With Team Möbius back to work and augmented by additional sub-contractors the rate of progress was at an all time high this past week so there is a LOT to Show & Tell you about this week.  I will apologise in advance that this week’s Progress Update may be a bit rushed both because I have so much to cover and it is now already mid afternoon on Sunday here.  But before I jump right into all the progress updates, some other news from around the shipyard for you.

FINAL PLANS are SIGNED & SEALED!

The biggest news for Christine and I this week is that we finalized all the details for the final finishing of XPM78-01 Möbius with Naval Yachts and signed off on all the new addendum documents, which is what Baris (left) and Dincer, the founding brothers of Naval Yachts are smiling about here! 
With projects of this size and complexity and especially for such a unique first XPM series build, there are a LOT of changes and adjustments along the way and a LOT of equipment, materials and sub-contractors that needed to be ordered and it has taken all of us more hours than we would like to know, to sort out all these details and get them all formally documented.  So we were elated to have all four of us, Builders + Owners, sign off on this Friday afternoon.

Wayne Looses 1 old Titanium Screw and Gains 7 new ones!

Immediately after we all signed the new addendum on Friday, my elation transformed into something else when I spent several hours “under the knife” in the Dentist’s office!  Another reason why this blog post will be a bit rushed as I’m not quite up to full  speed again just yet. 
For those curious to know, the scorecard from that surgery is that Wayne is now:

MINUS:

• one molar and
• one titanium screw (one of more than a hundred I have from a nasty motorcycle accident back in 1997) but now plus 6 titanium implant

PLUS:

• 7 titanium implant screws
• some extra jawbone (grafts)
• 29 stitches

I won’t bore you with any more details but given the somewhat technical nature of my posts and for those curious about dental implants, as I was, here is these 2 illustrations will give you the basic picture of what’s involved.

Now it is just a waiting game to get the stitches removed in 10 days and then let the jawbone and implants merge for two months or so before I go back to have the ceramic (Zirconia) crowns put in and I can chew again!

Möbius gets a New Neighbor

This actually happened two weeks ago so I’m a bit delinquent in posting this but we now have a new neighbor off of Möbius’ Stbd Aft corner. 
She’s a Turkish flagged boat “Celeb” and is in the yard at Naval Yachts for some relatively minor work and some out-of-the-water winter storage.
Once again, our friendly neighborhood 72 wheel Yellow boat mover was called in for this move and it all came off without a hitch as usual.
There were more changes to the neighborhood a few blocks away from us over on the Free Zone side of the harbour where they are completely redoing the shoreside facilities to put in an all new humungous dry dock and other launching facilities.
This work has been going on for quite a few months already with the removal of the existing concrete walls, the whole rail launch and TraveLift launch facilities and a whole lot of dirt to enlarge the water area.

That leaves the Free Zone with no launching facilities but fortunately just on the other side of this harbor in the background here, is Setur Marina and so the authorities can open up the gates and let the boat movers bring boats in/out of the marina and into the Free Zone. 

With Möbius’ launch date *hopefully* coming up early in the New Year it is likely that we may need to launch into Setur Marina rather than inside the Free Zone harbour.  Either way works fine as the emphasis for us is LAUNCH ASAP!!

This pile driver has been running non-stop 24/7 for the past week putting in over 20 so far of these steel cylinders which I presume will be filled with concrete to form the underlying foundation for all the new concrete and dry-dock equipment to come.
OK, with this week’s episode of  “What’s New in the Neighborhood”, let’s get back to the shipyard and get you caught up on this past week’s progress on finishing XPM78-01 Möbius.

LITTLE JOBS = BIG DEAL:

As I did in last week’s posting, let me quickly run you through a set of several “little jobs” which got looked after this past week.  Some of you sent in comments noting that you liked the more rapid-fire sequences of work so I will repeat that here and please do let me know how well it is working or not by putting your comments in the “Join the Discussion” box at the bottom of every blog posting.

And as I noted last week these may be “little” in terms of amount of work, these jobs are all play very important roles themselves and perhaps most important of all are what define a FINISHED yacht!

First good example of how these little jobs can be so important was the finishing of the door into the Engine Room.  Uğur and Nihat had fabricated and mounted this door many months ago but it needed to be fully insulated with fireproof EPDM insulation covered with the laminated aluminium/composite sandwich AlucoBond material you have seen being used to cover all the walls and ceilings of the Engine Room and Workshop.

They started by welding in these short lengths of aluminium L-bars for the AlucoBond to be fastened to.
Then Nihat cut the 50mm / 2” thick EPDM foam insulation and fitted each piece into their compartments.
AlucoBond is then cut to size and screwed in place.
Uğur than installs two of the same beautiful Bofor Dogs & Latches you saw him installing in the big AL hatches up on the main deck for the Forepeak and Engine Room.
Then the door can be remounted on its hinges while it awaits the 26mm thick tempered glass window to be installed to complete this door.
Next up for the same basic treatment was this hatch that goes into the floor in the SuperSalon to provide the only access to the cavernous Basement which sits under the entire SuperSalon floor.
Same 50mm EPDM foam is inserted into each of the little bays formed by the reinforcing AL stringers of this hatch, which is upside down here BTW.

Then Uğur spreads on a light coating of contact cement while ……….
……. Nihat cuts out the thick foil covered fireproof cloth that will cover and protect the EPDM insulation.
With the foil cloth all glued down, Nihat finished off the edges with some AL foil tape and this hatch was then mounted to the awaiting piano hinge in the Salon floor opening into the Basement.
The first of many “little” jobs in getting the below the waterline portion of the hull all prepped for the upcoming application of all the epoxy primer preceding spraying on the International InterSleek 1100SR Foul Release bottom paint we have decided to use.

Here Uğur has removed the propeller blades on the Vetus Bow Thruster and sanded all the internal AL surfaces.
I was able to pull my weight a little bit this week as well by finishing off some similarly small but important jobs, as well as one quite BIG BEAUTIFUL BEASTLY job on Mr. Gee, our Gardner 6LXB engine.  More on that later.

The Black cone and disk up near the top Left here is the front end of the Chain based Hand Cranking system that I am now starting to mount.  I have pulled it far forward here in order to mount the cast AL coolant tank.

Below this tank on the Right is the secondary fuel filter and return line and in the weeks ahead you will be seeing much more of that flat rectangular Pad in the bottom Left where I will soon be mounting one of the Big Red Electrodyne alternators.
A classic example of how Gardner leaves nothing to chance is this cast in place detail of how you need to use the correct type of anti-freeze and fill it to the correct level.
Big Red #2 near the bottom Left with blue taped box, as I’ve taken to calling the second 250A @ 28V Electrodyne alternators is the much bigger job I worked on this past week and I’ll cover that in more detail a bit later in this post.  With this 2nd alternator now securely mounted to the side of Mr. Gee I was able to finish installing these beautiful copper oil lines that snake their way around Mr. Gee to carry his lifeblood engine oil to and from where it needs to go.

Large AL unit taking up the center of of the photo above and aft end here, is the complete fuel pump and mechanical injection system.  The six vertical (5 Black 1 Red) levers you see in the photo above allow you to hand prime each of the 6 fuel injectors as well as shut off one injector at a time to check performance while running.

Burgundy cylinder in the top middle is the secondary oil filter housing with its copper oil lines bringing oil to/from this filter.
A few more finishing touches on Mr. Gee’s Stbd/Right side such as the exiting salt water hose now connected to the rear of this gorgeous cast bronze engine oil cooler, and the vertical braided SS mesh exhaust connector in the upper Left here is now bolted to the aft end of the cast iron exhaust manifold.
In the bottom middle of the photo above and up close here, the Black 24V Starter is now fully installed and connected.  Two Red cables as one is from the twin FireFly G31 starter batteries and the other cable can connect the starter to the massive House Battery Bank in case the starter batteries should ever not be working.

Beauty & the Beast’s Love Child?

Take note in the 2 photos above of how Gardner attaches the starter to the massive cast aluminium crankcase with that silver strap and you can see in this illustration from the 6LXB Parts Manual how they attached the standard Gardner alternator in the same way over on the opposite side.

I wanted to mount Big Red #2, which is what I’ve come to call the second Electrodyne alternator, to the same place that Gardner used but would Big Red fit?  Only one way to find out; try it!  As did Gardner, I first made 2 shims from some AL 10mm plate to adjust the radius of the cast in place ribs to match Big Red’s 188mm / 7.4” outside diameter and bolted them in place as you can see here.
Here is an uncluttered straight on shot of the mounting base for Big Red #2.  Fuel pump bowl in the upper Left corner, bottom of the cast AL injection pump running across the top and you can see the two “nubbins” where the hinge pin will slide through to hold the forked bolt that tightens the flat strap to cinch the alternator up tight.
That forked bolt is part # 11/19/20 in the illustration above but with Big Red being a bit on the Beastly side of the girth scale the original forked bolt was too short so I whipped up this new larger and longer version out of some SS plate and threaded rod.
I fashioned the fork out of a small block of SS and tapped it for a M10 threaded rod and threaded the two together.  A SS nut to lock it in place and then for added safety and strength I thought it best to TIG weld the nut and threaded rod to the fork.
I will give you that I can be given to some hyperbole and eXaggeration from time to time but I think you need to give me that it is no eXaggeration to suggest that “shoehorn fit” describes this situation?!!
Each GE 250-24 Electrodyne alternator tips the scales at 40 kg/88 lbs and so again I will make my case that calling these Red Beauties Beasts is also no mere Hodgins Hyperbole!
As you might imagine, I had to take Big Red #2 in and out quite a few times as I adjusted its position and tested out the strap mounting setup to get that all to work out and still  clear everything.  Fortunately and as I’ll explain in a bit, took advantage of the fact that I had to take these alternators apart so I was able to cut their weight down quite a bit which made all my test mounting a bit less muscle building.
With the alternator temporarily held in place with some wood blocks I could test out the fit of this Black strap which is has a 10mm / 3/8” pin that slides through the bottom as you can see in the illustration above and the bottom of this photo. 

Up at the top you can see the nut on the end of the upper forked bolt what cinches the alternator tight up against the radiused ribs you saw earlier.

I am close here BUT the large copper wires that carry the AC current out of the alternator need to come through that hole in the case across from my fingers, so I need to nudge it forward a wee bit more so the strap clears the hole.
Oh, and I also need to make sure that the length of this Jack Shaft with U-joints on each end that I am retrofitting to drive Big Red #2 from the Gardner PTO (Power Take Off) on the Left here.

(click to enlarge any photo)

I’m getting ahead of myself a bit so let me stop and provide a quick overview of these Electrodyne E 250-24 alternators that I’ve chosen to use and mount on Mr. Gee which I think will help you see how they truly are the Goldilocks combination or “Love Child” of Beauty and the Beast. 
In addition to these basic specs my primary reasons for choosing these Electrodyne brutes include:

• truly rugged “beastly” construction and weighing in at 40kg / 88 lbs each
• Beautiful simplicity with only one moving part, the stator shaft and no moving electrical parts
• More simplicity being Brushless with no brushes and no brush springs
• One piece steel “double ended” housing with TWO alternators; one at each end.
• Remote Rectifier which moves most of the performance robbing heat outside the ER
• eXceptional life with 20,000 hours  between recommended servicing

Here is what one looks like in real life.  The box on top is simply a junction box where the 6 (3 from each alternator)AC current carrying wires emerge from inside the alternator body and connect to six large cables that go to the remote rectifiers outside the ER in the Workshop.
I ordered these alternators directly from Electrodyne in Oklahoma almost 2 years ago and spent a LOT of time with Dale Gould who is the Operations Manager at Electrodyne and he has been truly fabulous to work with on every level from getting these beasts built to the specs we decided upon, getting them shipped to me (not as easy as it sounds) and even creating little how to videos to show me how to do the alterations I needed on my end.  Can’t thank Dale and his team enough nor recommend them more highly to you.

In the interim, I ended up changing how and where I was going to mount these two beastly beauties on Mr. Gee and so I now needed change the location of these Junction Boxes from where I had originally asked Dale to position them.  Not a big deal and I always welcome any chance to get “up close and personal” with every bit of kit on Möbius as I’m also the guy that needs to maintain everything and keep us up an running at all times in all conditions.
The aluminium Junction Boxes are bolted to the steel housing and to reposition them I needed to re-drill and tap (thread) four new holes for the new position. 

First step was to remove the two pressed on aluminium ROTORS which have all the permanent magnets embedded in them and rotate around a few millimeters away from the stationary Stator coils you see here.
With the Non-Drive end Rotor off I could now remove the Rotor on the Drive end by pressing out it and its shaft from the internal hub and bearings inside the case.
This close up of the inside of the AL Rotor let’s you see how all the permanent magnets such as the two I’m pointing at here, are embedded into the AL Rotor.
I know this is riveting Show & Tell for so many of you, NOT! but the disassembly goes pretty quickly from here so I’ll speed through the process even faster for you from here.

Top Lid comes off the Junction Box enabling me to disconnect all the wires from their studs in the sides of the Junction Box body.
Each set of Stator windings, one at each end, can now be unbolted and …….
…… pulled off of their tight fit to the central hub inside the housing allowing me to now carefully pull the three large gauge solid copper wires and terminals out through the holes in the housing one at a time.
One end Stator windings removed, ready to spin around and do the same to remove the Stator windings on the other end.

Removing 4 Allen head bolts, one seen in the bottom Right here, let’s me remove each Junction Box.
Full dis-assembled now!

Possibly resembling Dr. Frankenstein’s workbench I am already LOVING my new Workshop and all 11 meters of workbenches!
I marked the new location of the Junction Boxes with felt pen and so now it was a simple matter of lining up the 2 holes in the bottom of the Junction Box with the new holes in the housing and clamping them in position.  I could then use the 4 bolt holes in the Junction Box as a template to mark the corresponding center marks to drill into the housing.
I had carefully taped off all access to the inside of the housing to prevent any metal chips or dust from getting inside and it was a bit tricky to drill the 4 holes into the housing at this angle but it worked out fine and I could then cut the 10-32 threads into the housing with my tap set.
And now re-attach the Junction Box in its new permanent location on the housing with the 4 Allen head bolts you see here in each corner of the Junction Box.
The trickiest part of the reassembly was fishing the thick stiff solid copper wires back through the hole in the Junction Box and housing as they just barely have enough room to fit through and the hole is behind the Stator windings, but it all went smoothly and I soon had all 6 Stator wires and both Field Wires all back in place and ready to connect to their awaiting studs in the sides of the Junction Box
One done; one to go!

But I need to wait to mount the Junction Box on the lower Big Red #2 on the side of Mr. Gee as you saw above because I need to strap it in first and THEN I can bolt the Junction Box to the housing OVER TOP of the strap.
As you can see, all my trial and fit had made a bit of a mess so I needed to put back some of the Beauty into these two Beasts with a good sanding and repainting.
I just happened to have this short little Jack Shaft left over from another project and in a lovely stroke of synchronicity it worked out to be the Goldilocks solution to drive Big Red #2 from the gear driven PTO on Mr. Gee.  So it needed a matching paint job as well.
With all the openings and AL rotors all plugged and masked off it didn’t take me long to shoot these with three coats of Red International “Perfection” epoxy. 
Although it was not the ideal shade of Red, a bit on the orangey side ….
…… they definately looked better than when I started and were now all ready to be installed onto Mr. Gee. 

Hopefully Dale and all his team at Electrodyne will like what he sees too.

Now let’s quickly get onto the mounting of Big Red #2!!

I will try to mount BR#1 next week so stay tuned for more scintillating story telling then!
By now I was getting pretty quick at mounting BR#2 to the side of Mr. Gee and I wanted to do one final test fit of the Junction Box to double check that everything really did clear.
To my absolute joy and delight everything just barely cleared!  Click to enlarge this photo or any other and you can see how close some of those fits are.
If you look closely you will see that there are a LOT of close fits! 
I think this must be some polar opposite of Murphey’s Law where the stars align and every close fit actually cleared!

Fortunately for me, mounting Big Red #2 on that upper flat pad you saw earlier will be a breeze compared to this one and I hope to get that done next week and will show you the results.

CHAING STOPPER:

Up at the Bow on the Anchor Deck, we needed to install this latest bit of boat jewellery; our gleaming solid SS Lewmar 13mm Chain Stopper!

It is a very simple system that can become eXtremely critical if your snubber line breaks in a big storm and you need to have a way to “for sure” hold your anchor chain to the boat no matter what.  Yes, ask me how I know!
Uğur and I quickly sketched up the design we thought would work best to solidly bolt this Chain Stopper to the deck framing and he had it all fabricated out of 20mm / 3/4” AL plate and was welding it to the Anchor Deck plate.
Simple arched platform that elevates the Chain Stopper to be at the correct height of the chain as it comes off the gypsy chainwheel on the Maxwell VWC 4000 windlass and then the Chain Stopper is through bolted with 4 M16 SS bolts and nuts.
A bit of Blue Threadlocker to make sure these never come loose but are still easy enough to unbolt if ever needed.
One more “little but important” job done and checked off the list.

ELECTRICAL WORK:

Hilmi was a welcome addition back on Team Möbius this week and he was right into the same theme of completing many more of those little but important electrical jobs.

He started with this one; putting in the connections for Mr. Gee’s two G31 FireFly Carbon Foam starter batteries.

First Hilmi mounted the Red Start Battery Shut Off Switch and ran the cables from there to the Battery Box locations.
Each battery will be enclosed in it’s own dedicated plastic battery box and mounted at the very far end of the Stbd/Right side wing of the Workshop underneath the Day Tank and up against the WT Bulkhead there.

They go forward another 40cm/16” from here and their lids just clear the 127mm/5” rubber exhaust hose that runs overtop of them.

Now time to tame all these electrical snakes slithering out of the Engine Room!
One of the best features of our decision to put in a dedicated Engine Room enclosure is that we can keep this an “Engine only” Engine Room and locate almost everything else OUTSIDE the ER where they are much cooler, easier to access, less likely to be exposed in the case of fire and much easier to comply with all the ABYC and CE fire safety requirements. 

No batteries, no electronics, no fuel filters or tanks; nothing but Mr. Gee and his immediate systems such as heat exchangers and exhaust.

What wires we do need to bring inside the ER, mostly for the Electrodyne alternators, come through this one penetration under the floor of the same Stbd wing of the Workshop on the other side of this photo.
Hilmi takes it all in stride as usual and he, Ramadan and Cihan soon have the new cable trays in place ……
…… and start routing and fastening the cables in place alongside …….
…….  and then under Mr. Gee.

Cihan does EXHAUSTING WORK!

Möbius’ Engine Room was a busy place this week as Cihan and Ramadan installed the Halyard Exhaust System which has been patiently waiting its turn down on the shop floor underneath Möbius for many months now.

As you might have noticed in some of the photos above, I had already installed the flexible SS woven mesh that bolts vertically to the aft end of Mr. Gee’s exhaust manifold.

So the fist part of the “dry” section of the Halyard Exhaust components to go in was the75mm/ 3” ID vertical SS riser you see here rising up here in the lower Right corner.

The two “wings” on this riser are where the two support rods will connect down to Mr. Gee to help stabilise them.
My personal favorite bit of kit from Halyard is this beautifully crafted and polished SS water injection elbow which Cihan is assembling to its silicone bellows.
Peering down for an inside view, you can see how the water jets are all distributed evenly around the inner circumference and make sure there is a very even spray and mixing of the seawater that is pumped through them with the exhaust gases exiting Mr. Gee. 

This is where the exhaust changes from dry to wet and where most of the noise and the heat is removed by the mixing of the seawater and the exhaust gases.
Simple job now for Cihan to slide the soaped up silicone bellows to the awaiting downward angled 127mm / 5” pipe on the Halyard “Combi” Silencer/Separator that has previously been mounted on its dedicated shelf on the front ER WT Bulkhead wall.
Almost a year ago now, Yigit and I had spent several months working with Oliver and his team of engineers at Halyard HQ in the UK to design this Goldilocks Exhaust System for XPM78-01 Möbius.  Together we exchanged countless 3D models that we were each creating and so it was wonderful to see this all fall into place like an accurately cut jig saw puzzle.
Even Cihan, who has installed countless exhaust systems in the many other yachts he has worked on was very impressed and asked “How did you DO that??!!”
With everything dry fitted and checked Cihan and Ramadan could now tighten up all the connecting bolts and SS hose clamps.

Using plenty of Tef-Gel on all threads of course!
All that remained to be done was install the three rubber hoses needed to complete this Goldilocks exhaust system.  Over on the far Left side is the Black 75mm/3” ID hose that quickly takes all the seawater in the bottom of the Silencer/Separator down to the dedicated AL pipe welded into the exiting Sea Chest and out to sea.

Next over to the Right is the White hose that delivers the fresh cold seawater up to the inlet pipe on that SS mixing elbow.

And then the large 127mm/5” ID Black hose transports the now cool and quiet exhaust gases from the Combi down and over to the AL pipe welded into the Stbd ER wall where it then connects to another short length of the same rubber exhaust hose and out the similarly welded in place AL exhaust exit pipe in the hull just above the WL.

DIVINE DINETTE TABLE & PEDESTAL SYSTEM:

Last I have time to cover in this week’s Show & Tell is yet another bit of boat jewellery and Rosewood; our Dinette Table!

It was love at first sight for me about 2 years ago when I first spotted this Triton Deluxe 2-stage table pedestal at the Zwaardvis booth at the big METS Marine Trade conference every year (except this one of course) in Amsterdam.

This is the fully lowered position which lowers the surface of the table to be flush with the surrounding seats where it can then become an additional Queen bed on those rare occasions when we have more quests, or more likely more Grandkids aboard than can be accommodated in the 2 beds in the Guest Cabin.
Simply rotate those 2 SS handles and the air assist gas cylinder inside pushes the pedestal up to proper eating/working table height.
But WAIT!  There’s MORE!

Check out that Kissin’ Cousin from Zwaardvis sitting to the side of the Triton pedestal!

This is the Triton T-System X-Move slider which allows you to slide the table top 200mm / 8” in the X or Y, Fore/Aft or Left/Right direction
by simply pulling this lever which mounts under the table.  In the normal “fixed” position that little rectangular rubber pad on the Right is pressed up against the underside of the table and locks the table in whatever position you want.  Pulling the hand pulls the rubber down allowing you to push/pull the table wherever you want and then release the lever to lock in that position.  Brilliant!
Over in the Cabinetry shop Ramadan #2, our newest Cabinetmaker has been busy building the Dinette Table top I designed.  Very simple and sturdy, it has 50mm/2” thick solid Ro$ewood edges surrounding a Rosewood laminated plywood table top.
Ramadan cut this hardboard template so we could try it in place in the Dinette on the Triton pedestal and slider and check out the clearances with the table in all its different X, Y and Z positions.
Once we had it just right, he was able to laminate both sides of some 20mm/ 3/4” marine plywood …..
……. with Rosewood veneer in the lovely heated laminating press they have here at Naval.
Mitre all the corners of the solid edging.
Cut the biscuit joints and the glue and clamp it all ….
to create a single solid table top.

All ready to have the large radii shaped into all these solid edges, sanding, filling and varnishing and I will soon be able to show you this next bit of beautiful art work aboard the good ship Möbius.
Well as usual I have much more to show you but I’m pooped, swollen and hungry as it is now after 21:00 here in Antalya on Sunday night so I’m going to call it quits for tonight and be back with much more next week.

Thanks SO much for taking time to get this far and join us on this grand adventure.  As always we REALLY appreciate you adding any and all comments and questions in the “Join the Discussion” box below so don’t be bashful now!  Your feedback is invaluable and VERY much appreciated.

Hope to see you here again next week.

– Wayne