Progress continues full speed ahead with Team Möbius for the week of September 10-14, 2018.  Most of the work and the most visible change is the continuation of work on the superstructure for the above deck Pilot House that creates our SuperSalon with the Galley, main Helm station, Dining and Lounge areas with a staircase at either end leading down into the fore and aft cabins.  As you are about to see the full shape and scale are emerging more and more each day as 3D models and renderings are transformed into very real spaces of aluminium.  Much less visible but no less important and time consuming is all the welding going on inside the hull within the tanks as Sezgin and Mehmet work their way through the seeming endless number of baffles in the tanks welding each one to the now finished hull plates.  But enough talk, on with the pictures…………………

Standing on the aft deck looking forward through the Pilot House this is about where we left off last Friday and now Monday morning Uğur and Nihat are setting the upper part of one of the rear most frames of the Pilot House/SuperSalon.  The plinth on the left by Nihat is to provide plenty of headroom when you enter from the aft deck down the stairs into the SuperSalon.

The last frame that forms the aft end of the SuperSalon is raised next and you can see the entry into the interior very clearly now.  The cut out on the right is where the exterior winding stairs take you up the SkyBridge atop the Pilot House.

We are quite liking the random swirl pattern you see here formed by a brass wire wheel to create the final finish on all the external aluminium which will stay bare and unpainted.  What do you think?

Moving up to the front deck looking aft now you can see the rest of the upper frames are now tacked in place anxiously awaiting their longitudinal stringers to be fitted into all those slots and create the support structure for the AL plate that forms the ceiling of the SuperSalon and the floor of the SkyBridge.

The expanse of horizontal AL plate you can see here and above is the brow of the Piot House which helps keep the sun and rain off the front negatively raked windows below.  There will be a similar overhang extending all the way down the sides windows as well.

Standing on the floor of the SuperSalon looking up through the front center window here to show you another reason for this large overhang which is to assist with our passive ventilation.  Spending most of our time at anchor we always have a nice breeze coming over the bow and when that hits these negatively raked front windows it creates a very useful positive pressure point and hence these vents on the underside of the overhang to use that pressure to bring plenty of fresh air into the boat.  After passing through these vents the air flows into the box section created by the paneling all around and then we have four large vertical AL pipes in the open area you see above to direct the air down into the front area of the SuperSalon where the main Helm Station is. 

With our interlocking “kit” style of construction the assembly happens quite quickly as it is a simple matter of sliding each stringer into its corresponding slots and then once all the jig saw puzzle pieces are in place and the whole assembly is checked with alignment lasers just to be sure all dimensions are correct, each joint is tacked in place in preparation for final welding and the addition of the covering plates.

This slightly different angle lets you see the tack welds locking the whole assembly in position.  Not that front vertical bar you can see on the far left here and above is a temporary brace from when the horizontal brow or overhang plate was initially placed to ensure that it is the right height and brace it until all the final welding is complete.

Standing on the aft deck again looking through the opening where the stairs end and you walk into the SkyBridge you can see how the ceiling/floor framing works.  The short vertical wall marks the front end of the SkyBridge and the plate you can just see in the bottom left corner is the aft end so it is a very good sized space 5.3m/7’4” with perhaps the best views on the whole boat being up higher and having an unobstructed 360 degree view.

Stepping down into the aft Starboard (right) corner of the SuperSalon where the Galley will be you can see more of the ceiling framing and get a sense of scale for the whole SuperSalon area. 

With all our aluminium parts delivered already CNC cut to precisely the right shapes the plating does not take long to be fit into position and tacked to the underlying framework.

The large recessed area running the full length of this front section of the Pilot House roof serves two very important functions.  First a rack holding four large solar panels will fit in between the triangular vertical side walls and be hinged at the very aft end atop those vertical bars you can see here.  When on passage this large expanse of solar panels will be locked in place with the forward edge tight against the forward end of the roof overhang and then when we anchor this front edge will be lifted up about 200mm/ 8” so they are horizontal and generating lots of power to keep the house battery bank well charged but also performing their second function which is to funnel more of those beautiful breezes blowing aft from the bow. 
As with the vents you saw above on the underside of the overhang, these breezes will flow into the boxed in area behind those vertical bars and then down into the center of the SuperSalon ceiling through three large 300mm / 12” diameter aluminium tubes.  Both the smaller tubes up front and these large tubes aft will have adjustable vents in them, similar to the “eyeball” type vents in many cars dashboards so you can adjust the direction and amount of air flowing through.   We think this combination of vents to capture the breezes almost always blowing over the bow will provide more than enough fresh air throughout the boat in most conditions.  However the vent boxes will also have very quiet fans inside which can augment the air flow if there is just no breeze and in very hot conditions we can also turn on the AC.

Uğur is about 180cm/ 5’9” tall so he will give you a bit of sense of scale for this front area of the Pilot House in front of the SkyBridge. 

This is about where we left off on Friday afternoon with this front section now all tacked in place.  A very visually exciting week as the real Möbius morphs from virtual 3D models into very real full size aluminum shapes.

Video summary as per usual is below for you to get an even better sense of all that happened this past week. 

**  Sorry.  It will take me a bit longer to get the video ready so I will post this later so you have this update for now ***

I am going to be traveling for the next 3 weeks to the US, Canada and Brazil for a combination of some friends and family time and a keynote down in Sao Paulo in memory of a dearly departed friend and colleague.  However Yiğit our new CAD engineer has kindly agreed to step in and take pictures and video while I’m away so I will do my best to keep posting a weekly summary for you and I’ll now be anxiously awaiting his pictures just as eagerly as you.

Thanks for coming along on this exciting adventure with us and please add your comments and questions in the “Join the Discussion” box below this post.  See you next week.