This is an advanced notice that I a going to start posting some new type of articles here on our Möbius.World blog which will be different from and in addition to the typical Weekly Update posts I do to cover the incredible work that Team Möbius does each week. I have previously posted some more technical articles like this about things like the overview of the the design and use case for our new boat and the one on Mr. Gee our Gardner 6LXB main engine and a few other such topics since we started this blog almost two years ago and with growing requests for these detailed technical explanatory type articles I will be doing my best to increase the frequency of these kinds of posts now..
These new articles will be different in that they will be “Tech Talks” where I can go into more detail on all the various systems on the XPM boats and explain my logic such as it is for the design of these systems, reasons for choosing the equipment we have and how these systems will be installed and maintained. I will do my best to make these “as Show & Tell” as possible with illustrations and diagrams, and possibly some video versions, but by their nature these will be more text based explanations compared to the more visual orientation of the Weekly Progress Updates. Hopefully it will be a good contrast and combination for you and if not I’m counting on you to let me know!
It is also my hope that by separating these more explanatory and detailed technical discussions from the more visual Show & Tell type of Weekly Progress Updates, you will be able to more easily chose what suites you best. And I hope those of you who are interested in these deep dives into the technical aspects of the XPM boats will chime in with your comments and questions to help me cover the topics you are most interested in and provide the Goldilocks not too much, not too little type of content that you would value and which will provoke more discussion for all of us.
Before I go any further and as I will likely repeat several times in the articles to follow, let me be very clear about the context and conditions of these articles:
- These are NOT recommendations on what YOU or any other boat owners should do or equipment you should buy.
- I am NOT suggesting that our choices are “the best” I merely hope to explain OUR (Christine and my) logic and why we believe that these are the Goldilocks “just right, just for us” choices in the design, installation and equipment aboard XPM78-01 Möbius.
- These articles are intended to generate lots of questions, suggestions, and ideas. Indeed this is the primary purpose and value of these articles, so don’t be shy! I only ask that you keep the above two notes in mind and of course keep the discussion respectful, polite and on topic.
- Please keep in mind that the overriding context for ALL these articles, choices and equipment selection is for an XPM style of boat and use case which is an eXtreme eXploration Passage Maker for a crew of two, typically a couple who want to be able to go to remote locations on all latitudes from polar to equatorial with equally eXtreme degrees of Safety, Comfort, Efficiency and low maintenance and where the boat will be their full time or primary home.
- I hope to learn as much as you do by writing these Tech Talks and more so by responding to your comments and provoking more good discussions. In doing so we can all contribute to the wealth of information and knowledge already out there for all of us to access and learn from.
- Unlike the Weekly Progress Update articles I will edit these Tech Talk posts over time as decisions or equipment changes and as I get more information along the way. For these posts there will be two dates for each one, the date it was first published and the date it was last updated/edited.
I will create some new tags for these different type of postings to make your future searches more productive and right now my intent is to write articles on most of the following primary systems and topics:
ELECTRICAL
- AC SYSTEM
- DC SYSTEM
- Batteries
- Charging
- Solar
- NMEA
- Lighting
- Screens, Monitors, Displays
NAVIGATION
- Charting
- RADAR
- AIS
- Compass
- DEPTH & SONAR
- Onboard Computers
- Portable Helm Station
BOAT MONITORING
- Maretron System
- Tank Levels
- Temperatures
- Electrical status
- Alarms
- Boat Data Logging
COMMUNICATIONS
- VHF
- SATELLITE
- WiFi & CELLULAR
- Networks
PROPULSION
- Gardner main engine
- Nogva CPP servo gearbox
- Nogva CPP propeller
- Propulsion Controls
- Cooling
- Wet Exhaust
STEERING
- Steering controls
- Hydraulic steering components
- Auto Pilot
- Jog Levers
- Steering Back ups
- Bow Thruster
STABILISATION
- Paravanes
- Flopper Stoppers
- Rigging
HVAC
- Heating
- Ventilation
- Air Conditioning
- Engine Room venting
WATER
- Fresh/Potable
- Watermaker
- Salt
- Black
- Gray
FUEL
- Tanks, Filling & Venting
- Filtering
- Centrifuge Polishing (Alfa Laval)
- Transferring
- Hoses & Fittings
BILGES
- Low volume
- High volume
- Emergency
FIRE & SAFETY
- Fire extinguishing systems
- Underwater maintenance
- Drone
- Exterior Lighting
- Cameras
GALLEY
- All electric cooking
- Sinks
- Refrigeration
- Storage drawers & Garages
- Outside Galley & BBQ
ANCHORING & GROUND TACKLE
- Main anchor & Windlass
- Stern & Kedging anchor
- Ground Tackle
WORKSHOP
- Tools
- Equipment
BOAT DESIGN & PERFORMANCE
- Hull Design
- Stability
- Handling Characteristics
- Performance Expectations
Whew! Already a long list but if there are other large topics or systems you would like to have covered, please send me what you think I’ve missed in the “Join the Discussion” box below and I’ll do my best to add these to the list and cover as time permits.
And please note that this is NOT a promise that I will be able to write about all of the above or at least to do so fully but it is my intent to cover as many of these topics as fully as I can in all my “spare time” during the building of mv Möbius.
And NO I am NOT interested in or trying to write a book! We already have an author onboard who writes best selling books, also known by her nom de plume Christine Kling and aka Captain Christine and my Beautiful Bride so we’ve got the book writing aspect covered eXtremely well already thanks.
Looking forward to writing these Tech Talk articles and getting your suggestions and ideas as these new discussions begin.
– Wayne
Looking forward to it!
Thanks for such prompt and positive feedback Seth et al, much appreciated and motivating. Stay tuned ………………………….
Bring it on!
Great Wayne! Looking forward to reading these articles. The one I am most interested in right now is your stabilization equipment. I have been looking at gyros stabilization and also active fins, I want to hear what you chose and why you chose that particular form of equipment.
Hi Orville. Yes, stabilisation is on the list as you see and there will be lots more about that once we start building the paravane A-Frames and rigging. Our current plan is still to go with passive paravanes at launch rather than active. Lots of reasons but staying with our KISS approach and budget are up at the top. However we have looked long and hard at active stabilizers of all types and continue to research them, talk with manufacturers and with those who have first hand experience with them all. Gyros don’t fit our use case with their relatively high electrical power requirements and noise but both of those are improving as new models are developed so worth keeping an eye on. Fins are quite well known and we’ve talked with all the major suppliers and know them pretty well. If we were going to install active stabilization right now we would go with a Magnus Effect types such as those from DMSHolland or RotoSwing. These fit our use case very with relatively low and electric rather than hydraulic power requirements and retractability to keep them out of the way even in waters with icy bits or coral and such to hit.
As you may recall, we had Dennis design the hull to have active stabilizers so all the framing, sealed coffer dams, etc. are all in place already and will be a relatively quick install should we decide to put them in. At present though we are going to try using the paravanes for at least the first year and get first hand experience with them and decide if they are working well for us or if we’d like to add active stabilization.
I’ll do my best to cover all of that once we start building the paravane system and also cover the more technical details in one of the Tech Talks. If you have specific questions before these get published please put them into the discussion and I can respond to those too.
-Wayne
What about discussing the Naval Architecture – hull shape, propellor optimisation, tank test (!), predicted performance, floating point, stability, self righting – could you discuss what process you went through to ensure this was right before you started? How do you know the big prop wont suck air, or the boat will steer straight, or it is stable, or what speed/consumption to expect, or how it will handle big seas up or down wind …. big fundamental issues that you must have gone through???? I guess many production boat builders have a history of boats to work from – we need a 65ft, lets just scale up a 55ft and tweak it here and there. You started with a clean sheet and a more extreme use profile, what did you do to make sure you got the basic naval architecture right? Thanks
Made Christine and me smile reading your question Nigel as we were discussing adding this kind of topic and discussion to the Tech Talk list yesterday when Christine asked similar questions of me. My initial reaction was to not cover this topic as it is not an area I have any expertise or qualifications in and I don’t know that I have much of value to add to what other experts in these fields already have out there and published. But heck, it is probably true about all the other topics on the Tech Talk list so why not?! 🙂 Indeed I now think I should probably add a standard disclaimer section to each Tech Talk article to clarify that I am NOT expert in any of these topics and really don’t know what I’m doing and so all my writings need to be taken with this in mind.
However you articulate the case for covering this topic very well Nigel and as with my caveats for all the Tech Talk articles being strictly with the context of explaining what “just right, just for us” and in no way a suggestion that our way is the best way nor that we are making any recommendations as to what others should do, I see your point how it would be interesting and of value to you and others to know more of the details of the process we went through in designing the hull and overall boat performance with Dennis Harjamaa our brilliant NA/designer at Artnautica Yacht Designs in Auckland, NZ and I have now added this to the list of Tech Talk topics I’ll try to cover.
What I think I can offer is to cover as you noted the “big fundamental issues” that we went through and answer the kinds of questions you asked as to how we did the various calculations. As you understand we have designed this boat from a completely “clean sheet” and you’d get quite a kick out of seeing some of the very early sketches we started with. And though we have LOTS of other boats, builders and designers who we have learned from and influenced many of our decisions, XPM78-01 will be true to those numbers being the very first build and so the reality is that we don’t “know” much at all for sure until we launch and can start gathering real data which we will be doing a LOT of right from the first launch through the life of the boat as we will have a data logger running the whole time recording every data point multiple times per hour, some per minute and logging that all in the overall boat database. I can also tell you that we did not do any actual tank testing so all our testing has been “virtual” using the 3D models of the boat and then analytic software programs to run the various tests and scenarios. We did this kind of testing throughout the design process and have continued to do more during the build process as we made changes during the build. A recent example was our decision to change the battery type, weights and location, more on this in the first Tech Talk on XPM Electrical Systems, so we updated the model and ran the hydrodynamic and stability tests again to see how the new model reacted compared to the previous. This allowed us to tweak the changes a bit and the overall changes ended up improving all the test results as well as giving us a better battery bank so it was a typical win-win for all on Team Möbius.
Hope that helps to give you a bit of insight into the naval architecture and engineering perspective on the design and build of XPM78-01 aka Möbius to tide you over till I can write up a Tech Talk or two to address all this in more detail.
And more so thanks for the thoughtful questions and suggestions and making such a good case for adding this topic Nigel.
-Wayne
Hiding in the bushes, waiting to pounce for a romp. Romps are good for the growth of all living things.
Counting on you John! Here’s to some fun romps for all of us here.