As they used to say on Sesame Street, “This week is brought to you by the letter S” as the week featured Steering, Sea Chests, SuperSalon, Solenoids and some Sadness.  We are now back to full 5 and even 6 day work weeks as  there are no national holidays here in June and the weather continues to be spectacularly Summery so we enjoyed a very productive and joyful week, with a bit of melancholy sadness thrown in for good measure here in Antalya and aboard the Good Ship Möbius.

S is for Sadness

Our first S is for Sadness as we had to say goodbye to two key members of Team Möbius this week.

Ömer

Our week began with the very noticeable absence of Ömer, who as you’ve been seeing in every post here since the cabinetry work began, has been our Master Cabinetmaker in charge of all the cabinetry for the Guest Cabin, Guest Head & Shower, Corridor and stairs and the Ship’s/Wayne’s Office. 
Ömer’s range of craftsmanship was as eXtensive as it was impressive and he was always pushing himself to go that extra nautical mile to find the Goldilocks “Just Right” combinations of details and features no matter if they were buried deep inside the infrastructure for the cabinetry that almost no one would ever see or the beauty that was on full display with the matching grains and curves throughout his areas.

Sad too that we did not know that Omer was being sent over to another shipbuilder in the Antalya Free Zone so we did not have the chance to tell him how much we will miss him and to thank him all the more for the huge contribution he has made to making our boat not only so beautiful but also our home.  Hopefully we will be able to see him and thank him in person before we leave.

As much as we will miss his talented touches I think I will miss more Ömer’s ever present smile whenever we spoke and the pride which radiated from him as he would be showing me his latest results.

Çok teşekkür ederim Ömer, seni özleyeceğiz. (Thank you so very much Ömer, we will miss you.)

Yiğit

And our week ended with even more sadness, at least for Christine and me, as we had to also say goodbye to Yiğit who has been our Project Manager from the first day he started at Naval Yachts over two years ago soon after he graduated as a Naval Architect in Istanbul.
Yiğit took to his new work like the proverbial fish to water and had such a full range of talents from being an wizard of 3D modeling to having a very keen engineering and design sense.

I worked more closely with Yiğit than anyone else at Naval Yachts and our professional relationship soon blossomed into a personal one as Christine and I got to know this brilliant young man both inside the shipyard and out.

Yiğit became our in house dog sitter as Ruby and Barney soon fell for his charms as well and they stayed with him both in our apartment and over at his for all of the times when Christine and I flew back to Canada, the US and the UK.  Upon our returns, it always seemed that they would much rather have stayed with “Uncle Yiğit” than have to be back with their “parents” with all their rules and restrictions.

Fortunately Yiğit had informed us several months ago that he was going to be called up for his mandatory one year of military service where he will become a Lieutenant in the Turkish Navy.  They will be very reluctant to let him leave once they discover what a rare combination of talents he has so I won’t be surprised if this one year of mandatory service turns into a much longer Navy career.

Originally Yiğit thought he was going to be called up in April but the silver lining of this Corona virus “cloud” we are all in has been that this was postponed and we were able to keep him until the end of this week.  So on Friday afternoon we were able to have a small going away celebration on the aft deck with all the others on Team Möbius to both thank him and and toast the beginning of this eXciting new chapter in his life.

As we said to Yiğit then, we are as happy for him as we are sad for ourselves and we topped off our little going away event by teaching everyone how to sing “For he’s a jolly good fellow” and three throaty “Hip Hip Hurray” to send him on his way.

Not sure how we are going to manage without you Yiğit, but thanks to the wonders of modern technology we will be able to stay in close touch with you and to have you come join us aboard that boat that is as much the result of your efforts as ours.

Bon Voyage Yiğit as we all embark on our newest adventures in life.

Sana yeterince teşekkür edemiyoruz Yiğit ve seni şimdiden özlüyoruz. (We can’t thank you enough Yiğit and we are missing you already.)

OK, with those teary goodbyes, let’s move on to this week’s Show & Tell session so you can see the latest results of the tremendous progress of Team Möbius for this first week of June 2020.

S is for STEERING SYSTEM

Seems fitting to continue with the example of some of Yiğit latest contributions as he worked with Uğur, Nihat and myself on the latest eXciting new progress; starting to install the Kobelt Steering System.  This photo is taken standing out on the Swim Platform though the WT Door into the Workshop as Uğur starts applying all the measurements on the drawings Yiğit has prepared for …..
….. the precise location of these two works of art and engineering in all bronze and stainless steel.  These are the two large Kobelt 7080 bidirectional and balanced 12” hydraulic steering cylinders.
Back in 2017 & 2018, Dennis, our designer from Artnautica Yacht Design in Auckland NZ and I had worked extensively with the engineers at Kobelt in Vancouver British Columbia to come up with the Goldilocks just right steering system for XPM78-01 Möbius.  No easy task to meet all of our eXtreme requirements and use cases but this is the critical geometry we eventually created which Yigit then used to create the 3D models and refine the actual installation.
Right up there at the top of our priorities it can be compellingly argued that steering is THE most important system on the boat.  We have multiple ways of generating and controlling the electrical systems onboard and we also have alternatives and backups for propulsion, but other than when we are anchored we are “dead in the water” without our steering system.

This early cutaway rendering will help you visualize how the steering cylinders and Tiller Arm work to turn the Rudder.
And this sectional view shows how the two Jefa Self Aligning TWIN-PETP roller bearings work to provide almost frictionless rotation of the Rudder.  All non conductive plastics also means these eXtremely efficient roller bearings also electrically isolate the whole rudder assembly from the rest of the hull making it very easy to manage and prevent any electrolysis or corrosion from the dissimilar metals involved.
At the risk of doing what my kids used to call TMI, Too Much Information Dad!, this sectional drawing shows how the upper Jefa roller bearing then has a ball bearing thrust washer on top with a locking ring to secure it to the Rudder Post and prevent any vertical movement.

OK, with all that as background, first thing Monday morning Uğur and Nihat started their work on the Steering System by completing the installation of the rudder which has been long in the making. 

This is what those drawings above look like in reality.  This is the top of the 127mm / 5” diameter solid AL Rudder Post where it exits the top of the welded in place 12mm/ 1/2” thick AL Rudder Tube atop the Rudder Shelf which runs the full width of this aft end of the hull. 

For those curious, the large hole at the top is where the emergency tiller pipe is inserted and the long groove is the keyway for the SS key that locks the Tiller Arm solidly to the Rudder Post.

Largest White plastic atop the AL Rudder Tube is the top of the outer race of the upper Jefa self aligning roller bearing you can see in the two section drawings above. 

Above that is the thrust ball bearing and the Black anodized lock ring at the top is affixed to the Rudder Post with three SS set screws, one of which you see here on the Right.
Dow below, the Rudder is now in its final position.   The small vertical pipe below is temporarily pushing the Rudder up tight against the bottom Jefa rudder bearing while Nihat and Uğur are installing the upper bearings and lock ring.

Zooming in to see how this White Delrin thrust bushing protrudes just below the edge of the bottom end of the Prop Tube where it is welded to the Prop Tunnel plate.

To the delight and amazement of the others, the Rudder is easy to turn that you can almost do it by blowing hard on the trailing edge.  Those Jefa roller bearings are eXtremely effective and will make steering all the easier.

With the Rudder Post bearings all in place and locked down the two halves of the massive Tiller Arm were attached with the 16mm / 5/8” SS key in that groove you saw above and then the whole Tiller Arm could be clamped to the Rudder Post with the four large SS bolts.

Now that the Tiller Arm is in its final position the bronze & SS Heim Joint end of the first Steering Cylinder was secured to the Tiller Arm with the hardened 25mm / 1” diameter steel pin.

With that end of the cylinder locked in position the bronze base or foot on the opposite end could now be positioned to establish the critical geometry you see in that dimensioned drawing above.  In normal conditions the forces on these cylinders is not too high but in storm conditions or when surfing down big waves they can become eXtreme so getting the geometry precisely correct and having eXtremely solid attachment of that bronze base foot is critical.
If you look closely at this bronze base above and in this section drawing of the Kobelt 7080 cylinder, you can see that this end is captured in a spherical ball joint that takes the brunt of all these thrusting forces and yet allows the cylinder to move as they move the Rudder up to 45 degrees in either direction.  This also explains why there is a grease nipple at the top for periodic lubrication of this high load joint.
The Rudder was locked into its zero or straight ahead position and then using Yiğit’s drawings and dimensions and the every so handy laser level, Uğur and Nihat were able to determine the eXact position of the bronze base and its mounting bracket.
Now that the height and position of the base was known for sure, more of Yiğit’s drawings were used to quickly fabricate these two mounting bases from 20mm / 3/4” thick AL plate. 
Having a 20 Ton press at hand makes it pretty quick and easy to put in the two angled bends on each end and then weld this gusset down the center for added strength and rigidity.
Back to the Rudder Shelf the mounting brackets could now be set in place for their final positioning and then welding.
We checked all the measurements several more times with the laser and tape measure and then Uğur quickly tacked the mounts in place on the Rudder Shelf.
And we checked again.
Here is what the whole setup looks like with both side mounts tacked in place.
The centers for all four hardened mounting bolts were carefully punched in the AL plate and the clearance holes drilled in several stages.
Now the bolts could be inserted and temporarily snugged up for one more check that all the dimensions, angles and geometry were in that Goldilocks just right zone.
With the vertical heights all locked in we then tried out different thicknesses of SS shim washers to position the flat bearing surfaces of the Heim Joint ends in their slots in the solid AL Tiller Arm to get them precisely centered with no vertical movement.
And Voila!  Möbius has her steering cylinders all in place and Cihan is already getting started at putting in the hydraulics to make them work as evidenced by the Kobelt four way valve here in the foreground.  But we’ll leave that till next week’s update.

S is for SUPPORTS:

A relatively small but very gratifying job that Nihat & Uğur checked off this past week was welding in the two support poles for the cantilevered roof overtop the Aft Outdoor Galley & BBQ.  This roof is sturdy enough and only carries the weight of three of our 340W solar panels but we wanted to add a bit more rigidity to the whole structure and perhaps even more importantly these support poles serve double duty as eXtremely secure hand holds whenever you are walking or standing anywhere in this Outdoor Galley area and the boat is rocking in either seas while underway or from the wake kicked up by boats zooming past you in an anchorage.
Very KISS design to connect them to the outside of these Engine Room vent boxes on the Aft Deck which also do double duty as the countertops for the Outdoor Galley with a sink on one side and an electric BBQ grill on the other.
They used a short length of L-bar for the attachment point to the underside of the roof which will later be filled with EPDM insulation and covered with AlucoBond sheeting with some LED lights for night time cooking.
Here is what the Outdoor Galley looks like from the Port/Left side of the Aft Deck with its new support poles all welded in.
And from the forward Starboard/Right side.

Electric BBQ grill goes into the opening on the lower surface on the far Left here.

S is for SEA CHESTS

Can you guess what the next project that Uğur is starting here?
It involves two of these monster PVC ball valves and if you click to enlarge this (or any other) photo you can probably figure it out by looking at Yiğit’s 2D drawing on the Left.
Or I’ll make it even easier with this full shot of the drawing Uğur is using.  This is the top view.
These are the dual sea water strainers for the main sea water intake sea chest in the Engine Room.  These Vetus units are very well built and eXtremely rugged with their thick plastic cylinders and thick clear plexiglass lid for easy viewing to check for any clogs or debris that might be starting to fill up the inner strainer basket. 
In the case of a clog, no tools required you just flip that one’s ball valve off and the other one on and continue on while you then can take the time to undo those six knobs to remove the lid, clean out the strainer and put it back together all good to go for the next time.

This also gives you a good shot of the output port on the side.  We are removing all these original threaded flanges and replacing them with the AL flanged plates made in house here as you’ll see below.
Here is a rough approximation of how the horizontal ball valve will go on the horizontal pipe coming out of the sea chest which would be on the far Left in this photo and then make a 90 degree bend up into the bottom of the sea chest. 
With this setup, any debris, seaweed, fish (yes it happens) will be restrained (sorry, couldn’t resist) by the SS wire mesh strainer and then the clear seawater comes out the flange fitting on the far Right side of the Gray strainer body.

The main feed pipe coming off the big 100mm/4” vertical sea chest pipe will be welded on as you’ll see in a few minutes but all the other connections are made with flanged joints which start out with simple discs like this one I’m holding, cut from 10mm AL plate and machined on the lathe.
It was faster and easier for Nihat to use this carbide hole saw to cut out the center opening rather than do it on the lathe.
Then they were drilled for their bolt holes and tacked to their respective spots on the pipework that connects them all together.
What do you think?

Sturdy enough?
Down in the Forward Stbd/Right corner of the Engine Room this is where they are bound for.  Just trying out the layout to make sure everything is going to fit.  Pretty much a foregone conclusion as Yigit has fully modeled this in 3D but there’s always a chance that some little detail has been missed in the real world.  But not this time and it was all systems Go for installation now.
When I bring you in a bit closer you can see that there is a log going on in this area and fitting in both those huge valves so you can easily reach and turn the handles and keeping the two strainers positioned well out of the way took some planning and Uğur is now double checking that it all works out.
Knowing everything fits and works, it was one last trip back down to the shop floor below the boat for final cleanup of all the bits and pieces while they were easy to get at.
And then their final trip back to the Engine Room to be welded into the awaiting sea chest.  Next week we’ll see the mounting of the valves, strainers and sea water manifold that feeds all the consumers such as the water maker, chiller, engine heat exchanger and exhaust sea water pump to name but a few.

S is for SOLENOID VALVES:

Moving onto Cihan’s world of Plumbing, can you guess what these solenoid valves are for that he is about to start installing throughout the boat.

Hint; there are 12 of them.
If you were with us last week you might recall seeing Cihan working with these which are the electrically controlled solenoid valves for the high water pump evacuation system in each side of each compartment between the five bulkheads in the hull.
Might be a bit hard to make out but the somewhat dirty white hose second from the Right here is the high water suction hose for this compartment on the Port/Left side of the Corridor/Ships Office/Guest Cabin compartment.  The smaller clear hose on the far Right is for the “regular” diaphragm bilge pump.
We designed these XPM’s to have all the area of the hull below the waterline constructed of a series of criss-crossing plates a bit like an egg crate which all serve as tanks for fuel and water.  All the bright pink “floors” here are actually the tops of the tanks with all the neccessary Green tank access hatches for inspecting and cleaning them out periodically over the life of the boat.
But the truly awemazing thing about this type of hull design is that even if the hull was to be breached/pierced in some spot, it would only expose ONE of these relatively small tanks to the sea water and that would be the only area that could flood.  With the base level “floors” thus being tank tops there are essentially no traditional bilges just a series of V-shaped “gutters” running down each side where the outer edges of the tank tops are bent down to form what is called Margin Plates” so that these tank top plates intersect the hull plates at a perpendicular 90 degrees for maximum strength.

Here is a close up inside one of these V-shaped Gutters with a different view of that same “dirty white” high water suction hose in the photo above.  The flat rectangular little Yellow piece with the Blue wire coming out is a solid stage water alarm switch that turns on whenever water touches it.  This first sets off both an alarm light and buzzer and then turns on the diaphragm bilge pump connected to the smaller 25mm/1” ID clear hose you saw above which slurps up any water that collects in this gutter.

If the water were to somehow continue to rise, a similar High Water alarm would go off and we would now go and activate the solenoid valve that Cihan is now installing which would open that valve up and the high volume “crash pump” would start evacuating all this water overboard.

Remember that “dirty White” High Water suction hose?  Well that’s it in the upper Left here where it connects to its solenoid valve along with the hose from the opposite side of the hull.
We find these two solenoid High Water valves down in the forward Stbd corner of the Basement with one going directly to the suction hose down in the bottom of this Gutter and the top hose going through a penetration in this WT Bulkhead to be the High Water suction hose for the Gutter in the Master Cabin on the other side.
Aha!  Two more up in the Forepeak, which in this case is more of a traditional bilge as you can see the two High Water suction hoses going down to the bottom of the hull on either side of the massive 25mm/1” thick Keel Bar that runs like a backbone or spine down the entire length of the hull.

Yellow motor on the Right here is the Vetus Bow Thruster.
Hmmmmm…………..

Any guesses what Cihan is now up to up in the Forepeak??
Maximizing his time while he was down in the Forepeak mounting those two High Water solenoid valves you see on the lower Right here, Cihan also plumbed the sea water intake manifold coming off the intake Sea Chest on the Left. 
That clear 25mm/1” ID hose first goes through the squat little “pump saver” filter you see here and then delivers sea water to a SPX Deck Wash Pump that is hiding behind that White plastic wrap in the upper middle here which is behind the traditional diaphragm Bilge Pump with the Red ring.

White unit on the bottom is the VacuFlush Vacuum Generator and the white Poly tank you can just see the bottom of up above here is the Forward Black Water Tank for the Master Cabin Head.

PLUMBING:

Different kinds of plumbing are found from stem to stern and therefore so too is Cihan so here is a quick tour through some of the other areas he was working on this past week.

Back on the Stbd side of the Workshop Cihan was finishing up the fuel filter system on the front of the Day Tank.  We’ve been following his work here for the past few weeks so you’ve seen most of this but can you spot what’s new?
If you look closely (click to enlarge) on the far Left side of the Day Tank above you’ll be able to see that he was able to finally find some clear fuel approved hose to put in here for the visual sight “glass” of the level of fuel in the Day Tank. 
As does every tank onboard, there is a Maretron fuel level sensor as well as a Hart Tank Tender mechanical tank level measurement system in the Day Tank so those provide two other ways to check the Day Tank fuel level but adding this visual sight gauge guarantees that you always know for sure that these other gauges are correct and you know exactly how much fuel is in there.  Once we have fuel onboard we will calibrate this sight glass and add markings for volume in increments of about 10 or 20 litres or so to make it easy to know the volume of fuel in the Day Tank.

As required there are shut off valves top and bottom (not in place yet) as you only open these to take a reading and otherwise keep them closed so there is no chance of any fuel escaping if the sight “glass” should ever break.

Sliding 2 meters aft of the Day Tank we manage to catch Cihan as he is installing the manifolds and control valves for the two water transfer pumps you can see in the background on the bottom of this Workbench.

These Jonson SPXFlow Ultra Ballast F4B-11 impeller pumps are real workhorses I’ve used on previous boats with great success.  They can pump in both directions, are self priming up to 4m/13’ and move a lot of water with a flow rate of about 50LPM/13GPM.

We are using them to enable us to transfer water To/From any of the 8 different water tanks which hold a total of about 7100L / 1850 USG and lets us keep the boat trimmed well on passage as we use up fuel and to also compensate for things like when the weight of the Tender is off the Port deck and in the water.
Probably eXcessive in the eXtreme but we’ve added a FleetGuard FS1000 fuel filter to supplement the one that is already on the Kabola KB45 diesel water heater.  No such thing as fuel that is too clean you know!
Two more transfer pumps getting some of Cihan’s attention for their manifolds and control valves.  These two brutes are the 24V gear pumps for transferring diesel fuel To/From any of the XX fuel tanks which in total can hold up to 14,500L / 3860USG.

These are the valves for the Outlet side of the pumps.
And these are for the Inlet side.
We spent a good bit of time coming up with the best layout for all the fuel related items which you can now see the results of when I step back a bit to show the whole Central Fuel Station. 

FleetGuard filters on the Day Tank, Transfer Pumps below the Workbench, Fuel Control Manifolds (3) above on the Right and little MiniMe R2D3 Alfa Laval centrifuge hiding in the background on the Right side of the Day Tank.
Over on the opposite Port side corner of the Workshop Cihan has now got the Air Compressor all setup and mounted.
Including the relay, pressure gauge and regulator on the end of the compressed air tank below and the three stage air filtration system up above.  A compressed air line runs the entire length of the boat with multiple T’s in every compartment all the way up to and including the Forepeak. 
A ready supply of high pressure compressed air is SO handy to have onboard for everything from powering some of my pneumatic tools, to filling up inflatable kayaks and SUPs as well as blowing out any fouled sea chests and cleaning up parts I’m working on in the Workshop.

We will also sometimes use this compressed air setup as a “Hookah” system with 35m/100’ compressed air lines running off the Swim Platform with SCUBA regulators on the ends for exploring under the boat or being able to work on the underwater portion of the hull for extended times for repairs or regular cleaning of the bottom, all with no tanks or other gear on your back.  Christine and I have had this kind of Hookah setup on our previous boat and it was one of the best bits of kit we had onboard.  In addition to enabling extended times to work on the hull at anchor, this kit also becomes a high value component of our overall Safety System by allowing me to work under the boat if we run into trouble on a passage.  Like what you ask?  Oh, I don’t know, maybe your rudder falls off, or you hook a fishing net, little things like that.  Ask me how I know!

S is for SPARKIE

Sparkie is the term for Electricians which I picked up from my times exploring New Zealand on previous boats and Hilmi is our very talented Head Sparkie who’s work you’ve been seeing for many months now.  Electricity would be in close competition to Plumbing for which one is more ubiquitous and spread throughout the entire boat and so like Cihan, Hilmi’s work is similarly found everywhere.

Starting up in the Forepeak Hilmi has been busy wiring up this DC Distribution Box that manages all the high amp 24V consumers up her such as the Maxwell VWC 4000 Windlass, Vetus 2014DE Bow Thruster, Lewmar 55EST Winch and various smaller consumers such as Deck Wash pumps, Black Water pumps and more.
As with most things we have gone multiples over on things like these bus bars made from double layers of 10mm x 40mm solid copper flat bar.
However,  when you’re have things like the Bow Thruster which could pull up to 720A @ 24V and when you consider that the wire run from the Main DC Box in the Basement to this Distribution Box in the Forepeak is about 10m / 33’ and we want to keep our Voltage Drop below 3%, then is really isn’t too eXcessively eXtreme at all.

These are the four Circuit Breakers and Switches that are externally available when the door is closed.

Black box peeking up from behind the copper negative bus bar on the bottom Right is the relay for the Maxwell Windlass.
Here is what the completed Forepeak DC Distribution Box looks like with its plexiglass safety shield now in place.

Here it is with the door closed. and the 4 switches labelled and ready for action.

FYI:  The Gray box on the WT Bulkhead on the Left is the ELS control for the Lewmar 55EVO EST winch.  These models are quite new and very smart as the now have “Autoshift” which engages first gear when you first start and then when the load increases it will automatically switch to the next gear. 

One way you know Hilmi is here is by spotting his ever present and unique “work light” that he uses wherever he is working.  In this case we are looking up above at the underdeck mounting of the Lewmar 55EST winch motor which is now fully wired up and just waiting for the foot switches to be installed up above on deck.
Continuing to look up and over on the Right side of the DC Distribution Box we see that Hilmi has now installed all the high amp cables to the Maxwell VWC4000 Windlass.  It too now awaits the hand held remote switch to become fully operational.

Oh, and see that little white PPR pipe at the top?  That is one of the compressed air outlets in the Forepeak.
Looking down and forward in the Forepeak we find more of Hilmi’s handiwork getting the Vetus 2024DE Bow Thruster wired up.
We have not had a Vetus brand bow thruster in any of our previous boats but we are very impressed and happy with the build quality of this one which bodes well for equally  good performance.  As we do in many other places you can see how Vetus uses solid copper flatbar rather than cables in places where you have tight quarters and want to guarantee great connections for the high amps flowing through things like these 24V contacts.
Back in the Basement, Hilmi continues to work on the busiest of all the DC Distribution Boxes, this being the Main one where the four groups of 24V FireFly Carbon Foam battery groups all come together.

The two rows of high amp switches are now mounted and wired on their rails with the upper Negative Bus Bar and lower Positive Bus Bar awaiting all the big cables and fuses that will be attached to them.
These are some of the 120mm² / AWG 5/000 cables coming from the four groups of batteries that sit in their integral AL compartments below on either side of the Keel Bar.

Hilmi is again adding short lengths of clear shrink wrap where he will insert the ID labels for each cable and seal them with his heat gun.
Similar to the ones we just saw on the Vetus bow thruster, these are some of the solid copper connectors Hilmi is using to connect some of the huge cable lugs to some of the switches and shunts.  These are much faster to install and are pretty much fail safe compared to cables with crimped on lugs.
Here for example of how Hilmi has installed these copper jumper bars to get from the high amperage positive connections on these two Remote Battery Switches.  The two “spacers” bolted in the middle of each bar are ceramic isolators so there is no chance of contact with the metal case.

Now these copper connector bars lead down behind the Negative Bus Bar………….
…….. and exit below where the four large Red cables can be easily connected and stay protected from any contact.  In both photos you see how he has covered all the exposed surfaces with Black shrink wrap for even more protection from any accidental contact with tools and such.  Trust me, you do NOT want to experience what happens when you ground against 900+ amps of 24V DC!  And yes, ask me how I know!
It’s the little details that add up to making an installation go from good to GREAT and here is but one example where Hilmi has put in clear adhesive lined shrink wrap over these connections to some other copper connector bars to prevent any corrosion for the next few decades.

S is for SANTOS, SHOWERS & SWITCHES:

Moving from electrical to carpentry, let’s go see what’s been happening in the Master Cabin.

This is what is left of the quickly dwindling stack of Santos/Ro$ewood veneer over in the Cabinetmaking Workshop next door to Naval’s main Shipyard.  More than enough for what is needed to complete the interior with just enough left over for me to take with us for future projects.

More of those “little details” here too with the care being taken to route out this recess for the wiring of one of the dimmable LED overhead lights in the Master Cabin shower door jamb.
And more over here on this wall for 120 & 240V receptacles on the Right and a 12V + 24V connector on the Right.  This wall with then have a leather covered panel snapped in place using those White female FastMount sockets.
Looking up this is one of the wood hatch liners that Omur and Selim have been working on for the past few weeks.  Solid Rosewood edging top and bottom and then the curved interior surfaces will be laminated with Rosewood veneer………
…… like this.
Here is what it looks like from the Foredeck up above.

With the hatch liners in place Selim can mark the plywood ceiling panel where it needs a bit more trimming for the White leather that will be wrapped around all edges of the finished ceiling panels.
Here is what it soon looks like with all the White Leather covered ceiling panels have snapped in place and Hilmi has all the dimmable LED lights wired and ready for a quick installation of the lamps when they arrive.

The outer carcases of the “Medicine Cabinet” has been installed on the Head wall above the sink countertop on the far Left.
These angled stairs leading up to the little landing on the Port side of the King bed are being used to mount the two grilled vents for the incoming air being drawn in by the Air Handler inside which then either cools this air in AirCon mode or heats it and blows it out another long skinny vent up near the ceiling.
Over in his workshop, Omur has the Rosewood vent grills glued up.

Since the first time I ever smelled fresh cut Teak I’ve been intoxicated by that heavenly scent so I was delighted to spend some time in the cabinetmaking shop as they started re-sawing some solid Teak planks into thinner strips.

Can you guess what for??
These will soon be transformed into the solid Teak removable floor panels in all the Showers and the Master Head.  Stay tuned for more as those get built and in the meantime pardon me if I head back there for another round of deep breathing.

S is for SUPER Salon & “Seiling” Panels!

Over the past few weeks we’ve been following Omur and Selim’s progress on the ceiling inside the SuperSalon.  Here you can see that they now have all the bare plywood ceiling panels snapped in place all the way forward overtop the Main Helm and then all down the sides where these smaller panels form the bottom of the Ceiling Soffits.
Now they are busy putting in the framing for the grid that will cover the rest of the ceiling.  These plywood panels have now been unsnapped and sent over to the Upholstery Shop to be covered with White leather.
More Black epoxy covered plywood strips are then glued and screwed to the overhead AL frames to create a grid for all the FastMount connectors to thread into.
One example of these Ceiling Grid strips being installed. 
This ceiling grid with FastMounts design creates a Goldilocks Just Right situation for me in the future as I have easy access to any of these spaces above the ceiling panels to be able to get in for any maintenance, running new wires for future gear and so on.  Then I just snap the leather covered ceiling panels back in place and have that beautiful finished ceiling like the one you saw in the Master Cabin a bit earlier.

One of the last jobs that Yigit was able to get done on his last day at Naval on Friday was this layout for all the 15mm / 5/8” PEX tubing for the In-Floor heating in the SuperSalon. 
Early on , Yigit came up with this technique of using circles that are the diameter of the max bending radius of these PEX tubes and moves them around in a complex Rubik’s Cube like game trying to get a continuous loop of PEX through all the areas you want while going around all the furniture bases, hatches, and other obstacles.  As soon as Omur and Selim have finished the ceiling they will move down to putting in the PEX lines below the floor.  Hot stuff!

Mr. GEE!

As usual I didn’t manage to find enough time to make as much progress on our Gardner 6LXB “Mr. Gee” this past week as I’m the “slacker” on Team Möbius, but I did manage to make good progress none the less and he is growing up to be quite the “real boy” as Jiminy Cricket might have said because he now has all his Pistons installed!!
To get there, this cast iron Cylinder Block needed to be lifted atop the cast AL Crankcase.  So with the cylinders all freshly honed to perfection as you saw me do last week I carefully lifted the Cylinder Block with my 2 Ton lift and carefully lowered it onto all the studs protruding from the top surface of the Crankcase.
All the nuts you see here at the base of the Red Cylinder Block were then given some Loctite and the nuts were torqued down in the Gardner specified sequence.
Last week I had been able to prep all these beautiful brand new from Gardner pistons complete with all new and modern rings and wrist pin.
So I had all six of these little fellas waiting in the wings for their final journey into their respective cylinders.
With apologies for being too oily and busy to take any photos during the process, I was able to insert all the pistons and connecting rods into each cylinder and compress the three rings so the piston could slide down into its cylinder bore and the big end connecting rod bearing could wrap itself around the crankshaft pin below.
It was then a simple matter of putting on the bottom half of the Con Rod bearing caps and torqueing down all four nuts on each Con Rod in the right sequence and in stages to the factory specified torque. 

And I’m delighted to report that I can still spin Mr. Gee’s crank easily and smoothly by hand so all is well inside Mr. Gee.
Gardner LX engines use this slightly different method of ensuring that all the connections between the cooling water jackets in the Cylinder Heads are VERY tightly sealed to the matching holes into the water jackets in the Cylinder Block. 
Very strong and simple as is the norm with Gardners, these fat little O-rings have short aluminium tubes that I inserted through the rubber O-ring and into the hole in the Cylinder Block below.  These AL tubes have a trumpet flair on their upper end so when the head is torqued down it will further seal these water jacket connections as these tubes and rubber O-rings are compressed.

This coming week I hope to be able to finish restoring the Cylinder Heads and get them mounted atop this Cylinder Block surface so stay tuned for that.

Whew!  Another busy and productive week for Team XPM78-01 Möbius here at Naval Yachts! 

Thank you SO much for joining me again for this adventure and PLEASE be encouraged to add your questions, comments and ideas in the “join the Discussion” box below.

Till next week,

-Wayne