first met with Oliver from Halyard’s HQ in the UK back in October of last year so it has taken us eight months of working very closely together to come up with the Goldilocks Just Right exhaust system for XPM78-01 Möbius.  Oliver and his whole team of engineers and designers have been excellent for Yigit and I to work hand in hand with making all the right compromises, decisions and trade-offs which are always a part of designing any system due to the large number of variables and conditions we strive to meet. 
Here is a quick sketch from Halyard showing all the components they built for us in Green which arrived this week in the crate you see above.

The flexible 76mm/3” ID exhaust connection to Mr. Gee is shown in Black in the bottom Right and then following from there here are the components:

*  SS 76mm/3” ID Vertical “dry” riser

*  SS 76mm/3” ID Horizontal “dry” riser

*  SS 127mm/5” Spray Head or Wet Elbow connected with silicone hoses on both ends

*  Halyard GRP Silencer/Separator

One of Yiğit’s renderings provides another perspective where you can see the 2D outline of Mr. Gee to see where the Halyard exhaust system connects to his Red exhaust manifold on the Aft end of the engine.
This is an example of one of many models as we tried out different options and layouts, this one being the vertical position of the Halyard Combi Silencer/Separator that mounts in the Forward Port/Left corner of the Engine Room up against the vertical intake air duct shown in Purple here.
Another part of the evolution of the design we worked out with Oliver and his team was to change the exhaust gas outlet on the Combi to be at a downward 45 degree angle for a better routing of this hose down and across the WT Bulkhead to where it exits the Engine Room Enclosure.
This early render of the Engine Room Enclosure and the Stbd side of the Workshop shows how the rubber exhaust hose coming out of the Combi goes down and out the Stbd ER wall and then passes under the Orange Day Tank on its way out the angled aluminium exhaust pipe through the hull about 300mm/12” above the Waterline.  Gardner engine is shown here as the Blue box just to give its basic volume, ER Intake Air Duct in Purple on the Front Port corner of the ER and the Cyan coloured cylinders on the Stbd side of Mr. Gee are the two Seawater Strainers from the Intake Sea Chest in the Stbd corner of the ER.
This is arguably the most important component in any and certainly our wet exhaust system, the SS Spray Head or “mixing elbow” which is what I had in my hand in the give away clue up above and to my eyes Halyard’s execution of this is pure boat “porn” or jewelry as we sometimes refer to such works of art and engineering.  Looking at Halyard’s cutaway illustration here shows how the still dry exhaust gas only enters the elbow on the far Left and then has sea water pumped through the smaller ID hose on the top where it is then injected into the exhaust gasses flowing out the large rubber exhaust hose on the Right.  This water serves two critical functions as it both quiets the exhaust gas sounds and cools the gasses down so low that they can easily now be routed through certified rubber exhaust hoses which are much easier to work with and place compared to hot SS exhaust pipes.

The small angled fitting on the Right is an exhaust gas temperature monitor that notifies us and set off an alarm if the temperature ever rises which would mostly be due to a reduction or stoppage of the sea water coming in.  If the wet exhaust sea water should ever stop, usually due to the sea water impeller pump or drive belt failing, the temperatures inside the “wet” side of the exhaust system would immediately soar and start causing all sorts of severe damage to the rubber hoses and the Combi itself.  And yes, this is another place where I can say “Ask me how I know?!”.  So in addition to this wet exhaust gas temperature sender which will put that data onto the N2K and Maretron monitoring system, I also always install at least one temperature alarm sensor on the outer surface of the rubber exhaust hose just aft of this internal sensor for both redundancy and possibly an earlier warning of an increase in the wet exhaust gas temperatures.

Here is the real deal and if I hold it at this angle looking into the end where the wet exhaust gas plus water exits you can see now the water is very evenly injected into the exhaust gasses through all those semi-circular holes around the circumference.  The way this works is that there are actually two SS pipes here, the large 127mm/5” outer pipe I have in my hand and then the smaller inside pipe we are peering into here.  This creates a space or jacket between the inner and outer walls of these two pipes.  The sea water, enters through that small SS pipe in the upper Left side, fills and flows through this space or jacket between the two pipes and is then forced through all those semi-circular holes much like the spray head on your garden hose or shower. 

Cheaper systems just have the sea water enter directly from the sea water hose but this does a very poor job of mixing the water with the gasses so while not easy or cheap to execute this double walled injection system that Halyard has made works eXtremely well and reduces both noise and temperatures of our wet exhaust system very effectively and efficiently.

For those of you who might want to do a deeper dive into marine diesel engine exhaust systems THIS TONY’s TIPS article from Seaboard Marine will give you a very good overview of the various types and how they work.

This 2D drawing from Halyard’s catalogue shows the Side In/Top Out style we are using, with the noted change that our outlet is angled down 45 degrees.

The Combi Silencer/Separator was shipped upside down as you see here so that is the nice thick GRP base plate that I’ve got my hand on is up on top here but will give you an idea of its size and shape which you’ve been seeing in the renderings above as well.

For those not familiar with these Combination Silencer/Separators they are very simple in operation and eXtremely efficient.  The now wet exhaust gasses + seawater coming out of the Spray Head enter the Combi Silencer/Separator through the 127mm/5” ID angled side inlet pipe “A” in the drawing below, where it expands inside the large cylindrical GRP chamber.  From there, the seawater is separated out as it flows out the bottom pipe at “C” which in our case connects to a rubber hose going directly into the Exit Sea Chest that sits right below the Combi while the now cooled and silenced exhaust gasses exit through the upper Outlet “B” and are then routed over to the exhaust pipe exit from the hull via rubber exhaust hose.

I went with this Combined style of wet exhaust for many reasons, the two biggest by far being that this style requires no “Lift” of the sea water which the more common Lift Muffler design has which creates much lower power robbing back pressure for Mr. Gee and in a Good/Better/Best rating, these Combi styles are the Best as they have the highest degree of quieting of the various different wet exhaust styles.

You’ll be seeing lots more of all this as the installation starts in the next week or so.

STEERING:

Uğur and Nihat are still working on other boats so no progress this week on their aluminium related work but the ever productive Cihan had another very successful week as he continued with his installation of the Kobelt Steering system so let’s go catch on with that next.

This simplified schematic of our Kobelt Steering system which Christine created shows how the major components are connected together electrically
and now Cihan is working on all their hydraulic connections as shown in this schematic we developed with Kobelt.  You can see the two 7080 cylinders connected to the Tiller Arm at the top Left and the two HPU400 hydraulic pumps below them.

If you have not yet seen last week’s update you can go back to that to see the initial work that led to this point with the physical mounting of the two big Kobelt 7080 hydraulic cylinders and they are now both connected to this massive Tiller Arm which we was CNC machined out of a single block of AL which is also now fully installed onto the Rudder Shaft you can see poking out the top here.  Now it was time for our Master Plumber Cihan to start connecting all the hydraulics together.
These eXtremely robust base mounts for the outer articulated ends of each cylinder have now been fully welded in place and the cylinders are loosely connected for now while Cihan works his hydraulic magic to connect everything together starting with the hoses at each end of each 7080 cylinder.
Up above on top of the Aft Workbench which runs the full width of the Aft end of the Workshop along the entire Transom Wall on the far Left, the two Accu-Steer HPU400 24V continuous running pumps are mounted and ready for their hydraulic and electrical connections.
Cihan has mounted the horizontal AL bracket to the Aft Transom Wall and has bolted four of the high pressure ball valves to this so they are now all ready ……
….. for their hoses to be connected.

All the hydraulic hoses are 1SN DN13 rated for 160Bar/2320PSI
With the neccessary ends swaged on in house.

In the center of the schematic above is this Safety & By-pass valve which Cihan has bolted to a this small bracket to put it close to the Tiller Arm on the Left and make for the shortest overall hydraulic hose lengths.
Some more simple L-bar brackets welded to the underside of the Aft Workbench to hold and organise all the various hydraulic hoses he has made up.
As per the hydraulic schematic above the hydraulics for each cylinder are interconnected to provide the maximum flexibility of our steering where just one pump and on cylinder exceeds the steering requirements in any conditions and can do so using either the high speed or low speed option.  However to add more power and flexibility we also have the ability bring both pumps and both cylinders online at the same time. 
This gives us the option to double the speed and halve the time it takes to move the rudder from lock to lock which is a total of 90 degrees as our Rudder can turn up to 45 degrees to either side.

Cihan was clever enough to fabricate two 4-way connectors to help organise all these hose connections and you can see one of these 4-way junctions just to the Left of his elbow.  If you look closely or click to enlarge, you can see that the second 4-way connectors sets atop the first one.

Here he is a bit further into the installation and viewed from the side so you can see how he has stacked the two 4-way connectors atop each other.  The Yellow plastic blocks are clamps which safely hold all the hoses in position with no chafing or movement once they are all clamped down.
Two pairs of those hoses need to connect to the two Accu-Steer HPU400 AutoPilot pumps and you can see these coming up from below to connect to their respective high pressure 150 Bar ball valves that we saw Cihan had mounted up above.

And that pretty much finishes off the initial installation of the hydraulic hoses for the Accu-Steer pumps and Kobelt cylinders.  Next up are the long hoses that need to go all the way up to the Main Helm where the manual hydraulic steering pump where our Emergency Steering Wheel can be connected if ever needed.  More on that next week.

ELECTRICAL:

Hydraulics are not the only type of connections being made aboard the Good Ship Möbius this past week as Hilmi, seen in the background here, continues his relentless work installing the nautical miles of electrical wire, cables and now network cables.  As you can see by the large coils in front of the Workshop WT door he is now pulling some of the very long runs of cable and so “Mr. Swiss Army Knife” Mummy has been lending his very skilled helping hand.

For the most part Black cables are 120 and 220V AC and Grey are 12 and 24V DC.
Last weekend Hilmi finished wiring the Forward DC Distribution Box in the Forepeak which feeds all the high amp 24 Volt consumers up there such as the Maxwell VWC4000 Windlass, Lewmar 55EST Evo kedging winch, Vetus 2024DE Bow Thruster.  Plexiglass safety shield now installed and job well done Hilmi!
Down in the Basement where the Main DC Distribution Box is located Hilmi has also been busy connecting the large 24V DC cables to the Positive and Negative solid Copper Bus Bars and now starting to add things like the shunts for the Victron BMV712 Smart Battery monitor.

Two of the three shunts you can see bolted to the Negative Bus Bar on the Right with their two large 120mm²/AWG 5/0000 Black cables attached that go down to each of the four 24V @ 450Ah Battery Banks located directly below in their aluminium compartments which are integral to the hull.

Captain Christine whipped up this spiffy illustrated schematic that shows how these three shunts are all interconnected along with the data connections for monitoring all five of the Victron MultiPlus Inverter/Chargers, three 220V and two 120V.
Close up shot of one of those BMV712 Smart Shunts so you can see the additional connections that come off of each shunt and go up to their BMV712 gauge heads up in the Main Helm.  There are three of these BMV712 Smart Battery Monitors and their respective shunts; two for monitoring the two 24V @ 900Ah Battery Groups A and B and then a third to monitor the whole House Battery Bank which is 24V @ 1800Ah. 
Such detailed monitoring is critical to our existence because Möbius is a completely DC or “Battery Based” Boat whereby all of our four electrical voltages, 12 & 24V DC and 120 & 220V AC, originates from our 24 Volt House Battery Bank.  So we make battery and electrical system monitoring a top priority and it all starts by our monitoring the 24 the FireFly L15+ Carbon Foam batteries which makeup our huge House Battery Bank.

The latest addition to our Victron Blue Wall down in the Basement is one of two 70Amp Victron Orion 24V to 12V DC to DC converters which are the source for all our 12 Volt consumers that include some electronics and some pumps that are only available in 12 volt models.  Our primary voltages are 24V DC and 220V AC but we have both 12 volt and 120 volt outlets positioned where needed throughout the boat so that any voltage you want is readily available.  We really like the options and flexibility this affords us so that we don’t need to replace any of our existing equipment and purchase new items no matter what voltage they require.  Also nice for all our family and friends when they are visiting us so that they too can plug in any of the electrical bits and bobs they want to use.
Stepping back a bit to show you this Orion’s new home.
This spool of cable showed up onboard Möbius this past week and it isn’t like any of the other cables onboard so far so any guesses as to what this is for?
Yup, this is our CAT7 cable that we will be using for all our Ethernet based data. 
And as this schematic which Captain Christine put together will help you see just some of our Ethernet cables, we do have a LOT of data to move throughout the boat.  So yes, you are reading that label correctly, this is 305m/1000ft of CAT7 cable! 

Most of you are probably familiar with and using CAT5 or CAT6 Ethernet cable which still works just fine but we try where we can to “future proof” Möbius and this is one example. 

What’s the difference you ask? 
This chart shows some of the difference and yes, there is now CAT8 cable which we might have used but could not get delivered to us here in time.  The differences that matter to us are that we can have little to no loss with long runs and most importantly CAT7 has significantly more and better shielding so we get less “noise” and interference with our data transmissions if they happen to be near such interference from other devices.  We have routed all our data cables in their own cable trays and kept these well distanced from the other cable trays carrying AC and DC wires but the added shielding of CAT7 should eliminate any last bit of noise that might try to sneak aboard.

CAT7 is quite different internally with the added shielding and you need to use special connectors that have the connections for the shielding in place so you can’t use standard RJ45 connectors.  But Christine was able to source all the CAT7 male and female end connectors we needed with lots of spares along with the new crimping tool so we can make up our own CAT7 cables as needed for future expansion. 
Best thing is that the CAT7 connectors still have the exact same form factor as RJ45 so they snap into our RJ45 based wall plates to replace the old ones.

Let the CAT7 cable running begin! 

Here is some coming out of the ceiling above the Corridor outside the Guest Cabin.
More overtop the Ships/Wayne’s Office
More in these bookshelves……..
More in this little “Internet Alcove” by the stairs……
More in the Workshop ………………………

Well, you get the idea, more CAT7 EVERYWHERE!

Stay tuned for much more in next week’s update.  Let’s move on to something else quite electrifying to me …… Ro$ewood cabinetry.

MASTER CABIN

Next door in the Cabinetry Shop Omur is now busy making up more vents for the Extraction Fans in the SuperSalon.
Which soon emerge looking like this and ready for cleanup and machining the outer frames to size.

Then they head up to the Finishing Shop to receive their 5 coats of PU Poly Urethane varnish which transforms them into beauties like these two down in the Master Cabin.
These are two of the many more ventilation grates that Omur has been busy making for the various air Intake/Return and Output/Supply vents for Hot & Cold AirCon, Air Handlers, Extraction Fans and so on.
These two are destined for the air supply to the Air Handler located inside,,,,,,,,
……. the cabinetry on the Port side of the Master Cabin bed.  One Rosewood grill on each of the two stair risers, the upper one of which we see here.

SUPERSALON

Upstairs in the SuperSalon continues to live up to its name more and more with the passing of each week and here we find Selim starting to fit the Rosewood risers for the stairs leading up to the WT Entry/Exit door from SuperSalon to the Aft Dec.
Earlier in the week they had installed the foundations for the stair treads by leveling and gluing them to the AL stairs.
Selim added the spacers for the stair risers we saw him installing above.
Climbing up those stairs and turning around to look back inside the SuperSalon we spot another new addition this week.  Can you see it?
Good eyes!  This little box in the top front corner of the Plinth overtop the stairs will soon house a bunch of the electronics that feed the Upper Helm Station in the SkyBridge which is on the Stbd/Right side of this Plinth and photo.  All the surfaces in here will have snap in place FastMounted leather covered panels including one that will go over that rectangular opening you see here to make it easy to access items such as some network switches, N2K multi-port blocks, second boat computer and all the cables and wires that feed through ………………..
………. this penetration at the very top Right corner heading into the Upper FlyBridge Helm Station on the Right.
Back down inside the SuperSalon Selim has been busy all week doing the final leveling of the rigid foam board below the floors so that it is all flush and level for the 12mm / 1/2” marine plywood floors.  Once these are all leveled they will then route all the U-shaped grooves that will hold the 15mm / 5/8” PEX tubing for the In-Floor Heating system.

And if you peek through that big hatch in the floor you can see the Main DC Distribution Box that Hilmi has been working on down in the Basement.
Back to the Cabinetry Shop to catch up with the Hatch Liners Omur and Selim have been working on for the past few weeks. 
These two are soon headed for the Finishing Shop before going to their final destination inside the AL Hatch frames in the Master Cabin.
Progress continues in the Galley as well with the gluing up of the infamous BHL or Blue Horizon Line Handhold that wraps around the marble countertops which are out at the waterjet CNC cuter right now.
And they have now finished putting in all the Black Ceiling Grid components so it is now all ready for them to install the FastMount sockets that the ceiling panels snap into so please join us again next week to see that.

Mr. GEE!

Easy for most of you to guess what we’ve left for the last section of this week’s Möbius Progress Update but can you guess what these studs are all getting cleaned up and ready for?
eXactly!  Mr. Gee is ready to have his head(s) bolted on once I got ALL these different studs all fully cleaned up, threads redone and threaded into the cast iron Cylinder Block.
Studs all torqued down into the Cylinder Block, Head gaskets in place and rubber O-ring water jacket seals pressed in place.
Cylinder Heads all rebuilt with new valves, valve guides and reground Head to Block surface so time for the Front Head to “Fly” into place.
All those studs make it easy to line up the head just right and start lowering it in place.
Front Head in place so time for the Aft Head to join it.
Et Voila!  Mr. Gee grows closer and closer to a working engine and ready for his next 50+ years of uninterrupted service as XMP-78 Möbius’ source of propulsion.
Front head already has its compression release shaft in place with its aluminium handle poking out between the two heads so time to install the one in the Aft Head.  These levers allow you to hold the exhaust valves open so there is no compression in those three cylinders and makes it easy to turn the engine over and even, are you ready for it ………………. HAND START the engine!  Lots more on that whole story and installation in the coming weeks so I’ll leave it at that for now.
Just for show I put the sand blasted AL Valve Covers in place just in time for inspection by the Captain.
Several years ago when I was first Waynesplaining to Christine that we would be able to hand start Mr. Gee, she smiled even more than she is here, held her hand up to quiet me and said “You had me at Hand Cranked, I want a Gardner in my boat.” She is getting closer and closer to getting that wish.

Yiğit’s Presence Lingers On

Last week we had to say goodbye to our Project Manager Yigit as he headed off for his compulsory stint in the Turkish Navy and so before he left Antalya we had him over for dinner on Sunday for one more chance to spend some time with this eXtraordinarily talented young man who is also our dear friend. 
Ruby and Barney love “Uncle Yigit” even more than we do it seems as he has been our dog sitter for many weeks over the past 2+ years so it was a chance for all of us to squeeze in a bit more time together.
Being the sweet and thoughtful man he is, two days later a package showed up at our door with a surprise gift from Yigit inside that is just so Yigit and so perfect.

His and Hers Captains Caps!  So we just had to head into Naval Yachts on Saturday to take some photos to send to him, so Yigit, thanks and these are for you…………

In front of the Main Helm
  Up on the Foredeck
And testing out the “Dolphin Seats” at the Bow.

Thank you SO much Yigit!  Your presence and talents are missed more and more every day by everyone on Team Möbius and most of all by Wayne & Christine.

Well, that’s a wrap for the week that was June 8 to 12, 2020 so I’ll just add my thanks to all of you for joining us here for this week’s update and for joining us on this grand adventure.  Hope you’ll be back again next week and PLEASE let me know what’s working and what’s NOT with these posts as well as any and all questions and suggestions you have along the way.

-Wayne