It was only a 4 day week here as it was the big Republic Day here in Turkey marking the 95th anniversary of when Ataturk formed this amazing country we are now enjoying so much.  However the shorter week certainly didn’t slow down Team Möbius as they all picked up the pace first thing Tuesday morning and by weeks end most of the 14 integral fuel and water tanks had their top plates welded on and pressure tested, the Pilot House had its front window frames and surrounding coaming tacked in place and as per the title of this week’s post, the curved stairs leading from the forward and aft cabins to the SuperSalon were in place for testing as well.  So let’s take a look inside shall we.

Picking up where we left off last week, the plinth for full headroom access from the aft Swim Platform into the Workshop received its nice large radius corners all around and is now ready for finish welding and then installing the WT door framing. 
Flatbar are tacked to the outer surfaces to keep them all straight as they are welded and will then be removed and the tacks ground off so they disappear.  This ease of adding and removing things and the ease of fabricating in general is what makes working with aluminium such a treat and we are VERY happy with our choice of material for Möbius.

We will also add at least one glass hatch in the sides and perhaps one on top to provide a good flow of natural light and air into the aft end of the Workshop.

Heading on into the Workshop (sorry couldn’t resist), we find Sezgin sitting in the aft end of the Engine Room Enclosure.

He is sitting where the Nogva CPP gearbox will eventually mount to those two thick engine bed planks on either side.

Sezgin is hard at work laying down more nautical miles of aluminium MIG wire to the hull.  Here he is welding the 15mm thick prop tunnel plates to the 25mm keel/skeg plates and engine beds.

Standing up on the aft deck looking down through the big hatch opening you can see the finished structure of the ER and the beds and framing underneath.

This dedicated Engine Room is going to be one of the best Engine Rooms on any boat I know as it has full 210mm standing room and almost a meter of space on either side of the big Gardner engine.  By dedicating this room to just the engine and the CPP gearbox and putting everything else outside provides me the rare luxury of clear and open access to all parts on the engine and gearbox.  We have designed this so there is also more than 300mm/12” below the Gardner’s massive cast AL oil pan so plenty of easy access below as well.  As a point of reference I had 5mm clearance between the oil pan on the big Cummins engine and the ER floor in Learnativity our previous 52’ steel sailboat.  Sorry if I seem overly excited about an Engine Room but If you’d spent as much time in ones as I have, wedged like a pretzel between burning hot engine parts, you’d be excited too!

** FYI, over here on the Trawler Forum there has been a lively discussion about our Engine Room Enclosure design which Dennis, our gifted NA and designer, initially proposed and it prompts me to do a separate post here on the blog to get into more details as to what led us to create this dedicated ER Enclosure rather than a full width ER so watch for that post to go up soon and in the meantime many of you might enjoy reading the rich resource of articles on Trawler Forum.

Moving forward from the ER into the Guest Cabin/Christine’s Office you can see (click to enlarge this or any photos) that the tank tops are all welded in place now and have all passed their pressure tests.

Next up will be welding in the many access ports to all these tanks and in the meantime they are cleaning up all the interior AL surfaces and welds so they are all nice and clean for the self adhesive EPDM insulation foam that will soon be covering the entire interior of the boat.
Continuing forward through the next WT Bulkhead into the Basement area we find more tank tops all welded in place and fully sealed.  One of the 3 battery boxes is seen on center here and these will eventually have AL top plates bolted on with sealing gaskets.

But THIS is the latest and most exciting development for Christine and me; STAIRS!  Both the forward Master Cabin and Aft Guest Cabin are down four steps from the raised SuperSalon floor and each of set of stairs has a slight twist or spiral to them for safest entry and exit positions.  Plus we think they look cool!

Here are the first two steps leading down into the corridor to the ER and the aft Guest Cabin which is where I’m standing to take this picture.  .  The remaining two steps will be added once the tanks which make up the floor are all finished.

Up forward leading down to our Main Cabin you can see how the full 5 steps look.

If you look at these two stairwells you will see how they completely close in the Basement area such that it becomes another WT
Looking straight down you can see how you move through about 90 degrees as you enter along that very top edge in this photo and then wind down to the floor level in the Main Cabin.

Each staircase is a bit different as you enter and exit them differently but they both provide very secure footing in any conditions at sea.

Stepping up into the SuperSalon we find Nihat prepping the framing underneath the the forward stairs.
Last but not least for this week the frames for window glass is now all tacked in place.
These frames are cut from 12mm plate so they are one solid piece and provide the wide surfaces for the  very thick 28mm/1.1” adhesive mounted panes of tempered laminated glass.

This strip along the side windows creates a slight coaming off the deck which protects the bottom edge of the glass panels when they are glued in place.  The sides of each pane of glass but up against each other with adhesive filling the small gap between them so as to create the look of a seamless glass surface.
As the coaming wraps around the front windows it extends out an angle you can see in these gussets that Nihat is tacking in place. 
Next week you will see how the plates on the deck Nihat is sitting on will cover this framework to create a smooth transition for any big “green water” that we might take on over the bow when slicing upwind through big seas.  The energy of the water would be reduced and reflected back forward as it flows smoothly from the deck and makes the transition up the angled coaming onto the window glass and then back forward.
You can imagine how sleek and maybe a wee bit sinister this will look when it is entirely covered in glass.  This is a similar type of construction that has been developed for sheathing high rise buildings in glass and is enormously strong.  With their negative rake/angle and the generous roof overhangs they will also pick up less rain and have very little reflections inside at night.  Best of all though will be the views that wrap themselves all around you when you’re in this super space and why we call it our SuperSalon.

Leaving you as always with a video summary of the week’s progress that I hope you will enjoy watching and give you a bit more insight into what you’ve seen above.

Please add your comments, questions and suggestions in the “Join the Discussion” box below and thanks for taking your time to join us on this grand adventure.

Much appreciated.