I am finishing up my last week of being on the road and very much looking forward to being back in Antalya and back with Team Möbius at Naval Yachts and back with our already beloved Möbius. Thanks again to Yiğit, our brilliant new Engineer and CAD whiz at Naval for taking pictures of the progress on Möbius while I have been away. I’m as excited as you are to see these as right now this is the only way I am able to keep up with all the work they are doing back in the Antalya Free Zone. So here is the quick update for you on the progress during the week of Sept. 22-28, 2018 on the good ship Möbius.
Work continues to be focussed on the same two primary areas as last week; fully welding up the miles of places that have been previously tack welded on the interior of the hull, the tank baffles in particular and then work continues on assembling the above deck Pilot House framework or super structure and then sheathing all this with aluminium plate.
As you may have seen in lots of previous posts, almost all of the area inside the hull below the waterline consists of 14 individual tanks to hold our voluminous quantities of fresh water and diesel fuel. Each of these tanks then requires a full set of baffles which are aluminium plates welded to each frame plate to create a tight grid of spaces for these liquids and prevent the “sloshing” or what is technically referred to as the Free Surface Effect that would happen as the boat moves. Imagine a tanker truck that is half full of milk or fuel braking suddenly or going around a sharp corner; if the whole inside of its tank was open the liquid would exert tremendous forces on the truck when it all sloshed up against the front or side of the truck’s tank and would likely tip it over.
This photo shows an example of one of the grid like set of baffles in one of our tanks and if you consider that inside each compartment formed by these baffles there are at least six rows of welds, each about 1m/3’ long, down each side and along the bottom of each baffle plate. Count how many such compartments there are in this picture alone (about 25)and multiply by 6 you are looking at 150 m/ 492 ft of welding for just this one small part of the boat!
This is the world that Sezgin and Mehmet live in pretty much every day and my hat is off to them for their perseverance and quality of work.
Standing on the Starboard (right) forward corner of the Pilot House looking aft through the Super Salon you can see our Energizer Bunny Mehmet working away to clean up some of the initial welds this week on the plates that have gone on top of all the Pilot House topside framing which creates the ceiling inside the Super Salon and the floor you stand on when up in the SkyBridge above.
Here is a fun fish eye shot Yiğit took standing in the aft Port (left) corner of the Super Salon where the stairs down from the aft deck door will take you.
You are looking forward all the way through the Super Salon through all the frames for the 360 degrees of glass windows and you can also get a good look at all the welds now in place to fasten the floor plates to all the stringers and frames.
As was done on the stringers on the hull plates the welds here are done in alternating lengths on either side of the stringer to reduce the warping in the floor plates above from the heat of welding.
A more accurate view of the ceiling/floor of the Pilot House and another look out through these window frames that helps you understand why we have come to call this the Super Salon.
Shorter in length but eXtremely important welds where the upper frames of the superstructure join up wtih the lower frames that were part of the initial hull building process before the boat was flipped upright. With their top members now welded in place these frames now become a continuous single piece that is eXtremely strong as an integral component of the whole hull and transfers the loads evenly throughout.
The window frame plates will soon be welded onto the outer edge on the right to create a full I beam profile.
These same Vent Boxes also create our BBQ area with sink and counters on the outside and aft deck wash down hoses and taps on the inside.
And that’s where things are at back at Naval Yachts as of Friday Sept. 28th. Christine and I fly back into Antalya on separate flights on Friday Oct. 5th and can’t wait to be back home and back with our pups and back with Team Möbius. So I’ll be able to bring you the next update in person and show you more of the great progress being made on this XPM eXtreme eXpedition Passage Maker.
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A tip of the hat for your welders, they are true professionals. Thank you for a peak at all the components that go into making of a yacht that you don’t see when they are done.
Thanks Orville, we’re very pleased with the whole team that Naval Yachts have put together. Like you I always enjoy and learn a lot from those who took the time to chronicle their projects and work so I’m trying to return the favor now with documenting this latest project. Glad you’re enjoying it and thanks for joining us on this adventure.
So hard to imagine the incredible amount of welding and how super important is in a modern boat!! 🙂