We were down to another shortened week as Wednesday was “Democracy and National Unity day” here in Turkey and a shortened work crew as both of the other two boats sharing the shipyard with us that are about to be finished and launched still have the emphasis on the first word “about” so many Team Möbius members have been called away to work on them.  Fortunately though, less work days and less workers did not mean there was anything less to show you this week.

First let me tell you that we will soon have an all new and very thorough video walkthrough of XPM78-01 Möbius!  We have heard all your many requests for this and so on Wednesday while everyone else took the day off for the big holiday, Christine and I took advantage of the rare lack of noise with no one working in the shipyard and spent most of the day shooting lots of video which Christine has now begun to edit into a series of video segments walking through each area on the boat and where it is at as of July 15th, 2020.  Our timing was perfect as we had several international visitors who wanted to spend a few hours getting an in-depth tour of Möbius on Tuesday so Team Möbius had spent several hours getting her all cleaned up and presentable so seemed like the perfect opportunity for a video shoot.  So please stay tuned for that.

We finished by mid afternoon on a picture perfect summers day and decided on our bike ride home from the yard to make a lengthy detour along the beach bike trail to take a much needed break and enjoy the day.  There is an excellent bike path all along the many miles of beach that stretches along the Mediterranean coast on our far west end of Antalya so we rode for over 10km to check it all out. 

At this more eastern end of our ride in the photo above, some of the local kids are using this big rock to enjoy the big jump into the Med.

Turning to look back West to where we work and live at the far end of this photo, you can see that the people here in Antalya are doing quite well at keeping their distance while still enjoying the sea side.  We stopped on our way back to enjoy a glass of wine and some food at that little outdoor spot you can see in the middle of this photo which really topped off our day.

For this week’s update I’m going to group things by location onboard Möbius rather than trade areas as I think that might make more sense to all of you though it isn’t too much of a change.  Let me know in your comments if this or any other way of stringing together these weekly  Show & Tell Progress Updates is your favorite and works best for you and I’ll do my best to comply. 

First though, allow me a slight diversion to begin;

Designing and building a boat can sometimes feel like a version of the figure of speech “Death by a Thousand Cuts” or more accurately “Death by a Thousand Decisions” and it is not lost on me that this was originally a nasty form of torture known as Lingchi.   However, I use this here merely as a figure of speech which is no where near as dire as the original torture of course though it may feel so from time to time.  As any of you who have experience designing or building boats before or other large complex projects would know, there is a lot of truth contained within this description:

“…. a figure of speech that refers to a failure that occurs as a result of many small problems. Death by a thousand cuts could refer to the termination of a proposed deal as a result of several small issues rather than one major one. This term could also apply to a product or idea that is destroyed by too many minor changes.”

Our every day is indeed filled with a seemingly unending list of decisions both big and small that need to be made throughout the course of the day and they almost all weave through an intricate spiders web of intersecting and often conflicting series of other decisions required tom come up with the best compromise to fit us, our use case and our boat.  In the end it IS and will be all worth it as this is also all part and parcel of designing and building a great Goldilocks “just right, just for us” boat so no complaints from either Captain Christine or myself, just sharing some reflections on the process with you and trying to “keep it real”.

On a bit more whimsical note, as I sat down just now to write up this week’s Progress Update on XPM78-01 Möbius which as you shall soon see included cutting some very large holes in our boat (again!) for transducers and exhaust, I was also reminded of two songs I remember singing with my children and now grandchildren; “There’s a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea” and “There’s a Hole in My Bucket dear Liza” and hence this week’s title. 

In addition to their reference to holes, both of these songs also contain very relevant references such as how the Hole in the Bottom of the Sea is a song which get’s harder and harder with each verse and in the case of the Hole in the Bucket how each fix that Liza comes up as poor Henry tries to fix the hole, they end up right back where they started, with a hole in their bucket.

Hmmmm, why does that sound so oddly familiar?!!!

OK, hope you enjoyed that my momentary childish diversion, now back to this week’s Show & Tell on the progress of Team Möbius here at Naval Yachts.

BELOW the WATERLINE:

I’ll begin with the work that Uğur and Nihat did this week to install the two depth transducers in the bottom of the hull. 

Depth transducers are the electronic sounders that protrude through the bottom of the hull and send out sonar like signals to “ping” the bottom of the sea below to determine the depth.  We have two of these on Möbius, both mounted on the Port/Left side of the hull, one Fore and one Aft.  This one on the Left is a Furuno/Airmar 520-5PSD which connects to our Furuno BBDS1 Bottom Discriminating Black Box.
The BBDS is of note because it not only provides the depth below, it also generates graphics for us such as this one.  I could perhaps best describe this as “a depth sounder on steroids” because in addition to the very important depth of the bottom below us, the Bottom Discrimination component also provides us with the shape and makeup of the bottom itself. 

This information is enormously valuable to us for anchoring for example as the makeup of the bottom from rock to sand to mud to grass makes a significant difference as to how our 125Kg/275Lb Rocna anchor will set, amount of scope or length for our 13mm chain and helps us find the Goldilocks spot to “drop the hook”.

Depth below us is so important that we have two transducers, one at the bow one aft and this one on the Left is our Furuno/Airmar UDST800 transducer and BB.  While not on quite the same dosage of steroids as the Aft mounted BBDS1 above, the UDST800 provides us with a triplet of eXtremely accurate data: Depth, Speed & Temperature and does so with no moving parts using some Ultrasonic technology. 
The boat “speed through the water” component is of particular note in this relatively new UDST800 model as there are no moving parts and it updates the data outputs 10 times per second and automatically adjusts for different speed/temp/depth conditions.

Ultrasonic Speed is measured by sending out two beams one in front of the other and then measuring the time it takes for particles in the water to travel between the two beams.

If you’re interested in a bit more detail, HERE is a short video from Airmar on how the UDST800 works and mounts.
In the past and on most boats still, this is what a Speed/Depth/Temp transducer looked like and that little paddle wheel on the Right measures speed by how fast the water rushing past spins it; simple and it works fine.  Until it doesn’t.  As you’d imagine or know if you’re a boat owner, these paddlewheels are very tiny and light so it doesn’t take much buildup of sea organisms, algae, etc. to slow them down and soon stop them.  Hence, not very accurate and quite a PITA to keep working.

The UDST800 transducer is mounted in a very handy little plastic housing you can see here which is inserted through a rather large 50mm/2” diameter HOLE in the hull.  Very simple and safe system though once you have the plastic outer housing properly sealed into the hull.  We’ve had these kinds of mounting housing in previous boats and they have a very handy feature where you can pull the transducer out of the housing and quickly push a blank plug in its stead while you work on or replace the transducer itself.

We also like that the UDST800 is fully N2K compliant so all its data is easy to T into our N2K system and then have all this data flowing throughout the boat to any monitor, phone, tablet etc. that we wish

OK, sorry for that long diversion into how these transducers work but I know some of you find this all as interesting as we do and they make the Page Down button for to quickly skip over things right?

Last week Uğur had made up this solid aluminium fairing block for the Black BBDS1 transducer in my hands here and he soon had it all welded onto the hull with a double “bottom/top” for the smaller hole where the threaded stem of the 520-5PSD transducer goes through the hull into the Engine Room bilge below about the midpoint of Mr. Gee the Gardner 6LXBB engine.

We chose this spot on the hull as it a point near the aft end that is close to flat and parallel to the waterline and is afforded some protection by the nearby keel from debris and the bottom in a grounding.
This week Uğur worked on installing the UDST800 up near the bow.  Using a plasma cutter, which literally cuts through even this 15mm/ 5/8” thick AL plate like butter, he is able to cut the elongated hole shape that I’d laid out in the 3D model. 
Peering in through this hole you can see that I’ve chosen a location that is just above one of the longitudinal stringers which run the full length of the hull and just in front of the WT bulkhead plate.
Here is the view from inside the Forepeak looking down through one of the access ports in the floor/tank top to point out the hole Uğur has just cut.  I chose this location as it is inside of an otherwise unused “Void” in the matrix of integral tanks in the hull for an added bit of safety. 
This way, even if the transducer housing were to hit some rocks or coral or perhaps a submerged container at speed, the most that could happen would be the flooding of this one relatively small tank.

Scratching your head wondering how in the heck we are going to be able to mount that plastic housing when there is so much Deadrise (slope) on the hull at this point? 

Well here is your answer. 

Uğur has quickly fabricated this housing out of a short length of thick walled 127mm / 5” OD AL pipe and welded on a 15mm/ 5/8” thick bottom plate. 
Using a 50mm hole saw he quickly has the hole for the plastic mounting housing to fit through like this.
With plenty of room for my hand to reach in and tighten up the plastic threaded nut that sandwiches the plastic housing between two rubber gaskets and some sealant.
Uğur had previously trimmed up the hole in the hull so that this pipe fit just right when it is fully vertical.
Using the laser level to ensure the bottom surface is parallel to the waterline the AL housing is soon fully welded into the outside of the hull.
And the inside.

We will feed the N2K cable from the transducer up through a hole in the tank top using a WT wire gland to seal the cable penetration.
It is quite busy up in this section of the Bow with the Bow Thruster tube and fairing as well as the exiting Sea Chest tube.  One of those thousands of decisions that need to be made I think this is the best location that gives this transducer housing enough protective height above the thick Keel Bar on the very bottom and far enough below the turbulence from Bow Thruster Tube. 
Air bubbles are the “enemy” for depth transducers as they interfere with the sonar pulses being sent and received so we will also fair this AL pipe into the hull using lots of epoxy filler to create a smooth and gentle transition for the water entry and exit.

FOREPEAK:

Uğur and Nihat also knocked off one other small job up in the Forepeak by fabricating and bolting in these 10mm / 3/8” thick AL flat bars to support both sides of the angled and very heavy 24V motor on the Vetus Bow Thruster.

For those wondering, the Blue “Tork” is one of the 12 solenoid valves for controlling the high water evacuation system.

WORKSHOP:

Moving Aft into the Starboard/Right side of the Workshop work continues on multiple systems here.

• 
  The large Red/Black cables are being readied for the installation of the Aft DC Distribution Box.
• The Fuel Manifolds have been unbolted and folded down on the Workbench to have their end plugs installed, little Blue and White Mr. MiniMe R2D2 Alfa Laval MOB303 fuel centrifuge is hiding in the background awaiting his fuel connections.
• The Maretron Black Boxes up in the ceiling soffit corner are collecting all their copper wires from the various sensors for tank levels, temperature, etc..

Nihat and Uğur took advantage of having the fuel manifolds out of the way to cut, fit and bolt on the AlucoBond panels that protect the long runs of cable and hoses along the upper hull sides above the Workbench that expose them to harmful tools and debris in the Workshop.
Being a sandwich of two thin AL outer sheets with a composite interior, the AlucoBond is easy to work with standard carbide wood tools so they soon have the whole Stbd/Right side upper wall all sheeted.  The attaching SS screws have round SS Caps that thread onto them to make for a snag free surface and a very finished look.

The large AL frame is where the big DC Distribution will soon be mounted.
The AlucoBond panels have cut-outs where the fuel hoses come in and out and all these edges will be capped by sturdy U shaped rubber molding to prevent chafing or wear over time.

Mr. GEE:

Being short staffed I’m busier than ever so I didn’t get as much time as I would have liked to work on Mr. Gee but some progress was made none the less.  I got the new motor mounts which Uğur fabricated last week all painted and fitted.  I’m holding up the original Gardner front engine mount to show the difference and you can see that I have also fitted the new anti-vibration foot or mount on the new mounting bracket.
Same Old vs New shot for you on the opposite Left Front.  The additional 15mm plate extending back from the mounting bracket on this side is where I will soon be mounting the Jabsco sea water impeller pump that keeps the cool sea water flowing through the various heat exchangers and the wet exhaust system.
I spent most of the day yesterday, Saturday here, coming up with what is in my opinion the Goldilocks colour for Mr. Gee’s cast iron parts.  I wasn’t happy with the colour of the original new paint I had for this, it was too dull and reminiscent of primer red to my eyes and just not up to Gardner standards or mine.  So the hunt for the just right Goldilocks colour began many months ago and finally culminated in another of the thousands of decisions yesterday.
I found this photo from a fellow Gardner restorer and immediately knew THIS was that just right look so and this is the burgundy red colour I am doing my best to replicate.
After much searching I gave up on trying to find the rich Burgundy colour in a pre-mixed RAL code paint so I bought some RAL1037 Red and some RAL1011 Royal Blue and set up my own Dr. Jekyll & Hyde colour missing lab in my Workshop.
Many hours and and test grids later, checking these colour ratio sample boards in all different light conditions and after several colour consulting calls via WhatsApp with Captain Christine , Mr. Gee decided that a mix of 10 parts 1037 Red to 1 part 1011 Royal Blue was the Goldilocks colour for him. 
With strains of Macbeth’s Witches chanting ‘Double double toil and trouble/Fire burn and cauldron bubble’ I mixed up this larger batch of 10:1 Red/Blue and testing more samples in sunlight and interior light and think I have it just right.  I spent the rest of the day getting Mr. Gee all masked off and prepped and will start shooting his regal new colour scheme next week so stay tuned to see what you think.

MASTER CABIN:

Moving back aboard Möbius and up forward into the Master Cabin the interior is shaping up very nicely.  All the removable ceiling panels are back from Sinan in the Upholstery Shop and have been snapped in place.  Latest ones to go in are the ceiling panel and shelf above the Bureau of Drawers that runs down the mid Starboard side.
The upper four drawers have all been fitted with their Blum undermounted soft close sliders and the four shallower bottom storage areas have been fitted with their pull down doors.
Forward of the Bureau of Drawers the upper and lower cupboards are being completed with their Rosewood doors below the BHL Handhold and soon the Green/Gray leather covered upper doors will be mounted. 

Bosch Washing machine has been set in place ready for its connections and door.
Front and center of the Master Cabin the Vanity sink has been temporarily fitted and the drawers below below and cabinet above have their drawers and door installed.
Immediately to the Left of the Vanity sink, this matching Vigo glass sink has also been fitted along with its stylish faucet.
The stark White surfaces will soon be subdued as they are highlighted by colours from the sink, backsplash tiles, shower tower, mirrors and especially when the two large glass corner walls are set in place with their artistic marine scenes etched in them.
Looking Aft the Master Bed Platform is nearing completion just needing one more drawer front and the stairs leading out and up to the SuperSalon are also nearing completion.
The solid Rosewood nosing on each Stair Tread/Rider corner are now in place and were covered up before I could get a shot of them so we will have to wait for a few weeks to get the full effect once the finish vinyl flooring is in place and the protective layers are removed.
But up at the top of these stairs looking at the Starboard hull I was able to snap this photo of the finished arm of the Settee on the Right, the recessed alcove in the center where the 43” monitor will mounted and the angled wall on the Left that is part of the Main Helm Station at the front of the SuperSalon.

MAIN HELM:

Yusuf was very pleased to be able to bring the switch panel he had designed onboard to be fitted into the angled wall on the Right side of the Helm Station.  You can see the bottom of this switch panel in the phot above.
And here is a closer view that makes the purpose of each switch easy to read.

SUPER SALON:

Sticking with stairs and the SuperSalon Omur has been busy working single handedly working on both.  Here he is fitting the solid Rosewood Nosings on the stairs leading down from the WT Entryway Door on the Aft Deck into the SuperSalon.
He soon has them all attached and clamped down.
Closer view of how the nosing and Zig-Zag side molding all come together. 

Yet more examples of those thousands of decisions needing to be made.
Including this nice bit of Rosewood detail at the top stair and inside landing.
Up above, Omur worked at getting all the FastMount clips threaded into the wood of the Black Ceiling Grid above and the 10mm plywood panels of each panel and snapping them in place as soon as Sinan brought them over from the Upholstery Shop. 

Wires are all in place ready for the LED lights to be connected and snapped in place.
And we now have the Ceiling in the SuperSalon fully covered with Black leather covered ones above the Main Helm area at the front …….
…. and White leather covered panels all the way Aft over the Galley and Stairwells.
Last bit of interior details for the SuperSalon this week are these Window Mullion covers which I find here in the Upholstery Shop as Sinan covers all of them with Black and White leather.
He soon as these all covered and wrapped in protective plastic before he takes them over to Omur aboard Möbius for him to add the snap in place fittings and set all these in place overtop each AL I-beam Window Post.
And here is some of the end result with these four front Window Posts now all covered in their removable Black Window Mullion covers.

GALLEY:

No rest for poor Omur as he also worked with Hilmi and Cihan to install the Bosch vented induction cooktop in the Galley.
Cihan and the boys in the Composite Shop whipped up this tricky duct to make the transition from the rectangular output vent on the Cooktop Vent to the round ducting hose.
And Cihan soon had those two parts glued together to form this single venting elbow and transition duct which can now be attached to the back side of the cooktop and be connected to the flexible duct hose.
Like this!

Bosch does an impressive job on the details of the installation of their products and this induction cooktop is a good example.  There is a very slick set of spring loaded clamps on a rack that you install along the sides of the cut out for the cooktop and then these match up with clips on the underside of the cooktop and it snaps into place with a good strong push on the glass surface above.

The center vent is equally well made and detailed.  This upper unit is cast aluminium which lifts out to reveal the two removable and dishwasher safe grease filters below.

The underside of the cooktop has very good access to the vent squirrel cage fan and electrical connections.

And here is what the Induction Cooktop looks like when fully installed.
With the cooktop installed the matching Bosch Speed Oven make its maiden voyage onto  Möbius and test fit into its new home below.  More on its installation next week.
Last example of one of those thousands of decisions arrived this week with these three crates of the SS positive drawer and door latches we decided upon.

Every door and drawer on a boat requires a very sturdy and mechanical positive latch to keep them closed under all conditions including when they have very heavy contents inside and we are in big seas and storms.  Most boats seem to have standardized on the spring loaded round push to pop out/in style which I have developed a particularly strong dislike for.  They work but they have a “cheap” feel feel and look to my eyes and the whole pushing in/popping out routine drives me nuts.

SOooooooooo, after MUCH research and some help by one of our followers here, we tracked down the manufacturer of these solid SS beauties and ordered them direct. 

These have nicely rounded corners on the external levers that set atop the surface at a slight “just right” angle for your finger to lift and release the spring loaded latch from the SS latch plate inside the door/drawer.  Nothing to catch your clothes or you on as you walk by.

Minor detail to most, big deal to me and I couldn’t be happier to see these arrive.  Look forward to showing them to you as they are installed in the coming weeks.

MAIN HELM ELECTRICAL PANEL:

Hilmi was his usual busy self aboard Möbius most days this week and he is justifiably pleased to show me the Electrical Panel that just arrived.
There are two of these Electrical Panels which are filled with all the double pole-single throw Circuit breakers for each AC and DC circuit on the boat.  This is the smaller of the two and is located in that angled wall you’ve been seeing on the Right side of the Main Helm station.
This is the larger panel which mounts on the right side as you are going down the Aft Stairwell leading to the Guest Cabin and Workshop.
These are made locally at a small business inside the Free Zone that specialises in making these multi part electrical panels.  Hilmi has lifted up the outer panel here to show the banks of DIN rail mounted Circuit Breakers which are mounted to the Black frames below.
The next day, Hilmi has the Black frame of the smaller front panel mounted to the angled Main Helm wall.  There is a piano hinge on the Left side so the Black rack can be easily swung out to access the wires and CB’s behind.
I had previously drawn up the schematics and positions for each CB which Yusuf sent over to the Panel Building company next door and they could therefore assemble each bank of CB’s on their individual DIN rails and pre-wire each CB and attach the Gray rectangular conduit that you’ve seen Hilmi using when he was wiring the inside of each electrical cabinet.
My hand will provides some sense of size and scale of these banks of Schneider Circuit Breakers.
As with all circuits on XPM78-01 Möbius , each one is numbered and labelled so this information was also sent over to the Panel making shop so they could also attach these snap these numbered labels in place on each wire on each CB. 

The green plastic fittings below each wire on each CB enable you to unlatch the double-pole double-throw CBs so each pole can be operated separately if desired.
Each DIN rail can now be screwed to the pre-drilled positions on the hinged rack.
And now the straight forward but time consuming task of connecting each Red & Black wire from the CB to the correct DIN connector block that Hilmi had previously installed and wired inside each Electrical Panel’s cabinetry.
You can see some of those Gray DIN connector blocks in the back of the cabinet above Hilmi’s hands here and now the challenge is connecting the right CB to its awaiting connector block.
The three vertical Gray wire chase ways really help keep things organised by housing all the individual Red & Black wires for each vertical stack and then letting Hilmi lead each set over the top to the hinged side of the rack where they will enter the cabinet and …..
……… be lead down the side into the Gray chase ways Hilmi has previously attached to the back of the cabinet.
Leaving a bit of extra length to allow for future moving of circuits, Hilmi works his way through the connection of each CB to its matching consumer.  Red & Black wires on top coming from the columns of CB’s in the rack and the Blue/Red/Black wires exiting the bottom going to the consumers throughout the boat.
It is a long and somewhat tedious process but Hilmi is accustomed to it and perseveres doing very high quality work throughout.
Connections for the forward Electrical Panel nearing completion.
Checking each numbered wire against the list and checking it twice.
With the hinged panel filled with the three columns of CB’s I can now close the rack,
……. go grab the outer panel and ………..
……… carefully set it in place to leave you with this shot of what the final Front CB Panel will look like.

Nice work Hilmi!  Thanks.
OK, it is late on a beautiful warm Sunday evening here in Antalya and I have not been out of this chair all day so I’m going to call it quits and go join my Captain Christine at the pool to cool off.  Summer weather here has been fabulous, ranging daytime highs in the 32-36C range and cool enough most nights to sleep well with just a fan to keep the air moving.  No complaints from me and I hope that wherever you are you and your family are staying safe, healthy and fit.

Thanks to those who make it to the end here, even if you fast forwarded to do so.   It means a great deal to me and Christine to be able to share this whole experience and adventure with you and we really encourage you to add your comments, suggestions and questions in the “Join the Discussion” box below. 

See you here same time, same place next week.

-Wayne