Team Möbius was back to making some very visible progress this week that definately rubs me the right way as you’ll soon see. 

A good thing this progress doesn’t depend on me as Christine and I spent most of our time this week renewing all the various aspects of residing here in Antalya for another year or more.  Hard to believe that we have now been living here for almost a year now and it was time for us to renew things such as our residency permits, health insurance, vehicle registration & insurance, apartment lease, etc. each with their own labyrinth of bureaucracies to negotiate, some online and some in person.  In the grand scheme of things this really didn’t take too much time, just all time away from building boats and writing books which we so much prefer and are now back to. 

But enough of such sniveling and let’s get caught up with what’s been going on with the good ship Möbius this past week.

** NOTE: Please Click to enlarge any photo in these blog posts

IMG_20181212_122858Let’s start wtih another mystery shot of the most recent shipment of aluminium to arrive here at the new Naval Yachts shipyard and see if you can guess what these are for??
IMG_20181210_173943More clues for you ……
IMG_20181210_173928…  there are quite a few of them ……
IMG_20181212_103558….. and they are made by bending 10mm/ 3/8” thick aluminium plate into these 6m/20’ long U shaped sections.
Bow & AnchorHint:; Remember the title of this weeks update and you can see them very clearly here in this quick rendering of the bow.

That’s right, we’ve got Rub Rails baby! 

This quick rendering shows these beautifully brutish Rub Rails as the dark turquoise coloured pieces that wrap all around the deck to hull corners.


IMG_20181212_103313

This short section from the bow to the forward anchor roller cheek was the first to go in and then behind it you can see the first full length 6m long section has also been tacked in place.


IMG_20181212_103407Looking straight up from water level along the side of the bow you can get a sense of scale for how these Rub Rails extend sideways about 140mm / 5.5” to create a rim of eXtremely strong “bumpers” from stem to stern. 


If you look at the rendering above and you can see that additional gussets will be welded in to fill in that triangular space between the forward anchor cheek and the front Rub Rail to add even more strength and stiffness to the anchor assembly.


IMG_20181212_122204These Rub Rails come in eXtremely handy when we are up against big rough wood or concrete pilings as we often are when bunkering (fueling up) at the large commercial fuel docks where the big ships get their fuel and where inflatable fenders are just not up to the task.
IMG_20181212_103711Up on deck at the bow shows a before and after view with the Rub Rail tacked on the Port/Left side while the Starboard/Right side waits its turn for the same treatment.
IMG_20181212_122634Before/Without; looking aft down the Starboard side and ……
IMG_20181212_122526After/With:  Rub Rail in place on Port side.

IMG_20181212_103831But wait a minute! 

What’s wrong with this picture?
IMG_20181214_105014And this one too?

We seem to have a bit of a square peg in a round hole problem here don’t we? 

How are you going to fit such a long 6m/20’ straight 10mm thick U channel up against that beautifully curved edge of the hull?
IMG_20181212_122327Easy Peasy when you are working with aluminium and have these two strong Push Me/Pull Me helpers!  The Mr. Yellow ratcheting chain tackle Pull Me brings the far end in most of the way ….
IMG_20181212_122738…. while his buddy Mr. Blue Push Me pushes each spot along the length in to just the right spot to line up with the guide line scribed parallel along the length of the deck to show where the inside edge should sit to overlap the deck by 30mm.

Credits due to the supporting cast as well such as the big 25mm thick bridge tacked onto the deck and hull for Mr. Blue Push Me
IMG_20181212_122751and some smaller bridges to secure some hammered in wedges to get the upper surface flat and parallel to the water.
IMG_20181212_122517And now just tack and repeat.
IMG_20181212_133521Have Mehmet prep the edges of the next length …..
IMG_20181212_133434……… prep the end of the previous length …..
IMG_20181214_134949Push/Pull into place and tack ….
IMG_20181214_104647… bring in Sezgin to lay down the first of several continuous beads  ….
IMG_20181214_104615…. along the top and bottom (not shown) edges ….
IMG_20181214_134934… and you soon have all the Rub Rails in place!

Having no paint policy and just raw aluminium exterior enables us to use these Rub Rails as a fulcrum point up against pilings and rotate the boat as we sometimes need to do when docking in high winds or other close quarter maneuvering.


Stanchion & Socket in Rub RailThese eXtremely sturdy Rub Rails will also be home for the vertical 60mm/2.4” AL pipe sockets that will soon be through welded top and bottom along the entire length of the hull for the 1m/40” tall and 40mm/1.6” OD aluminium stanchion posts and railing legs to slide into and create equally super sturdy lifeline and railing system around all the deck edges.

Nylon bushings will line the inside of each pipe socket to keep this joint tight and non corroding for easy removal when needed over the years.


Continuing with the eXtremely strong and eXtremely low maintenance theme, the three horizontal Lifelines will be gray 8mm Dyneema synthetic line running through the three short lengths of 10mm AL pipe inserts you can see in the rendering above along the length of the stanchion tubes.  This “stronger than steel” synthetic line provides just the right balance of slight give and yet plenty of strength for us to lean against or pull on, never corrodes and is easy to splice and fit to traditional hardware bits such as turnbuckles and pelican hooks for tensioning and where we have removable gates for boarding along the sides.


IMG_20181212_180935Throughout the week there was the constant crackling of MIG welders and the din of angle grinders as work also continued inside the hull.  Looking down from the Aft Deck through the big ER hatch into the ER Enclosure for example they are finishing the welding in of these Engine Room Enclosure walls and the water tanks on either side of the engine beds

The swirl marks also show how they are wire wheeling all surfaces clean as we get ready to start gluing in all the nautical miles of EPDM foam insulation on every bit of the interior aluminium surfaces.
InkedIMG_20181214_135137_LIMeanwhile work also continues on finishing off the new Naval Yachts shipyard building and offices.  Speaking of offices, Naval are eXtremely kind and generous in providing a new office for me to work from which is located on the 2nd floor just behind the wall the red arrow is pointing to.
IMG_20181214_132100And if I stand just outside that door onto the triangular walkway I have this birds eye view of Möbius and her bay mate mv Legacy sitting in front.

IMG_20181208_120517Below me on the main floor work continues on what will soon be this bright and airy reception area at the sliding front entrance doors. 

Behind the glass windows on the right here are …
IMG_20181208_120541… offices like this for the engineering staff as well as …
Wayne working @ new Naval 2… large all window meeting rooms for guests, suppliers and sub contractors. 

This also provides shelter for weird white haired old guys who seem to hang out here all the time and work late into the evening with the rest of Team Möbius.
IMG_0471Zooming out a bit more to the surrounding area of Antalya, you can see here that we lucked out weather wise on Thursday when we were driving to various offices all over Antalya picking up all the various forms and paperwork I noted at the beginning of this post.  This is the view we had to put up with as we waited for our health insurance provider to print out all our paperwork for residency permits.


Our apartment is across the crescent shaped coastline on the right right about where that tall pine tree intersects the west end of Antalya.  As you can see it is winter here with all that fresh snow on the mountains right behind us and the whole area just pops with stunning beauty on sunny days like this.

All in all a very good week and back by popular demand I’ve put together a short video compilation of some of the work on Möbius this week.  Enjoy!

Please add all your comments, questions and suggestions in the “Join the Discussion” box below and let me know how to improve these posts.

See you next week.

-Wayne