Well, it is almost Sunday midnight here in Antalya and I’m just getting started on this Weekly Update post after a VERY busy week at Naval Yachts as we all ramp up towards that tiny light at the end of the tunnel known as Launching the first XPM78 aka Möbius.  My apologies in advance then if this week’s update appears a bit rushed but I wanted to be sure to get it posted before I fly out on Tuesday to finally rejoin my Beautiful Bride Christine in Ft. Lauderdale where we’ll be attending FLIBS, the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show along with Baris and Dincer, the owners of Naval Yachts and most important of all being there for our grandson Liam’s 4th birthday on Oct. 30th.

Without any further ado let’s dive in for a quick swim through all the various jobs that Team Möbius were busy with this past week.

ALUMINIUM TEAM:

Starting with the always busy Dynamic Duo Uğur and Nihat, our tireless Aluminium team, they finished up the Bow Mast with the addition of the four connectors to the Bow Pulpit railings.
These ensure that the Bow Mast is well supported and rigid as it can take the brunt of strong winds and waves and we want to be sure that all those antennae, lights and other components mounted on top of this Mast are well supported.
There is a support above and below the hinge and the are bolted to the Bow Pulpit with these flanges so that the Mast can be folded down when we leave the boat for extended times in areas during cyclone season as well as making it easier to work on the lights and antennae atop the Mast.

The supports and hinges are now all roughed in and will be cleaned up later along with the rest of the Bow Pulpit, decks, etc..
With the Bow looked after they moved aft to install the hefty hinge plates for the Port side Paravane A-Frames. 
After marking them out and making sure they matched the ones on the Starboard side, Uğur used the plasma cutter to make quick work out of putting the rectangular slots for each hinge arm to go through the top and bottom of the 10mm/ 3/8” thick Rub Rails.
The 50mm/2” thick Hinge arm can then be inserted into this slot and tacked in place ready to be welded top and bottom to the Rub Rails.
The other half of the hinge has been tacked together and is test fitted to the bottom hinge arm to check for alignment prior to fitting the mating aluminium pipes of the A-Frame itself.
The space on either end of the top toggles makes it easier to install the large 7m/23ft tall A-Frames whenever we have them removed and then insert AL disks that are machined to fill up the space on either side for a nice sliding fit.
Over in the Machine Shop they have the 130mm/5” diameter aluminium rudder post set up in the milling machine to cut the tapered sides where it sits inside the tapered profile of the rudder blade.
Yigit (left), Uğur (middle), Okan (Ugur’s younger brother) and I spent some time fitting the rudder post into the blade and working out the details for welding these components prior to putting on the outer skin on each side.
You can see how the rudder post fits into the internal frames and how it tapers from top to bottom.
These two shots will give you a sense of the size and shapes of these two parts of the Rudder assembly.
Steering is easily THE most important system on these boats so as you can see we go to eXtreme lengths to make sure the Rudder has an eXtremely high SWAN factor so we can “Sleep Well At Night” knowing it will steer us out of any conditions without breaking a sweat.

GUEST CABIN CABINETRY:

Omer is a one man army as he marches through building all the cabinetry for the Aft Guest Cabin area.  You may recall their little “Wayne’s Surprise” from last week’s Update and here is a closeup of these two clever shelves which mount on the back wall of the Pullman Berth.
Here is the lower of these two handy mini shelves which anyone sleeping up here can put things like your watch, alarm clock, pens, books, etc. before they tuck in for a blissful night’s sleep.

You can also see the outer frame for the fold down mattress in this shot as they test fit the Pullman Berth cabinet into the rest of the furniture in this Aft Cabin.
The rear panel of the Pullman cabinet is removable as you see here to allow for quick and easy access to the wire trays and plumbing behind if it is ever needed. 
We make sure that ALL such infrastructure is either left exposed in areas like the Basement, Workshop and Forepeak and that any cabinetry which covers these is easily removable.  Being the ones who have to do ALL the maintenance on this boat we go to great lengths to make it a joy to work on rather than a chore as is the case with most boats.

Stepping back gives you a view of how all these components fit together with Christine’s Office desk with overhead bookshelves on the far right, pull out sofa bed on the bottom, Library shelves on the upper left and the Pullman upper center.

Just outside the Guest Cabin & Office is the Corridor at the bottom of the stairs down from the SuperSalon and the Head/Toilet is behind the door on the right.  The workbench up against the side of the Port/Left hull on the left here will be my little office and clean area for working on things like electronics, 3D printing and such that is best done here rather than in the Workshop.
  Standing up at the top of the stairs looking aft you can see how this Corridor connects to the WT door leading into the Workshop.  The area to the left of that door is starting to be roughed in for the Guest Shower that will go here.
Hakan (left) and Omer are laying out the exact location for the wall grid that will go up along the side of the hull on the right.
That hull is a busy area with all the plumbing and wiring runs going through here so the grids ensure that the wall panels are spaced well away from this and provide a super sturdy foundation for the removable wall panels to snap into using FastMount clips.  More on those details to come as this area is installed.

GALLEY CABINETRY:

Upstairs in the Galley, …………………. Hey!  Wait a minute.  What do we have in that far cabinet??
Aha!!  Those darn CE inspectors show up when and where you least expect it!

Actually this is young George who is here at Naval Yachts for a week with his parents who are about to become the proud new owners of XPM78-02 and so George wasted no time checking out the quality of the workmanship so he can assist the crew when they start building HIS new boat.

His beautiful and +6ft tall Mom Uschi got his quick assessment which was two thumbs up so all is going VERY well with the build.

Meanwhile, over in the Cabinetry shop, Omur and Selim are busier than ever building the next set of cabinetry for the twin fridge and freezers.  Omur is a true Master at creating patterns with the grain that are works of art and when doing this with veneer he carefully cuts each piece, tapes the razor cut joints on the exterior surfaces and then lays these onto the lightweight marine plywood and puts them in the heated veneer press.
Working with these gorgeous Rosewood veneers requires tremendous craftsmanship and is all done by hand with these simple tools.
Each piece of veneer is carefully chosen to have just the right grain pattern for the size of the panel it will form and then cut to rough size with a razor sharp knife.
Omur prepares a batch of panels for the veneer press and carefully stacks all the pieces in order to keep their orientation straight.  These are two end panels for the cabinet that will hold the pair of 130L fridges and are now ready to head over to the veneer press.
On the next workbench over there are these carefully stacked pieces that will soon emerge as some of the 22 different sized drawers in the Galley.

EXCITING NEW THINGS SEEN IN PASSING:

Last bit of excitement this week was seeing this.
We can’t have a Weekly Progress Update without a quiz so any guess what Yigit is doing here?
Probably an easy one for many of you, this is a test run on the groves which are cut into the 50mm/2” thick rigid foam board on all the floors where the red PEX tubing which carries the hot water for the in-floor heating.  We’ll show you this when the installation begins onboard Möbius but you can see how this works. 
Once all the PEX is nestled into these grooves and sitting just below the top surface of the insulation foam, a layer of 10mm / 3/8” marine plywood goes down and then the finished flooring, which will be some very cool new vinyl planking, is set on top.  Much more on all that in the coming weeks.

More exciting new things seen in passing this past week was watching Cihan (left) and Yigit bring this 200L Black Water holding tank system aboard and down into the Basement.  There are two of these Black Water holding tank systems, this one going into the Basement is for the Guest Head and the other one goes into the Forepeak for the Head in the Master Cabin.  You can now see what that hatch in the floor of the SuperSalon is as large as it is!
Last but DEFINATELY not least for the excitement this week, we finally have all the interior materials chosen and what you’re seeing here is the three colours of leather that will go on the wall panels, some of the drawer and door fronts and the ceiling panels.

The stone you may recall from several months ago when we found this fabulous slab of rare green/gold marble and it now has these three colours of leather to compliment it.

Top white leather will go on the ceiling panels, the middle Grey/Green will go on the walls and the bottom Black will go on the ceiling above the Main Helm area to further reduce any reflections and glare on the windows when on night passages.

OK, it is WAY past my bedtime now and I have another super busy day ahead of me tomorrow, my last day here before I fly to Florida, so I’ll sign off for now right after thanking you for making it through another weekly update on the progress of Team Möbius.  Please do add your comments and questions in the “Join the Discussion” box below and I’ll be back next week to show you what has happened while I’m away.

– Wayne