It definitely feels like Fall here in Antalya with night time temperatures almost down to 10 degrees C / 50F which is a big drop from the 20’s we have had up till now.  However we also had a rare rain and some very big winds at the beginning of the week so the air is crystal clear and the views of the mountains and the Med out our 9th floor apartment windows are to die for!

A very full week working on Möbius as Dincer, Yiğit and I spent yesterday (Sat) working on more details such as routing venting and filling plumbing for the 14 different fuel and water tanks, designing up a very nice fuel fill box on the sides of the coaming on the PH (Pilot House) and working through the designs for some of the HVAC Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning systems, plumbing, ducting and heat exchangers.  During the week Team Möbius was mostly focused on topping off the tanks with their 6mm plate that gets welded on and then pressure tested.  Great fun for Christine and I to now be able to walk around in the cabins with these tank top floors in place now.  And the ER Engine Room enclosure walls were tacked in place this week so that space is also now coming into focus and looking eXtremely good.  With that preview, let’s jump into the pictures and descriptions so you can see what this all looked like.

As always all aluminium surfaces to be welded need to be cleaned to remove the layer of Aluminium Oxide ensuring all the welded areas are scrupulously clean to ensure great welds.  You can see that Nihat has been busy with the wire wheel getting these tank top plates all ready for taking onboard and welded atop all the tank baffles and framing.

Here for example are the tank tops tacked in place in the Basement ready for Sezgin to do the finish welding around all the plate edges and the many slots that weld the plate to the flat bars atop each baffle plate below.

The three large open bays on the right are battery bays for some of the 24 very large 2 volt Gel cell batteries which make up our eXtremely large set of two 24v house banks.  There will be plastic boxes linking these battery bays and then 6mm AL tops bolted in place to seal the batteries from water and dirt.  Each bay will be also be fully ventilated with in/out vent pipes to help keep the batteries cool when being charged.

Standing in the aft Port side of the SuperSalon where the steps will soon be in place to take you down to the corridor leading aft to the Workshop and Engine room through the WT door in the top right here, you can see that the tank tops are now all set in place in the Guest Cabin aka Christine’s Office.

Here is the GA General Arrangement drawing that will help you visualize all these different spaces on Möbius, stairways, cabinetry and the like.  We’ve changed the Galley counter layout a bit but otherwise this is how the boat will be laid out.

** Click to enlarge this or any photo in the blog.

Moving aft into the large Workshop area Uğur is getting ready to erect the first wall of the enclosure that will create the Engine Room.  Mr. G, our Gardner 6LXB with thus be fully isolated in this eXtremely well insulated and ventilated space and keep the noise and heat confined to the just the Engine Room.  On most boats the whole aft Workshop area would have been the Engine Room but this way I get a much quieter and cooler area to work in even when we are underway and so too does all the equipment that would normally go into the ER such as fuel filtering system, batteries, water maker, boiler and so on. 

It is difficult to photograph this area but standing in the aft Starboard/ Right corner of the Workshop looking forward, you can see how these walls create this Engine Room Enclosure.

The Day Tank will be mounted on that WT bulkhead on the far Starboard/Right side of the ER enclosure and then various bits and bobs of boat equipment will be mounted on the enclosure walls and workbenches lining each side such as the Water Maker, diesel fired boiler, hot water tank, Alfa Laval fuel polisher, fuel filters, engine start batteries and so on.

Moving over to the Port/left side you can see where the door will go through into the Engine Room and you can make out the corridor or “wing” the enclosure side walls create leading forward to the WT door you can make out on the far left here which will leads to the corridor alongside Christine’s Office/Guest Cabin which in turn takes you to the stairs up to the SuperSalon.

As you can see in the picture above the ER enclosure creates a similar wing area on the Starboard side.  The will be workbenches stretching down both sides of the hull on the outside of these walkways providing a huge amount of working height surfaces for my work tools and machines such as vices, drill press, lathe, 3D printer, grinder, etc.  as well as providing lots of places for mounting boat equipment such as Auto Pilot pumps, water pumps, and the long list of other equipment that goes into making this floating village work.  Keep in mind that in order to be fully self sufficient we have to create all our own water, deal with all our own sewage, create all our own electricity, navigation, power, communications and so on, so being our own village is not hyperbole in our case.

Standing in what will be the doorway into the ER you can see the two thick “beds” running down either side of the center Keel plate to provide eXtremely solid surfaces for mounting the Gardner engine and the Nogva CPP servo box.  The Gardner fits easily between the inside edges of these bed plates which leaves plenty of room on either side of this massive engine to access all its systems which makes this Captain who will be doing all such work VERY happy!!
Turning around to look aft, my hand is on what will be the hinge side of the ER door, you can see the even larger area of the Workshop aft of the ER atop the prop tunnel.  The shelf running across the inside of the transom wall in the back with the red bucket on it, is where the hydraulic steering cylinders will be mounted and you can see the hole in this shelf where the rudder post tube will soon be welded in place.  There will be stairs up to the WT door on the top left here which takes you out to the Swim Platform.

For those of us who have owned and worked on boats before can appreciate, having so much space and so much surface area for mounting things is truly fabulous.  With enough room to space everything out so well it makes access for everything from the initial installation to the ongoing maintenance very easy and eliminates the Harry Houdini like contortions we usually have to do to work on boats.  This is not mere convenience as it makes the initial building and then using and maintaining of the boat much less costly, less prone to errors, easier to monitor and see problems right away, as well as much safer.  What’s not to like??

Stepping out the WT Workshop door onto the Swim Platform to show you the initial framing of the “plinth” as Dennis tells me it is called, which provides plenty of headroom as you step though this WT door.

If you look at the GA plan drawings above you can see how this is all laid out and how spacious the whole Aft Deck area is.

There will be one or two hatches added to the sides of the plinth to let more light and fresh air into the Workshop when I’m working down there.

Well radiused corners keep this protrusion above the aft deck very safe and creates what we think will be a great spot to sit and take in sunsets or keep and eye on Grandkids swimming off the Swim Platform below. 

That catches you up on all the progress for this week of October 22-27, 2018 and I’ll leave you with this shot from our balcony where we have breakfast every morning showing you this view of the mountains to the NE of us which are are particularly spectacular bathed in this sunset light last night with the air so crystal clear after the recent rain and big winds.

Many of you liked last week’s Guided Tour format video so I’ve created another one for this week along with the usual synopsis of the week’s progress in time lapse video form and you can click below to watch these.

Below is the video synopsis progress video:

And below is a short guided tour by yours truly showing you the progress on the tank tops and building the Engine Room Enclosure and the WT door into the Workshop from the Swim Platform.

Thanks for joining us, we really appreciate you taking the time to do so and please be sure to add all your questions and suggestions in the “Join the Discussion” box at the bottom of each blog post.  See you next week!