With apologies for taking so long to do so here finally is the long overdue weekly update for all you patient followers.

As you might recall from the last post, I flew to Florida to meet up with my Beautiful Bride Captain Christine who had been there for almost 6 seeks looking after a myriad of things from ordering boat parts, to updating her 100 Ton Captains license to being Gramma to our Grandson Liam.  I was there to help introduce Baris and Dincer, the brother owners of Naval Yachts to the US and the huge Ft. Lauderdale International Boat show known as FLIBS.  And then I had hundreds of boat parts to order, have shipped to us in Florida, make and crate it all up to be air freighted over to Naval and somewhere in there fly up to BC to see family and friends there, down to LA to have our CanAm (I’m Canadian, Christine’s American) with our similarly CanAm family and Granddaughters.

I had naively hoped to be able to find the time to keep up with these weekly updates while I was away for the past three weeks on a truly whirlwind tour of the US and Canada, but I came up against one of the only finite resources we have; time.  Still only 24 hours in each day, trust me I checked, and while I didn’t sleep too many of those 24 hours while away, there just wasn’t enough time left over after days and nights filled with time with friends, family and most of all grandkids on top of keeping up with Project Goldilocks both back at Naval Yachts and on a daily basis stateside ordering, shipping and packing literally hundreds of pieces and kilos of equipment and supplies to take back to Antalya.

I know, I know, ……….. excuses, excuses.  But let me plead my case just a wee bit by showing you just a few of the reasons why my time just got away from me:

Our now FOUR year old Grandson Liam

Three year old Granddaughter Blair

And Five year old Brynn

CanAm Thanksgiving dinner
Building shipping crates
Filling shipping crates
Trucking crates to the shipper in time.  All 392 kgs/864 lbs for this one crate alone.

Introducing Baris and Dincer to the USA and FLIBS (Ft. Lauderdale International Boat Show) for their first time.

Pausing long enough to take in another gorgeous Vancouver sunset with dear friends.

Well, you get the idea.  All just excuses I know, but you might admit some pretty darn cute and great ones and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
But let’s get back to boat building shall we?!!!!!

As you may have noticed in the title, I’m going to cover TWO weeks of progress for you here, spanning October 28th through November 15th, 2019 so hang on to your hats, grab a tasty beverage and let’s go fly through Naval Yachts shipyard and see what Team Möbius has been up to.

PLUMBING:

Let’s start with Plumbing Progress for a change and check in with Cihan to see what he’s been up to.

Down in the Basement he has now mounted and plumbed one of two 150L/40 USG black water holding tanks,  This one in the Basement is for the Guest Head and …..
…. this one waiting down on the shop floor will soon be mounted in the Forepeak to service the Master Cabin Head. 

These are complete systems with a super reliable Dometic diaphragm pump, odor filtered vent and all the built in fittings.

Next to the BW Holding tank Cihan as also mounted the vacuum generator that is part of our beloved VacuFlush toilet systems.  We had these on our previous boat and worked flawlessly for the 14 years I had her and we really love how well they work.
Here is how these two components sit in the Basement, up against the WT Bulkhead with the Guest Head immediately on the other side so very short pipe runs even though these VacuFlush systems are built to have very long runs with no problem.
As we do with all the equipment, the Holding Tanks and Vacuum Generators are isolated from the boat by mounting systems that keep them clear of the floor as in this case and also allow us to create vibration absorbing soft mounts where needed such as on the Vacuum Generator to ensure no noises from the pumps can transmit through the hull and interior.
These two diaphragm bilge pumps are another example of how we keep all components isolated from the boat.

For those unfamiliar with VacuFlush it is a system very similar to the way the heads on airplanes work.  The Vacuum Generator creates a vacuum between itself and the underside of the toilet bowl and so when you step on the foot pedal beside the toilet everything in the bowl is instantly pulled through the sanitation hoses, through the VG and into the Holding tank.  The Holding tank then has its own diaphragm pump to extract the contents out to the Sea Chest or to a pump out connection on deck for shore side pump outs.

This manifold is part of the plumbing for the pump out of both the Gray and Black Water systems.  Given our typical sailing style we don’t usually need to use shoreside pump out facilities and can discharge when miles off shore through our Sea Chests so this manifold allows us to select between Sea Chest and pump out for the BW.

More of Cihan’s handiwork in the Basement on the various Bilge pump plumbing.  Larger 40mm/1.5” hose is for the high volume Bilge pump system and the smaller 25mm/1” clear hoses and those two diaphragm pumps are for slurping up any small amounts of water that might find its way into those “gutters” formed where the tank tops are curved down so they can be welded perpendicularly to the hull sides.  Makes for a very tidy, effective and efficient bilge system.
And Cihan makes it all the neater with his careful routing of all these hoses through the “super highways” of cable trays running throughout the boat.

CABINETRY:

Our awesome Cabinetry team of Omur, Selim and Ömer have been keeping up their always impressive progress as they build the cabinetry for the Galley, SuperSalon, Guest Cabin and Office areas so let’s go see what they’ve been up to the past 2 weeks.

One of the newest cabinets to get started are the ones for the freezers and fridges.  A bit hard to see through the blizzard of clamps perhaps but this is the cabinet for the two 130L/35USG Vitrifrigo fridges which will slide snugly into the two large openings and with two storage drawers below.

Yesim provided this quick render so you can see how all four units will look along the Port side of the SuperSalon.  This is a much more efficient and pleasing design that what you may recall seeing in previous renders where we have moved the two freezer drawer cabinets forward and tucked them out into the large space under the side decks. 
Keeps everything nice and low and makes both the fridges and the freezers much easier to access when you open them.

Here is the cabinet for the two drawer freezers being assembled in the Cabinetry shop.
This helps to see both the placement of these cabinets and the relative size of the two fridge units and drawers.
And these two freezer drawers.  You can see how far back this space extends under the side decks and we are taking maximum advantage of this voluminous area on both sides of the SuperSalon.  You’ll see more examples in the coming weeks as those cabinets go in.
The cabinetmakers amongst you will appreciate this sectional shot of the back edge on one of the walls of the fridge cabinet showing how the exposed edges are all built with solid Rosewood for both longevity and nicely radiused corners throughout.  The marine plywood you see is that new sustainable and very light weight Poplar based product that is working out eXtremely well to dramatically reduce the weight of all the cabinetry and provide a super stable substrate for all the cabinets.

and of course Wayne’s infamous “Blue Horizon Line & Handhold continues throughout this and all other interior areas of the boat.

Standing with your back against the Fridge cabinets and looking across to the Starboard side we see that the dining settee is now all fitted in place.  Those two doors in the seat back provide access to that voluminous area under this side’s decks.
Standing forward near the Main Helm station and looking aft this shot provides a sense of scale and location for the dining settee relative to the Galley.
Not all of the action and progress is happening in the SuperSalon as Ömer and Okan continue to work on the cabinetry down in the Port side of the Guest Cabin area.

Okan is test fitting the tall cabinet as you do down the stairs to my Office area.  This and the cabinet that will soon fill the space to the right will be home to the Aft electrical distribution panel, circuit beakers, etc..
With that tall cabinet out of the way you get a better shot of the generous amount of “clean workbench” area I will have in this Office that flanks the corridor leading to the main Workshop and Engine room.  You can see this WT doorframe at the very top of this photo behind Ömer’s back.
Never too many drawers and storage on a workbench or office right?  Plus there is another whole set up above.  The large opening below the center of the desktop provides space for a swivel out seat when I’m working here.

ALUMINIUM WORKS:

Last but never least for this week’s Progress Update let’s see what Uğur and Nihat have been up to with several aluminium projects onboard.

Nihat made quick work of fabricating and then mounting the circular chain locker.
Uğur laid down a nice MIG weld inside and outside the seam.
They welded in the slightly dished towards the center (for drainage)  bottom plate and the Chain Bin was ready to head to its new home in the Forepeak.

Could almost be mistaken for a work of art don’t you think?
Nihat and Uğur made a series of brackets to attach the Chain Bin to the frames in the Forepeak,
Leaving plenty of space for me to be able to climb in there to clean things out in the future.
Looking underneath shows the solid framing to support the significant weight of 100-150m/330-500ft of 13mm/ 1/2” Schedule 4 chain.

The Chain Bin is completely self draining and that pipe exiting the center of the bottom will lead over to the exiting Sea Chest on the left.

Another new project involved these disks of aluminium and rubber.  Can you guess what these are for?
Getting any warmer with this upside down view?
How about if I let Yigit show you the completed prototype?
Correct!  These are the adjustable lids for every circular vent penetration in the deck.  XPM boats are self righting and so all sources of water entry must be able to be shut off either manually or automatically. 
Most of these adjustable vent lids are located inside the Dorade Boxes on the Foredeck which you can see in this render.  The flexible cowls can be rotated 360 degrees and they catch any breeze and direct that fresh air down into the Dorade Box area below and any water that might come in drains out through slots all along the bottom edge of the Dorade Box and the deck.
The fresh air flows down into the interior through the Vent pipe when these adjustable lids are well up above the top of the pipe and in almost all situations this ensures great ventilation in almost any weather or sea conditions as the water is kept out.  However if conditions were really severe or for any other reason you wanted to close off these vents you just reach up from inside the boat and turn the threaded rod to bring the lids down and sealed tight against the top of the vent pipe. 

Another good example of the KISS approach we take wherever possible.
Uğur, Okan and Nihat were also busy finishing the Paravane A-Frame booms so they erected some scaffolding to get up to the top of the 7m long Paravane booms to fit and weld the hinge assemblies.
This is the hinge half at the end of the angled pipe of the A-Frame assembly which
…… mates with this swivel that attaches to the beefy Rub Rails.
In the midst of all this they also found time to complete the building of the rudder which also now looks to me like artwork as it gleams in the sunlight streaming into the shipyard.
Prior to being assembled and welded the Rudder Post spent some time in the machine shop having the hole for the Emergency Steering Tiller machined through the top and
…. the keyway slot milled out for the Tiller Arm to attach to once mounted in the boat.
The Rudder Blade still needs some finish work on the welds and then the whole blade assembly will be primed, faired and sanded very smooth prior to being eventually covered with foul release paint along with all the other parts of the hull below the Water Line.  For now though it is all ready to be fitted into the hull with its pair of self aligning bearings.

Whew!  I’m tired just writing about all that work. 

Again my apologies for keeping you all waiting and I’ll now go write up the Weekly Progress for this past week so that you are all caught up with the work of Team Möbius.

Our time away visiting friends and family and getting in some much needed Gramma and Grampa time was priceless and we are also happy to be back here and bear down on getting Möbius ready for Launch as soon as we can make that happen.

Thanks for choosing to spend some of your time joining us on this adventure and PLEASE do add any and all comments and questions in the “Join the Discussion” box below.

See you again next week.

-Wayne

PS.  Special thanks to Yigit and Uğur for taking most of these pictures for me while I was away.  Thanks guys!