Another busy and productive week here at Naval Yachts in the Antalya Free Zone as work continues on building their first eXtreme eXpedition Passage Maker XPM78-01 and our new floating home mv Möbius.  As you have seen in the previous blog posts work has been branching out from what was previously all focussed on building the all aluminium hull to now including interior design, electrical wiring, plumbing, cabinet making and finishing.  As per the title of this post, with all these new aspects of the build we continue to experience more firsts and we’ve got lots to show you so let’s get started.

What better first of these “firsts” to start with than this impromptu group photo of all the staff we could round up to pose in front of the new building now that it is finally sporting the Naval Yachts logo!  There are many who we couldn’t take away from their jobs but this will give you a sense of the size and scale of both staff and building.  These are the people who are responsible for all the great work you see featured in these blog posts and without exception each one of these people are highly skilled at what they do and a true joy to work with.
Moving to the large Cabinetry workshop which is in its own building behind the main shipyard building you see above, we get to feast our eyes on this next first; the first wardrobe cabinet to be made.

This is the wardrobe cabinet which will be on your immediate right as you walk down the stairs into our Master Cabin and you can see it in the back left corner in this early rendering.
This side will go up against the side of the WT Bulkhead wall and shows very clearly how the sides of the hull near the front section slope in towards the centerline as they go down to the waterline level before they turn the curve over to the keel bar under the tank tops/floor. 

The top half of this cabinet will be used for hanging clothes and then there will be shelves in the bottom half.
This is our first door jam to be built and this rabbet or cut-out on the left side will be where the wardrobe door latches and then special hinges on the right side allow this same door to serve double duty as the Entry door into the Master Cabin by swinging over to a matching door jam on the inside edge of the entryway.  This is a surprisingly simple feature to execute and is a brilliant solution to the typical “duelling doors” that you often have where two doors are right next to each other.  We learned how incredibly well this works from the one in our previous boat and bring that lesson learned to this new boat.
Ömür and Selim, our talented two cabinetmakers worked their magic shaping the outer corner of this solid Rosewood door jam into this big beautiful radius merging flush into the outer side panel.  This is a theme you will see repeated throughout the boat as all the cabinetry starts to show up.
Another feature which will be repeated throughout the cabinetry is this raised front lip or fiddle on each shelf which helps to keep the items inside from sliding off the shelf and into the closed door.  One of the countless important details you learn from years living aboard a home that REALLY moves at times as we Rock ‘n Roll our way around the world’s oceans.
I’m attempting to show how this other first and rather unique feature works which are these solid hand hold rails that run about 1m/3’ above floor level throughout the boat on all the walls, stairways and tall cabinets.  Having good solid handholds to grab anywhere and anytime are another important feature on a moving boat so we plan for these early in the design. 
Most boats have their handholds overhead on the ceiling and we will have some of those too but Christine and I have long noted that these are too high for the more “vertically challenged” amongst us and children in particular so we wanted to come up with a good alternative.  We expect to have our three grandchildren onboard as often as we can “kidnap” them from their parents so this became an especially high priority for us.

As these I will be able to show you better in the coming weeks as these elegant handrails emerge from the cabinetry workshop but for now the section in the bottom right of this detail drawing shows the basics of how they work.  “Massif” is “solid” wood in Turkish and you can see how the fingerhold in the photo above works.

Another feature I will be able to show more in future posts is the “Plexi” insert which runs behind these handholds and creates the aquamarine “Horizon Line” running throughout the boat.

One last detail for my fellow “Chippies” and woodworking fans is this new lightweight marine plywood product that Naval has just brought in.  Weighs less than half what the regular marine and Baltic Birch plywood and this is also the plywood that will be used to build the foam cored doors which reduces weight even further.  Saving weight in ways such as this allows us to “spend” some weight in other areas such as solid marble countertops and we’ll be revealing more about that in future posts as well.  Gotta keep you coming back for more right?
Switching from wood working to wood finishing, the boys up on the third floor in the finishing shop continued to apply their skills and were able to finish finishing all the parts that make up the King sized bed in the Mater Cabin.
Each layer is hand sanded to create a super flat and smooth finish before the next layer is sprayed on.
This is what the Rosewood surfaces look like just after the 2nd coat has been sprayed on and if you look closely (click to enlarge any photo) where the light is reflecting in the foreground, you can see that the surface is not yet completely flat.  Sanding with progressively finer sandpaper as each layer is sprayed on creates the lustrous final finish. 
As you can imagine this takes a LOT of time and skill to finish every one of the hundreds of wood components but when you see the final results I think you will agree it is a very wise investment that pays off high dividends.
Some of the many drawer frames after their 2nd coat.
Some of the more challenging of the tens of thousands of decisions required in building these boats is the selection of all the interior materials.  We started by deciding on the Rosewood which you’ve been seeing for several months now and sitting under that is one of the vinyl flooring planks and a small swatch of the leather which will be used to cover the upper walls above the Horizon Line.  Yet to be decided is the material choices for the ceilings and upholstery so stay tuned for those.
Moving into the shipyard floor beside Möbius we find Uğur testing out Sezgin’s welding on the Day Tank after he completed all the welding and they bolted in the gasketed access ports.  The assembly on the end of the black rubber hose is a pressure gauge and air valve which enables them to fill the tank with compressed air for a few hours to see if there are any leaks.
Leaks are easily found with some soapy water sponged onto the welds and hatches but none was needed this time as it held air overnight and is now ready to have the flanges welded in for the various tank level gauges, supply & return fittings, drain valve and sight glass.

Up on the Swim Platform we find Uğur with his laser line level intently studying some drawings of another one of this week’s firsts ……………….
……. the spiral side stairs leading up to the Aft Deck! 

Yiğit has done a masterful job of detailing these challenging stairs and fitting them into the overall space available and now the “virtual reality” of his 3D models can be transformed into the reality of welded aluminium.
As you can see in the rendering above the top two stairs are let into the corner where the aft deck plates meet up with the transom wall so first step was to cut out that opening on the Starboard/Right side.
There will be a mirrored set of stairs on the Port/Left side so the same shape was cut out there.  This will reduce the volume of our HazMat locker a bit but only the upper corner and we still have plenty of space below for storing any hazardous or smelly things like spare propane tanks for the BBQ,containers of diesel, engine and CPP oil, antifreeze, etc. and still have lots of space for other items that will be handy to grab when you are on the Swim Platform.
Uğur and Nihat were also working on the three big compartments for the three large House Battery Banks which are down in the Basement inside some of the integral tanks alongside the thick Keel Bar running down the whole length of the hull.
The compartments themselves have been in place since last year as the hull itself was being built and now it was time to put in the floors for the batteries to sit on and the L-Bar frames up on top for the gasketed lids to bolt to. 
Once Uğur and Nihat had the floor flanges and the lid frames all tacked in place Sezgin came in to do all the finish welding.  Next week the floor plates will be bolted in place and the lids will go on later after the batteries are all in place and wired up.

We have some exciting news about a recent change we’ve made to the batteries that we’ll be using in Möbius but I’ll keep you in suspense a bit longer and do a detailed explanation of what the new batteries are and what led to the change.  Just to tease you, they are NOT Lithium, Gel or AGM.

Up forward in the Master Cabin Cihan has been making lots of progress installing the many different hoses and piping for all the liquids we need to move around from domestic hot/cold water, water and fuel tank fills, vents, supply & returns and bilge hoses.  As you can see the wall spaces are starting to fill up and there are still lots more to come.
Some of you had been asking about how the integral flush hatches would drain and you can see most of the answer here.  Two AL elbows are welded in one on each side to drain water out of the gutters surrounding the hatch frames welded into the decks.  The hose you see here is Tee’d with the one on the other side and then runs out to a short pipe welded through the hull just under the Rub Rails.  Simple but important system to make sure any water that collects in the gutters around each hatch can quickly drain back overboard.
This is the aft Port/Left corner of the Master Cabin is a good example of many of the plumbing Cihan is kept busy installing. 
The four clear lines at the bottom are supply and return fresh water lines from the two large aft water tanks under the bed area.  Above where these water lines run through the WT Bulkhead the other clear hose is the return line to the Port Forward water tank, the supply hose will go above it.  The bluish clear vertical hose is the fresh water fill for the Port Aft water tank.  The PPR pipe wrapped with black EPDM is part of the Hot Water circulation loop which runs through all three living areas to have almost instant hot water at every sink and shower.

Up at the forward Port corner the three clear/blue hoses are for the Fill and Vent lines for the Port water tank.

The white horizontal line at the top is a compressed air line going up into the Forepeak and lower down is more of that black EPDM insulated hot water loop line.

Zooming in on the opposite Starboard corner shows the same arrangement with the two fill hoses for Fwd/Aft water tanks attach to AL pipes welded through the WT Bulkhead frame into the Forepeak.  To the right is single Vent hose which if you look at the left of the photo above, is Tee’d so it Vents both Water tanks and then goes through the penetration tube through the upper corner of the WT Frame where it simply vents into the Forepeak.

Stepping back diagonally this shot of the whole forward Starboard corner of the Master Cabin shows the whole collection of plumbing that Cihan has installed so far.

Lots of good progress as promised and much more to come in the following weeks and months.

Here is a short video collection of snippets from this week which will give you a bit different perspective on some of these areas and the work going on.

Thanks SO much for taking the time to read and watch these blog posts and special thanks to those of you who have added their comments, suggestions and questions in the “Join the Discussion” box at the bottom of each post.  Please keep that input and feedback coming as it is all very helpful and very much appreciated.

– Wayne