Wowzah!  Just when I thought Spring had really Sprung and how the heck is it already the middle of May, Summer showed up this week.  As I sit here typing up this weekly XPM78-01 Möbius update at 4pm on Saturday (May 16) it is 34C/93F and the forecast is for it to continue to climb up to 39C/102F tomorrow and then starts to “cool down” to 35C/95F on Wednesday!  We get these kinds of hotter temps when the wind shifts to be coming out of the SW off the Sahara dessert but doesn’t usually happen until the true summer months of July and August. 

As per this week’s title though, things also really heated up at Naval Yachts as Team Möbius was really firing on all cylinders and made a LOT of progress on the build.  Uğur and his brother Okan finally returned to the team and many projects that were partially completed began to fall into place nicely.  But enough talking/typing and let’s dive right into this week’s show and tell so you can see all this progress for yourself.

ALUMINIUM TEAM:

Yayyyyyy!!!  Uğur is back!!! 

Uğur has been on Team Möbius from the very first day of the build, longer than anyone else so it was a huge loss to be without him for over a month.  But he’s back now and we could not be happier and as you’ll see, his presence has an eXtremely large effect on the progress with all things aluminium so I’ll start by showing what he and his equally talented sidekick Nihat got done this past week.

Let’s also have our first Quiz this week: 

What is the first project Uğur started on in the photo above?

Does it help give you more clues if I zoom in on one of the details on what they are installing here?
OK, had to start you off with an easy one and Yes! they are installing the last of our 3 beautiful Bofor Watertight doors.  If you’ve been following along for the past few weeks you’ve seen them install the WT door on the inside between the Workshop and the Corridor by the Guest Cabin and then last week everyone pitched in during Uğur ‘s absence and Nihat, Omur and Selim installed the WT door in the main entry into the boat on the Aft Deck.
As you can see here, this last of the 3 WT doors is for entry to the Workshop from the Aft Swim Platform. 

In this photo, Nihat (right) and Uğur have finished bolting the WT door frame to the inner frame of the hull and are now cleaning up the Sikaflex sealant/adhesive squeeze out.
Et Voila!  We have an eXtremely watertight door and all three of them are now installed.

It opens this direction so we can latch it in the fully opened position and maintain full access to the stairwell on this side. 
And this is what it looks like when fully closed, though the handles have not been secured here.

Bofor custom built these to our specifications and added an extra latching handle at the top and bottom in order to easily withstand a full 360 degree rollover when this door would be fully submerged and not leak or be compromised.

They have now removed all the doors and have stored them all safely in their factory packing boxes because as you can imagine there is a LOT of traffic through these doors during the build, often with large equipment, furniture and tools.

SEA CHEST MANIFOLDS:

The next project involved both Uğur and Nihat on the Aluminium side and Cihan (left) our Prince of Plumbing.

Quiz #2:  What’s your guess as to what they are building here? 

Are they expanding their talents into the music business and making eXtremely large Andean flutes? 
Another clue;  There are three of these all together, each with quite different sizes and numbers of pipes along their length.

Another clue;  One goes in the Forepeak, one in the Basement and one in the Engine Room. 

More clues?

One end of the main tube is fully capped off, one end is open.
The open ends have a welded on flange that bolts to its mating half…..
…….. like this and …….
…… this.
This one that goes in the Forepeak is fully welded and just needs a bit more cleanup.

OK, a bit of a tough Quiz this time though I’m sure some of you figured out that these are the manifolds where all the fluids going out of the boat through the Exit Sea Chests are collected. 

*** Mini Tech Talk about Sea Chests vs individual through hull fittings

For those who may not be familiar with Sea Chests as these are not as common in boats under 15m/50ft which usually have each supply and discharge hose connected to its own through hull fitting, each one of which is a “hole in the hull” below the WL, usually with a ball shut off valve, and potentially a “sinking” problem.

The alternative Sea Chests offer is to bring all or most of the supply/discharge hoses to a large diameter, tall vertical pipe/tube that is permanently installed as part of the hull.  This cuts down the number of “holes” in the hull to a very small number of Sea Chests.  We had just one for exit only one sea chest on our previous 52’ steel sailboat and, we have 5 on our XPM78-01 Möbius; three Supply and two Discharge.  Each Sea Chest tube is a large diameter 100mm / 4” ID 10mm/3/8” thick walled vertical AL tubes/pipes which are integrally welded into the bottom hull plates.  The flanged top of each Sea Chest is well above the waterline, about 50cm/20” then the manifolds you’ve seen above connect all the supply or discharge hoses to the Sea Chest.   Being well above the WL, these Sea Chest tubes can be open at the top with no water possible to flow into the boat, though ours will have thick plexiglass tops bolted onto them for added safety.  The downside of Sea Chests vs individual through hulls is that you have longer hose runs between the fluid producers/consumers and their supply/discharge connections.

Each Sea Chest can be then be used to either SUPPLY sea water to things like the water maker or the various heat exchangers and coolers onboard, OR be as these ones are, EXITS for fluids such as Grey and Black Water (when far enough off shore), sea water from wet exhaust, exiting “brine” water from the water maker, and so on. 

Here for example at the top of this photo is the Exit Sea Chest in the Engine Room.  There is a matching Supply Sea Chest on the other side.

This Exit manifold is the longest of the three you’ve just seen them building. 

For those who might be wondering, the reason for the angle on that pipe stub at the far end of the manifold, which will soon be welded into the upper end of the vertical Sea Chest tube, it is so the long manifold will be most out of the way running along the AlucoBond (not yet installed) wall of the ER.

Why so many outlets?  Well when you have a total of 14 Bilge pumps for example and each one needs to be able to pump water out of the boat, and then more fluid producers such as a water maker, a sea water pump for the engine cooling heat exchanger, a wet exhaust system and the list goes on, these exits all add up.  As you will see in the coming weeks, the hoses from each exiting fluid pump will be routed to these tubes along the length of the manifold and secured with hose clamps.

Now imagine if every one of those exit manifold pipe, 26 for those counting, were to be connected instead to its own through hull fitting, each with its own ball valve, as it typical on most boats?  Then add 8 more for sea water supply and you now have 34 “holes in the bottom of your boat”!

To our way of thinking, Sea chests are the Goldilocks just right way to go when your priorities are Safety, Efficiency, Comfort and Low Maintenance.  With only 5 “holes” in the bottom of our boat and each of those being 10mm/3/8” thick walled AL pipe that is welded top and bottom to the hull plates, makes for an eXtremely safe and water tight system.  One that is easy to install and service as every hose is to readily accessible and just as importantly is easy to literally keep an eye on each time you walk by so you spot any changes or leaks right away.  Also easy to expand upon in the future if you add an additional fluid producer you need to get overboard. 

WINDLASS & WINCH INSTALLATION:

The headings I like to include for each section probably make most of the quizzes easier to guess, so you know that Uğur is starting the next job of mounting the Maxwell VWC 4000 Windlass, but can you guess what he’s doing here and what that purple looking material is?

Clue:  You probably have several of these in your house.
First part of the Quiz is now easy to answer, he is making the spacer that will isolate the SS Windlass above deck base from the 12mm / 1/2” aluminium deck plate it will be mounted to.  With the body of the Windlass being Stainless Steel and the deck being aluminium, it is critical to isolate all these dissimilar materials from each other to prevent electrolysis and corrosion.  Furthermore the motors of the windlass and all winches have isolated grounds to keep them electrically isolated from the boat as well.

The second part about what material this is has a bit of a fun story to it.  There wasn’t any material on hand at Naval that met all the requirements of being non conductive, non compressible, non brittle and about  10mm thick and ordering some would have taken too long.  So I asked Captain Christine to “take one for the team”, don her mask and head out to the local grocery store and buy a couple of plastic cutting boards as they happen to have all the Goldilocks just right characteristics and were minutes away.  Problem solved and Uğur soon had one of them drilled and cut to size as you see here.

You may recall that several weeks ago they had laid out the anchor deck area to show the CL CenterLine of the anchor chain and the locations of all the holes for mounting the Windlass to the deck and now it was time to cut more holes in the boat!.  Yikes!
Minutes later, Nihat used the spiral cutter to smooth out the cut surfaces and round over the edges of each hole.  The largest aft hole is where the main vertical drive shaft goes through the deck connecting the upper Gypsy/Chain Wheel and Capstan to the hefty 24V gear drive motor below the deck.  The smaller forward hole is where the chain travels In/Out of the Chain Bin below and then of course the six holes for each of the SS studs which securely connect the upper Windlass wheels to the drive motor below.
Here is the view from inside the Forepeak looking up at those holes.  You can also see how the deck and stringers are all much thicker 10mm / 3/8” plate to provide a solid foundation for the eXtreme forces a Windlass often has to deal with when we are anchored in storms and high winds with the 125Kg/275 lb Rocna anchor solidly stuck to the bottom below.
For those wondering, the pipe you see in the photo above is called a Spurling Pipe which provides a smooth passage for the chain as it moves In/Out of the Chain Bin. 

Also important to have plenty of “fall” distance between the mouth of the Spurling Pipe and the top of the chain piled up in the Chain Bin.  Ours will be at least 1200mm which helps ensure that any kinks in the chain links to shake free on their way up and out.
We have designed a 1.6m/ 63” tall round Chain Bin as this helps to reduce the chain from “castling” as it piles up into a cone on the bottom as the chain comes aboard and then falls over on itself and can get tangled and difficult to pull up on the next set.

As you can see here the Spurling Pipe ends at the same level as the top of the Chain Bin so there is plenty of fall for the chain below.  We think we will also fit a clear plastic round “skirt” that will fasten around the outside of the top of the bin and over to tie off on the bottom of the Spurling Pipe to act as a “Muck Guard” to keep any of the bottom goo that might make it past our chain washer and splash around in the Forepeak.  But we will try it without the skirt for a few months of anchoring and see how it works as is.

Quick test fit of the SS Windlass base plate to make sure everything lines up before moving on to install the motor assembly from below.  All good so down below we go.
Once they knew it all fit well, they removed the base plate and applied a generous coat of Sikaflex 295 sealant/adhesive on both sides of the cutting board isolation plate and then slid hard nylon washers onto each SS stud and tightened up all the nuts to the correct torque.
Now Uğur could look after the finishing touches such as putting in a nicely rounded seal of Sikaflex to seal off the edges and hide the blue/purple cutting board plate.
As you can see the motor and gear box assembly is a monster and it took three strong team members to hoist the 24V motor and gear box up through the bearing and seal in the now solidly mounted base plate above. 
They had to hold it there while Uğur threaded the 4 SS bolts from up on deck down into the round top end of that blue bear box you see here from below and …..
……. here from up on the Anchor Deck.
You can see how the way we’ve designed the Spurling Pipe it also keeps the Windlass motor and gearbox assembly literally “high and dry” and fully protected from any water or anchor muck coming off the chain as it goes In/Out of the Chain Bin. 
Adding the skirt would completely seal this off and also help reduce the sometimes odiferous little sea creatures that like to hitch a ride on the chain as it comes aboard.

Et Voila!  XPM78-01 Möbius now has this eXtremely strong and beautiful Windlass. 

You might think I am being a bit eXcessive with the details of this Windlass but you’d be wrong.  It is quite literally true that our lives and the “life” of the boat is directly dependent upon this Windlass and the rest of our anchoring system to keep us solidly in place when we are anchored, which in our case is about 99% of the time. 
The loads on the windlass, chain and anchor are perhaps the highest of any on the boat and if any of these were to break or let go, the boat would drag and could likely end up dashed on the rocks ashore.  So we take our anchoring system VERY seriously and SWAN, Sleep Well At night as a result.
Similar mounting method is used for the equally eXtreme Kedging Winch that mounts just aft of the Windlass.  A few weeks ago they built this eXtremely sturdy mounting box out of 10mm / 3/8” plate so it was a simple matter of just drilling holes for the base plate of this Lewmar 55EST electric winch.
Here is the view from down in the Forepeak looking up inside that winch box with a similar mounting technique.  There was a mix with the 24V motor and gearbox assembly  for these Lewmar winches so they will be mounted as soon as they arrive next week.
Fortunately this does not cause any delays with the build as these big winches are made to be used manually without any motors so they were able to finish the installation and it will be a relatively quick and easy task to just bolt the motors on from down below when they arrive.
What a Beautiful Bow you have my dear!

All thanks to Yigit, Uğur and Nihat.

But wait!  There’s more! 

Remember I told you that Team Möbius was firing on all cylinders this week so Uğur and Nihat also got started on installing the Vetus BOW22044DE bow thruster.  The DE model is for “extended run time” of at least 7 minutes, which might sound short but is several times more than most.  Typical use is in short few second bursts and so relatively speaking, 7 minutes is a very long time.

This beauty is capable of putting out 220kgf/485ft lbs of force with 11kW/15HP which is more than enough to keep the bow of the boat under control on those rare times when we are docking in high side winds and currents.  While we only use the bow thruster 3 or 4 times in a typical year, largely because we are rarely at docks or marinas, but it is one of those pieces of equipment like crash pumps or fire extinguishing systems, when you need it you REALLY need it and are SO glad you have it.
The prop is plastic which will be a welcomed change from the double acting bronze ones in our previous thruster which was a real pain to scrape and keep clean.  I’ve just set it in place here as we were double checking that the blade tip to tunnel wall clearance was just right, which it is.
These are the two parts which bolt onto either side of the AL tunnel.  The arched top of that black aluminium fastens to the tunnel on the inside with the bronze angled gear drive on the other side inside the prop tunnel.  In this photo the upper shaft is where it connects to the motor and the bottom keyed 90 degree shaft is where the red propeller attaches.
Last thing Friday, after LOTS of measuring and double, triple checking, they cut these holes in the Bow Thruster tunnel.  If you look at the photo above you can see how the upper end of the bronze tailpiece fill fit through that large hole and then the flange will be through bolted into the Black AL cage housing on the inside of the tunnel.
At 84Kg/185lbs, it took a few more strong guys to get just the motor down into the Forepeak ready for fitting to the tunnel next week.  With the Black AL housing now bolted to the bottom of the motor you can better picture how the thruster will attach the tunnel at about a 50 degree angle off vertical.  This will keep the top of the motor housing low enough so that the composite mesh flooring can go overtop and keep it all nicely protected and a fully flat and open floor to move around the Forepeak.

Note too the Discharge Sea Chest on the Right here which provides the exit for things like the Black and Gray Water tanks up here which service the sinks, shower and head/toilet in the Master Cabin.

Here is a shot of those three holes looking from the inside of the tunnel.
Stepping back a bit to show you how the hull has been carefully faired away from the tunnel to help reduce the turbulence as the water flows over the tunnel.  This shape and position is very precisely calculated to have the best flow possible with the arc of this concave surface and the angle of its axis relative to the bow wave flow up here.

The hole just aft is for the Sea Chest I noted above.

Not bad for just one week’s work of just one team!

ELECTRIAL WORK:

One of our other “armies of one”, aka Hilmi our head “Sparkie”, had a very productive week as well and here we find him in the Basement fabricating all the 120mm2 / 4/000 cables that interconnect each of the twenty four 4V @ 450Ah FireFly Carbon Foam batteries.
This partial sketch will show you how each individual bank of six 4V @ 450Ah cells is wired in Series, negative to positive, to create a 24V @ 450Ah bank.  Two of these banks are then wired in Parallel, positive to positive, negative to negative to create two 24V @ 900Ah Bank A & B.

Sorry for this rough screen grab of the electrical schematic I’ve drawn for the whole boat, but hopefully it shows how Bank A and Bank B connect to their own Victron BMV 712 Smart shunt and Battery Monitors. 

Finally, Banks A & B connect to the Main Bus Bar via a third Victron BMV712 to monitor the overall 24V @ 1800Ah House Battery.

My schematic is still a bit of a work in progress so some edits required to fuses, switches, etc. but this will give you the basic layout.
Here are Hilmi’s tools of his trade for building these cables; the Blue/Black hydraulic crimper on the Left makes it quick and easy for him to get a “just right” crimp of the large copper battery cable lugs in that box and end up with the beautiful finished crimped cables you can see in the upper Right.
Once all the lugs are fully crimped to the cables, Hilmi slides a Red or Black adhesive lined shrink tube to insulate the barrel of the lugs and fully seal the lug/cable joint.  After the batteries are fully installed and tested the exposed surfaces of the lugs and terminal bolts will also be sealed with a protective coating.
Here are ten more 4V cells visible in the middle battery compartment.  If you’d like to compare this reality view with the schematics above, you can see how the bottom six cells are wired in Series (neg to pos) and then the top four in the next bank are wired the same with the other two of the six out of sight.

With all four Banks connected in Parallel this creates an overall House Battery of 24V @ 1800Ah or 43.2kWh.  These Carbon Foam batteries have a usable capacity of about 65% as they can operate very efficiently between a State of Charge of 85-20% so we have a total usable capacity of about 24V @ 1170Ah or 28kWh which is well over my estimated daily use and our 14 solar panels should be able to keep these batteries fully charged indefinitely.

Throughout all the living areas Hilmi has also been busy wiring all the interior lights.  All the overhead lights will be dimmable LEDs mounted in the removable ceiling panels and then there is an extensive set of indirect LED light strips running along the floor toe kicks and under the stair tread nose, etc..
Back in the Workshop, Hilmi had Cihan and Mummy prep the ceiling and aft wall for the cable trays that will soon carry the power cables for the two HPU400 Accu-Steer pumps you see covered up here.  If you look closely (click to expand any photo) up at the top center you will see an oval slot cut through that frame for the wires to pass through.
and then these two short AL flat bars have been welded onto the stringers on the aft Transom Wall to provide attachment points for ………
………. these cable trays.

Sadly for us, fortunately for Hilmi he will be off on two weeks of well deserved holiday time starting on Monday so he has been working all this weekend to get as much done as possible before he leaves.

Thanks and enjoy your time off Hilmi!

EXTERNAL RECTIFIERS & REGULATORS:

There were a lot of different hands busy working on the area below the workbench on the Stbd/Right side of the Workshop this past week.  These two hands belong to Mummy as he and Cihan welded in the aluminium brackets for mounting the two bright Red 24 volt external regulators that convert the AC output coming through six cables directly out of each of the two massive Electrodyne alternators in the Engine room next door and convert this to 24V DC @ 250A output. 
Beside each Red Rectifier are the two of these WakeSpeed 500 smart regulators which control the output of each alternator.
Here is one matched pair of rectifier and regulator mounted under the Workbench and ready for Hilmi to wire.

The six studs on the side of this Electrodyne Rectifier are where the AC cables coming directly out of each alternator will attach and then the rectifiers convert this AC power to DC which comes out the positive and negative studs you can see behind the fan housing.

Mini Tech Talk on EXTERNAL RECTIFIERS: 

External Rectifiers are quite unusual so why am I using them?  In two words; Heat &  Efficiency.  Most alternators have their rectifiers and the regulators housed inside the body of the alternator which makes for a very neat and tidy unit.  BUT, as you might know alternators, especially high output ones, generate a LOT of heat, every degree of which reduces the output and efficiency of the alternator.  More than 50% of the heat within an alternator is generated by the diodes in the rectifier.  In our case at 250 amps, there is about 750 watts of heat generated that needs to be removed.  The regulator adds additional heat and the whole alternator is mounted on the engine inside the hot engine room so you can see where this is going.

Solution?  Remove the rectifiers and regulator from the alternator giving the rotating stator plenty of room to circulate cooling air and put the rectifiers and regulators OUTSIDE the Engine Room entirely in the nice cool Workshop.  Then mount the rectifier assembly on a large steel case, connected to a large aluminium “heat sink” of the workbench and add a thermostatically controlled fan and you have dramatically increased the output and efficiency of the alternators.  Also MUCH easier to install and service as needed with everything so easily accessible.

Here are all four units now mounted and ready for wiring.  The Red Electrodyne Rectifiers are mounted end for end so they offer this good shot of both ends and all four sides.  The smaller studs on the Rectifier on the Left are where the smaller gauge wires connect to the WakeSpeed 500 smart regulators and I will talk at length about why we have chosen these and what makes them the Goldilocks regulators for our Battery Based boat.

PLUMBING:

Cihan, our “Prince of Pipes” is a very multi talented key member of Team Möbius and he always has very productive weeks so this was all the more so evident this past week.

Kabola Boiler Exhaust:

Time for the next Quiz;

Why is Cihan up on top of this ladder outside Möbius and what is he working on now?
Does it help to know that he is holding what is attached to the inside of where he is working in the photo above?
Does it give it away if I hold up the inside and outside parts for you?
Tadaaaa!  This is the outside view of the finished installation of the exhaust exit pipe from the Kabola KB45 Combi diesel boiler.

This double walled as you can see to pretty much eliminate the heat transfer to the hull plates, but these Kabola boilers are over 94% efficient so they put out so little heat that I’ve been able to hold my hand directly in front of one of these exhaust outlets and it is only warm.
Difficult to get a shot of, but this is how it looks on the inside where the 90 degree elbow brings the exhaust hose up along the hull.  With this exhaust outlet being so high up and protected by the Rub Rail on the outside, this inverted orientation of the elbow on the inside ensures that there is no chance for any water to get in.
After the elbow, this SS flex pipe connects to this SS silencer/muffler which is also double walled.
On the other inlet side of the silencer another length of SS flex pipe makes the final connection to the vertical cast SS exhaust outlet on the back of the Kabola.

The SS wire clips hold the insulating wrap in place for now and more layers will be added later to fully insulate the whole exhaust system.
Why do I say that Cihan is so multi talented?  Well who knew he could sew??  He used those talents to fabricate this lovely little jacket for the silencer complete with draw strings and Velcro fastener along its length.
And looks like this when it is installed and just loosely wrapped for now.  Nice work Cihan!

FUEL MANIFOLDS:

We saw Cihan mounting these three fuel manifolds last week.
 and so this week he was busy plumbing them with their SS ball valves and Aeroquip push on fuel hose fittings.
To my eyes these are bits of beautiful jewelry being made out of blue and red anodized aluminium.  I have great success with these on hot rods, custom motorcycles and boats in the past so I’m going with what I know works well for our boat.

These are aviation grade fittings and require no tools and no hose clamps. The sharp edged barbs you see here have a very tight press fit onto the hose which creates a leak proof connection when you push the hose down hard with some good lubricant to help the end of the hose to go all the way into that Red ring at the bottom.  You push until the ring doesn’t turn freely and you know it is all the way on and you’re done.

Each fitting is threaded to the polished AL manifold using one of these Blue nipples and some Loctite pipe sealant.
Doesn’t take Cihan long to have all the SS Ball Valves and AL fittings fully installed
and ready for him to start attaching the fuel hoses.
This would be a tough Quiz but any guesses what this is?

It is on the bottom front corner of the Kabola boiler …..

…. and is actually several devices in one assembly.  The Red handle on the Left is the emergency pressure relief valve same as you would find on the water heater in our house in case something went awry and the pressure inside built to a dangerous level in which case this valve would open and let the hot water escape.

The Gray plastic barbed hose fitting is for the initial filling the boiler from a water hose you attach here and the round black knob below it is the on/off valve for to let the water in and then seal it off.  To charge the system you connect the water hose, open up the Black valve and let it fill until the gauge reads 2bar/30PSI and then close the valve and remove the hose.

MASTER CABIN:

Up in the front down in the Master Cabin, Omur and Selim were busy installing some of the ceiling and wall panels that have come back from the Upholstery Shop.  As with all our panels these are removable using FastMount ball and socket clips. 

Here Ömür is installing the threaded Black ball side of the FastMounts on the backs of this White leather upholstered panel which will snap into ….…
……. these White sockets in the drop ceiling over the head of the Master Bed.
Like this..
Bottom Headboard panel is snapped in place to complete the panel mounting in this area.
Which set the stage for Hilmi to come in and install the two thermostatic controllers  Upper Black one is for the Webasto AirCon/Hot air system and the lower White one is the controller for the In-Floor heating in the Master Cabin.
More evidence of Hilmi having been here with the LED lighting wires hanging down from the Black ceiling grid ready for Omur and Selim to start installing the ceiling panels in here.

SUPER SALON:

Omur and Selim were also busy this past week upstairs in the SuperSalon so let’s head up there for a look.

Looking up at the two part Soffits that make the transition between the tops of the windows and the ceiling.  Here I am standing in front of the bottom of the stairs coming down from the Entryway off the Aft Deck looking forward down the Port/Left side with the dual Fridge cabinet in the foreground.
Pivoting around a half turn this is how the Soffit on that side terminates above the aft window in the Plinth above the stairs leading down into the Corridor alongside the Guest Cabin below.
Looking forward again towards the Main Helm you can see how these Soffits move down both sides and then transition into the Black dropped ceiling over the Main Helm.  The two sets of 5 pipes in the ceiling are where the fresh air from outside flows in. 
Next they turned their attention to the Galley Garages and doing the final fitting where the tops wrap around the window mullions.
Which leads to this exciting to see next phase where the large mitred corners of the Galley Garages that set atop the Turquoise marble countertops are now being glued up.
They move fast and quickly cover up their work to protect the varnished surfaces but this will give you an idea of how it is looking so far.  The White melamine countertops are templates that will soon be sent over along with the marble slabs to the CNC Waterjet cutter.
Next up are the Window Mullions which they have glued up in long lengths of marine plywood which they cut to length for each mullion.
With the different angles of the glass and the aluminium I-beam frame members, each Mullion needs to be custom fit to slide over the insulated AL frames. 
As you see here, some of these frames have conduit running through them where we need to have electrical cables running between the lower cabinets and the ceiling.  It is one of the many challenging characteristics of building a boat with 360 degree windows but well worth the effort as you are starting to see.

These Window Mullions will be covered with White or Black leather and are also made to be removable using the same FastMount system as the ceiling panels.
Omur fully immersed in his work as he fits the mullions around the Main Helm.
Up above him where the Soffits blend into the dropped ceiling over the Main Helm.  The forward 2m/6’ of the Helm/Salon area is all Black to reduce glare when we are sailing at night so you see the change from White to Black on the far Right.

A Back leather covered removable panel will snap into the Black Soffit here which has been cut out to reduce weight and provide easier access to the area behind and above.

GUEST CABIN:

The Guest Cabin/Corridor/Office team of Omer and Muhammed are yet another eXtremely talented and productive team so let’s end by checking out their latest accomplishments.

Inside the Guest Cabin they have now pretty much finished the area overtop of the bookshelf above Christine’s Office desk.  All the wall and ceiling panels here are snapped in place and the round air diffuser has been installed.  The Black surfaces are where the removeable Rosewood vent box mounts.
That vent is similar to this one overtop of the Pullman Berth and you can see that they have now finished mounting those gorgeous Rosewood hatch liners in the Guest Cabin.
Hilmi is ever present and here consulting with Omer about the location and mounting details for one of the light switches that goes in this bottom corner of the leather covered wall panel with the Guest Head on the other side.
Great team effort as Omer has the square opening for the switch box all routed out and Hilmi has the labelled wires for the light switches neatly tucked inside while they wait for the light switch and wall panel to be installed.
Outside the Guest Cabin out in the Corridor is more exciting developments thanks to Omer and Muhammed as they start installing the Rosewood stair treads and risers that lead up to the SuperSalon.
More examples of the close coordination and teamwork required as Hilmi needs to pull these wires for the indirect LED lighting under the nose of each stair tread at just the right time as Omer installs the risers.
More trickiness for Omer as the aluminium of the bottom two stairs are removable need so that space can be accessed so he has to make these treads and risers be removeable so you can unscrew the hinged aluminium stairs when access is needed.
Even more tricky fitting up above as the solid Rosewood trim has to literally zig zag its way along this outer edge of the stairs leading up to the Entryway door onto the Aft Deck.
Here is a different perspective of that zig zag edging when standing up on the landing between the two stair cases.
Final Quiz for today:  What am I holding here?
Bingo!  This is Omer’s mock up of the nose moulding he has come up with to fit protect the tread/riser edges.  This will be made of solid Rosewood and the space left on the right is where the finish vinyl flooring will sit. 

It is a great design functionally as it both protects the edges and more importantly the people by providing a solid slip free edge for your feet as you move up/down these stairs.  And as you will soon see, they will also look fabulous when finished in Rosewood.

Omer gluing the top riser in place now.

Hatch Handle Design

I also managed to find time this past week to finish designing the handles for the hatches I had designed months ago and were made in house at Naval. 
As you can see I still tend to do my rough design work using hand sketches before I move over to modeling them in 3D and getting into the details.  Pencil and paper sketching still work best for me as I’m coming up with a new design and sets me up just right when I fire up Fusion 360 to do the modelling.
Sorry I don’t have more time to grab some better screen shots or make some animations for you but hopefully this gives you a basic idea of how the overall hatch design works and you can see two different handles now in place.
Here is a zoomed in look at the typical handle which will be CNC machined out of a block of aluminium and pivots 90 degrees on a SS shoulder bolt threaded up through the round boss you can see through here.
I removed the handle here to show you the purple coloured Latch block that is also solid AL and bolted from the others side through the 8mm thick AL wall of the outer frame of the hatch.

I am very pleased with the way this hatch design has evolved and they should be very much in keeping with the XPM ethos of Smart, Simple, Strong, Safe and Efficient.  We will soon see once I get the handles machined and installed and can mount the glass tops and rubber seals and do a good fire hose test so stay tuned for that!

Mr. Gee

It was also an extremely busy week for me trying to track down errant shipments and helping the team aboard with all the details contained inside all the manufacturer’s Installation Guides for the bow thruster, windlass, winches, Kabola, etc. so I didn’t get to give Mr. Gee our Gardner 6LXB main engine as much time and TLC as I had hoped but I did manage to spend half a day sandblasting the last batch of smaller cast iron, steel and aluminium parts and get them all primed.

This is an upside down view of the cast iron Fuel Filter body that mounts to the aft Left side of the cylinder head.
Exhaust manifold studs and the oil cooler oil pump on the far Right.
Looking more like a kinetic sculpture perhaps but actually some of the exhaust manifold clamps and the throttle lever seen here.

Not too exciting for you I’m sure but getting Mr. Gee closer to running so it is all good.

Whew!  Almost as tiring just writing this all up for you as it was living it last week and it is now late Sunday night and still 35C/95F outside and I need to go join Captain Christine for a late dinner.  Hope you enjoyed this latest weekly progress update and thank you SO much for joining us on this adventure.

Please leave any and all questions, comments, critique and suggestions in the “Join the Discussion” Box below and we’ll see you here again next weekend.

-Wayne