A very full work week here in Antalya Turkey at Naval Yachts with no holidays this week but a BIG four day holiday weekend coming up next week.  Weather continues to be sunny and summery with daytime temps in the 34-38C / 93-100F but humidity seems lower on what is now our third summer here and with a beautiful big pool right outside our front door we are enjoying the weather AND the progress on XPM78-01 Möbius.  So let’s jump right into this week’s Show & Tell so you can see for yourself.

SuperSalon In-Floor Heating PEX Installed:

One of the last big jobs on the ToDo list for the SuperSalon which is to install all the loops of PEX tubing for the In-Floor heating system.  The Master and Guest Cabins already have all their PEX lines installed to the SuperSalon was the last on the list and this week’s first Beast to be transformed into a Beauty.

Being central to the whole boat, the SuperSalon area gets the most about of daily traffic so we waited till now to take on this job as it requires removing all the marine plywood flooring in order to get at the rigid foam underneath and cut all the U-shaped channels for the 15mm PEX tubing to snap into.  Not too much of a Beauty just yet, but watch …..
Knowing they would all need to be removed, Omur and Selim had just put in a few screws when they installed all the plywood flooring so it didn’t take Omur too long to remove all the plywood.
Before he left to go serve his military time, Yigit and I created these layout drawings for the circuitous routing of the continuous 15mm / 5/8” PEX tubing.  It takes a bit of planning to ensure the radiant heat is being distributed in the right amounts for each different part of the Helm, Galley, Lounge, Dinette and Entryway and maintain the 120mm/4.7” minimum bending radius.
Omur transferred the layout to the foam and quickly cut all the U-shaped grooves in the foam with a small handheld router.
Next step also goes quickly which is to press aluminium foil tape to line the inside of the grooves to help reflect the heat upwards into the plywood and eventually out the finished vinyl flooring.
Like this.  The area in the foreground is where our two reclining Eames lounge chairs will go so the PEX tubes are places a bit closer together for slightly more heat in this area on colder Antarctic nights. 

Hmmmm, so Wayne, that would be compared to all the WARM Antarctic nights??
Here is the PEX layout in the Galley with the Red PEX tubes now press fitted into their foil lined grooves and ready for their plywood floors to be reinstalled.
Looking to Port/Left side of the boat where the two large Refrigerators sit you can see where the PEX tubes enter and leave the SuperSalon.  Where the PEX tubes pass under this cabinet they are additionally insulated with slip on EPDM sleeves and then the space of the drawer above further ensures that no heat travels upwards to the bottom of the eXtremely well insulated Vitrifrigo fridge box.
Behind the Fridge cabinet the PEX tubes make a large radius bend down through the AL penetration in the floor at the top of this photo, where they go down into the Basement and connect to their circulation pump on the In-Floor heating manifold.

Next week the support brackets for these two PEX tubes will be added and the EPDM insulation tubes will slip over each tube from where they enter this area behind the Fridge Cabinet at the bottom of this photo.
Hakan lent a hand to Omur and they soon had all the 12mm / 1/2” plywood screwed securely to the White epoxy covered foundations.

The darker square in the upper Right floor area is the solid foundation for mounting the Main Helm Chair pedestal.

Feels great to see the SuperSalon reach this new degree of completion.

Still very much like me “a diamond in the rough” but to my eyes at least the multi coloured “Beast” that you saw in the first photo above has definately been transformed from Beast to Beauty and there are more to show you later as well.
Not to to give away too much, here is a sneak peek at a few planks of the 5mm thick click-lock that we are using for the finish flooring throughout XPM78-01 Möbius. 

This vinyl plank flooring is made by the huge Turkish flooring company Ado and you can see a sample HERE.

This flooring is used in places such airports and other high traffic areas so it is eXtremely durable and 100% waterproof.  We have also tested it for a Goldilocks just right about of wood grain like texture to make it very non-slip even with wet feet and it is specifically made for In-Floor heating.

Here in the Guest Head/Bathroom is the first plank of flooring to be cut and will give you a bit better sense of the nice contrast between the dark swirling grain of the Rosewood and the subtle Silver Gray “grain” of the Ado vinyl flooring.

Stay tuned for much more about this vinyl flooring as they starting installing it throughout Möbius.

Leather Ceiling Panels & Window Mullions, Doors & Drawers

The overall SuperSalon is getting more and more Super and more and more complete.  A bit difficult to see through their blue tinted plastic covering the Black and White leather clad Ceiling panels are all back from the Upholstery Shop and have been snapped into their FastMount clips which really adds to the finished look in here.

Hilmi and Selim finish putting in the crimped on connectors for all the LED lights in the Ceiling Panels.
Down the staircase in the Corridor Omur has started installing the drawers and doors in my long “clean room” workbench & office.
Lots more Blum hardware of course which you have already heard me gushing about how well they work with their soft open/close and fully hidden features which I REALLY like.  As you can see with the drawer sitting on top of my workbench, these drawers are quite shallow due to the steeply sloping hull sides behind the wall grid so the Blum drawer slides in the cardboard box are short but full extension models and you can see how these drawer slides mount completely out of sight on the bottoms of the drawers.
Upstairs and just back from Sinan in the Upholstery Shop are these Window Mullion Covers so Omur has been busy getting them installed. 

FastMount clips require a bit too much depth here so we are using strips of 3M Dual Lock tape which are very thin snap together strips that hold things together with no slippage.

This relatively new dual lock style fastener works similar to but MUCH better than the older “hook & loop” or Velcro.  It has 4-10 times the gripping power and it has two other differences that are the big deal to me.  The first is that that I never have much success getting the old cloth based hook & loop/Velcro to stay attached to the surface it is mounted on.  Dual Lock is all plastic so its self-adhesive backing or the adhesive you apply keeps it there all the time.

Second bit difference for me is that Dual Lock uses tiny plastic “mushrooms” which interlock as per this illustration so there is no slippage or “wiggle” and unlike Velcro, both sides are the same so any piece can mate with any other piece.
ACCESS to all systems, wiring, plumbing is a top priority for me and in several of these Window Pillars we are using the space inside the thick aluminium I-frames as a wire chase so I needed these leather Window Mullions to be solidly attached and yet still easy to remove.  Dual Lock is the Goldilocks solution and I had Omur also use it to hold down the Rosewood Window Sills here as well.
Pardon all the construction clutter but this shot will give you an idea of how the Black and White Mullions finish off the windows quite nicely.
More finished work happening here in the Aft Starboard corner of the SuperSalon and the staircase down to the Corridor leading to the Guest Cabin and Workshop.  Ömür’s grain matching handiwork prominently on display here where the three doors are now mounted into this wall.
The top two doors are Fast Mounted so they snap In/Out on the rare occasions when I need access to the hoses exiting the Fuel Fill & Vent boxes behind them.
Whereas the door on the bottom is hinged as this is Christine’s “Internet Alcove” where several of our internet related items will reside such as routers, hubs, switches, access points, etc.
Similarly great to see examples of things starting to be finished are these Ro$ewood panels up at the Main Helm Station of the SuperSalon.  Our 50” monitor mounts on the hinged panel on the Left here and the panel below the Main Helm itself is a snap In/Out panel to provide access to the hundreds of wires behind it.

And yet another Beauty emerges.

Galley Goodness!

More of Ömür’s grain matching goodness on display in the Galley as he starts mounting the fronts on all the drawers in the Galley Cabinetry.   Good example here of the “diversity” theme we are pursuing throughout the boat and here evidenced by the diversity of drawer shapes and sizes.
The only door in the Galley cabinets is this one on the Right which provides easy access to both the voluminous cupboard spaces inside as well as access to the systems, hoses and cables behind these cabinets.
Not quite done but definately getting closer and closer and yet another Beauty in the making.
Up next?

Installing these bits of SS jewelry aka positive Door & Drawer latches.

Taming the Electrical Beast:

Main Helm Panels

With an overall electrical system that includes 12V & 24V DC, 120V and 220V AC, more than 200 circuit breakers and uncountable miles of wires and cables of ever imaginable size, we certainly could have created a true Electrical Best onboard XPM78-01 Möbius.  Happily though, we are transforming this Beast into a Beauty with great organization, installation, labeling and routing.  Let’s go check out some recent examples of this electrical  transmogrification.

Starting up here at the Main Helm in “Beast Mode” are some of the cables coming up from the Basement below through two aluminium penetrations in the floor behind the rectangular opening below the Helm Station.
The Beast rears its ugly head again nearby with this pile of coils of wires destined to the switch panels in the angled wall to the Right of the Main Helm.
For those unfamiliar with such dragons, it might appear that the situation is getting worse not better as this Medusa like tangle of Red & Black wires now appears out of the jungle as Hilmi and Selim strip away the outer insulation from these 24V switch wires.
Rather than a whip and a chair, Selim’s taming tools of choice here are adhesive lined heat shrink and a heat gun which he uses to both seal and strengthen the mounting location of each cable where they will be zip tied to their holders as well as having their heat shrink labels firmly attached.
Not fully domesticated yet, but the tamed beauty begins to shine through here as these wires await their turn to be connected to their respective switches on the Rosewood panel that snaps into place here.
And more organization emerges down below as  these cables are routed and zip tied to their cable trays below the Main Helm.
Ahhhh, that’s better!  Not quite finished of course but if you compare this shot to the ones at the beginning I think you too will see that the beast is indeed being tamed.

Corridor Electrical Panel

Back in the Aft Stairwell at the Corridor Electrical Panel these may all be DIN certified circuit breakers but as you can see they too are more Medusa like monsters laying in wait of an innocent little Sparkie to come along.
Taming this Beast requires a slightly different set of weapons such as this hinged metal frame.
Omur joins forces with Selim and Hilmi and mounts the hinged steel frame,
inside the tall cabinet he has previously built and installed on the Right side as you descend the Aft Stairwell leading down the the Corridor, Guest Cabin and WT Door into the Workshop.
Hilmi takes his crack at the taming and has these three DIN Rails with 36 of the 24V DC Circuit Breakers.
With the cage, errrr I mean door, closed the front side shows a much tamer side.
Reopening the door, things are definately being put under strict control as Hilmi starts connecting each of the Red & Black wires from the Circuit Breakers in the door to their respective Gray DIN Junction Blocks that you may recall seeing him wire a few weeks ago.
Peeking up under the bottoms of these Circuit Breakers reveals a very well tamed collection of these 24V wires now all labelled and neatly tucked into their horizontal running Gray chases with their removable tops now snapped in place.
Doing my part to assist with the taming of these Electrical Beasts I’ve created coloured and labeled lists of each circuit onboard Möbius and printed this one with the 24V CB’s …….
…….. for Hilmi to use and check off as he methodically tames and wires each circuit.
Continuing to calm the Beast, Hilmi soon has the lower horizontal DIN Rail full of 12 Volt Circuit Breakers, mounted, wired, labelled and tucked into bed.

Down at the bottom he has now installed the three vertical DIN Rails.  Two on the Right hold 36 of the 220 Volt CB’s and the one on the Left has 18 of the 120 Volt CB’s.
Definately MUCH tamer panel now!
A numbered place for every AC wire up here and ……….
………  every wire numbered and placed.
Same well tamed set of 120V and 220V AC Circuit Breakers.
Still a bit Beast-like down here.
But it doesn’t take Hilmi too long to have these whipped into shape as well and the Beauty emerges here ………
……. here ………………….
.……. here ………………….
…… and here.

Well done Hilmi, Selim and Omur, you have definately transformed the Electrical Beast into a thing of Beauty.

Workshop Distribution Box

Ahhh but aboard Möbius the job of the Electrical Beast Tamers is still not done and so they take on the next challenge back on the Starboard/Right side of the Aft Workshop with yet another Medusa like mess of big cables surrounding the Aft DC Distribution Box.
As usual it looks worse before it looks better but your eyes can now probably see the method to the madness here as Selim and Hilmi wrestle these Red, Black and Yellow 120 mm2 snakes into their allotted spots, cut them to length and label each one.
With the big guys all labelled and fed through their WT cable glands the beauty of well organized and clearly labelled cables begins to emerge from the previous chaos.
Breaking out some additional taming tools such as this hydraulic terminal swaging tool that crimps the outer barrel of each zinc coated copper terminal log so tightly around the hundreds of tiny copper strands of each 120 mm2 cable that they all fuse together to form a single solid copper joint.
And so the taming trend continues down below as they start attaching each cable to their allocated position on the Upper Positive and Lower Negative Bus Bars.
These Bus Bars are definitely up for the job being made from two solid Copper flat bars measuring 10mm thick X 40mm wide which are bolted together and attached to the frame of the box with ceramic insulators.
For the Positive circuits where the Bus Bar is the source of their electrical energy, these beefy T-Class fuses are used for OCP, Over Current Protection of these cables.
Like this.
Down to one last Red/Positive 120 mm2 snake to tame.

We leave the final power connections disconnected for safety for now but the former Beast in the Workshop has now been fully converted into this Beauty.
So our two Electrical Beast Tamers can close the door on this Aft DC Distribution Box and take a well deserved break.

Transforming Beasts in the Engine Room Too!

Everyone on Team Möbius is a very skilled Beast Tamer and that certainly includes the dynamic duo of Uğur and Nihat who wrestle daily with different  Aluminium beasts.  This week they took on the installing the 127mm / 5” OD aluminium pipes that carry the exhaust gasses out of the Halyard Combi Silencer/Separator out the Starboard side of the Engine Room enclosure wall and out through the Stbd side of the hull.
This quick and dirty rendering sliding through the ER helps show the Halyard Combi up in the top Port/Left corner of the ER and how the 127mm rubber exhaust hose will snake its way down through the Stbd/Right side of the ER and then underneath the bottom of the Yellow Day Tank and out the side of the hull.
Here’s my best attempt to show how this will be routed inside the Engine Room.

Brown line will be the 127mm / 5” rubber exhaust hose.
And here is how it looks when peering down from the Aft Deck.
As you can see from these photos this Halyard Combi really is a big fiberglass Beast!  The first part of the taming of this Beast was to build a good solid shelf to hold it solidly in the right place.
And this Beast has been tamed!

The Combi separates the wet exhaust gas & water entering from the Gardner engine and the sea water runs directly out the large pipe in the bottom and into the large angled pipe you can see here on the Exiting Sea Chest.  Exhaust gasses exit out the down angled pipe at the top of the Combi where the 127mm exhaust hose will carry it over to the wall of the Engine Room Enclosure on the opposite Right side.

To get that nasty exhaust gas beast out, Nihat and Uğur have welded this 127mm AL pipe through the ER wall just above the Intake Sea Chest.
On the other side of the ER wall that 127mm pipe on the Left exits just below the bottom of the Day Tank above.  Note too that they have already moved on to the next part of the taming which involves the matching 127mm AL pipe going out through the hull plates on the far Right here.
And a better shot of the exiting Exhaust Pipe here.
Which looks like this from the outside.
Close up shot from the outside.
For reference, I marked the position of the Waterline on the hull at three different loads. 
The upper WL will never likely happen as this is just for our computer based roll testing when every tank on the boat is fully filled.  The “Avg Load” WL is when we start a passage and have all Fuel tanks Full and about 10% in the Water tanks.  The bottom “Light Load” WL will be typical of End Passage when the reverse is true; Fuel tanks are down to about 10% for safety and Water tanks are Full to help make up for the loss of Fuel weight.

For those interested, here is where those same three Waterlines come to on the aft Transom.
Back in the ER, Nihat cleaned up the Engine Bed extensions that Uğur welded in last week.
These Engine Beds need to be perfectly flat and level so they are ready to receive the anti-vibration motor mounts or “engine feet” where Mr. Gee will soon be attached!
And while he was at it Nihat also transformed these Aft brackets where the anti-vibration mounts for the Nogva CPP Gearbox will be bolted.  On less Beast, one more Beauty aboard XPM78-01 Möbius!

Plumbing Beauties Too!

Cihan’s plumbing skills are in very high demand on several boats still but when he was able to he too tamed several other Medusa like Beasts on Möbius.  First up was putting in this horizontal tray across the front wall of the ER and then transforming all these snakey hoses into a well organised assembly firmly attached to the ER WT Bulkhead.
He routed some of these hoses over to the Port/Left side wall of the ER.
so he can connect them to this Piccolo like exit manifold he had built last week.and attached to the Exiting Sea Chest in the forward Port/Left corner of the ER.

Large upward angled pipe on the Sea Chest is where the water from the Halyard Combi exits out of the boat.
Clear hoses from some of the Aft Bilge pumps now all connected.
Soon followed by connecting these larger White hoses coming from the two High Water extraction intakes on either side of the center running Keel Bar and the bottom Left hose is from the sink in the Outdoor Galley above.

Another Beast is tamed and transformed into another Beauty on the Good Ship Möbius.  Thanks Cihan!

Oh No!  The Roof Came Down!

Not all “Beasts” are down below as Uğur proved when he slayed one up in the SkyBridge.  He did a stellar job of taming a real nasty beast that had emerged where the frames for the glass “eyebrow” windows surround the coaming walls of the SkyBridge.

This particular beast has been laying in wait for several months now but Uğur was able to masterfully use his MIG welding gun to transform this into a true Beauty.
He then continued to blast out the remaining removable posts that set atop the glass window frames where the removable acrylic windows will slide In/Out as needed.
And then the REAL fun began when the roof came down!

You may have seen this before but if not, here is a quick little animation showing how the SkyBridge roof folds down into what we call “Canal/Hunkered Down Mode” where the Air Draft, distance above the WL is drastically reduced for going through Canals or “hunkering down” when we have the boat out of the water in a Hurricane/Cyclone zone.

Uğur is getting ready to mount the 8 Solar Panels up on top of the SkyBridge Roof faming and also start fabricating the “mini Radar Arch” where most of our many antennae, GPS, FLIR camera, etc. will be mounted and so having the roof lowered down would make it much easier to tame all these Beasts.

We will soon have a proper mechanical system that will enable just Christine and I to lower and raise the SkyBridge roof but for now we did it the quick and dirty way with a temporary line we belayed from the Sampson Post at the Bow and a couple of extra bodies.
This is one of the temporary hinge arm braces that we put in to provide the forward hinge point of the roof.  The Aft hinge is integral to the Roof and Arch.
Works very well and literally only takes a few minutes.  When finished the roof will rest on the framing surrounding the SkyBridge and hold itself up but for safety now we just put some temporary wood braces down to the Aft Deck.
Here is how it looked in real time:

This is what it looks like when viewed from the Boat with the roof down. 

Sure looks a lot smaller!

Standing on the Aft Deck looking forward down the Port/Left side you can see how the Arch rests in the hunkered down position.  Also a good shot of approximately what the Port Paravane A-Frame will look like when deployed.

Looking Aft from the front area of the SkyBridge you can see how the roof rests on the Window Frames underneath.  The eight rectangular frames of the roof will soon be filled with eight 340W Solar Panels.
We have designed this so we can still control the boat from up in the now open air part of the SkyBridge when that is the best spot to be.
Nihat took advantage of the roof being down to take on a quite literal Beast of a job;
drilling out the big holes where the cables travel Up/Down to the overhead Arch for Radar and all the many other electronics up there.
All these cables will be fully protected by this Hinge assembly when the Arch is raised and locked in its normal fully up position.

Mr. GEE’s Gets His Own Coat of Many Colours

Having taken on so many new responsibilities for XPM78-01 Möbius I once again didn’t get much time this week to give Mr. Gee more of the TLC he needs but I went in yesterday, Saturday here, and got in a full day with no interruptions and made some good progress transforming some of Mr. Gee’s Beasts into Beauties. 

You may recall from last week that I wasn’t happy with the colour of the special heat paint that I had used on Mr. Gee’s cast iron parts such as the big cylinder block and the heads. 

I wasn’t able to find any pre-mixed paint that matched the Burgundy colour I wanted to I got some Red and Blue epoxy do DIY the Goldilocks colour I wanted.
After much experimentation I settled on a 10 parts Red to 1 Part Blue.

And mixed them together thoroughly to create my own batch of epoxy engine paint that was just right.

This is what Mr. Gee now looks like sporting his custom paint job.  The colours don’t come out quite right in these photos so it looks more like chocolate than red wine here I think due to the coloration of the overhead work lights.

However when viewed in natural light he looks like the proper British gentleman he is and I’m quite pleased with the end result.
I shot this gaggle of various parts that I will soon be bolting onto Mr. Gee.
I did the painting earlier in the week so now that it was fully hardened I spent yesterday staring to fit the larger parts such as the upper cast aluminium Intake Manifold and the lower cast iron Exhaust Manifold.
Added on the 90 degree Exhaust Elbow and the newly fabricated SS flex pipe that is where the rest of the SS Halyard dry stack pipes will be attached to carry the hot exhaust gasses over to the Halyard Combi we’ve seen being installed above.
One final look for this week, looking from the front down the Stbd/Right side of Mr. Gee which will help you see the nice contrast between his Burgundy cast iron parts and all his other cast aluminium parts.

One more Beauty that will soon be onboard XPM78-01 Möbius and moves us one step closer to Launch!
Whew!  Another full, busy and productive week here with Team Möbius.  hope you enjoyed this latest Show & Tell and PLEASE be sure to tell ME what you think by putting your comments and questions in the “Join the Discussion” box below.

Hope to see you here again next week.

-Wayne