Summer has definately arrived here in Antalya Turkey and it has been a glorious week both weather and progress wise on XPM78-01 Möbius at Naval Yachts.  Our daytime highs are now all in the low to mid 30’s (85-95F), the huge outdoor pool at our apartment is filled and open and we have a lovely breeze blowing through our 9th story apartment pretty much all the time.

You’ll need to scroll way down if you really need to know what this week’s title reference to marbles is all about but for now let’s jump right into this week’s Show & Tell of all the progress Team Möbius has made this past week of June 22-26, 2020.

PLUMBING:

Master Plumber Cihan, sporting his new post-Covid haircut was his usual productive self this past week so let’s catch up wtih some of his work next.

He spent some of his time crammed into this very busy Aft Stbd/Right corner of the Basement where a LOT of his previous work installing all the many hoses for Fuel, Potable, Grey and Black Water meet up. 

Exiting Sea Chest in the middle foreground in the above photo where this Medusa like collection of clear hoses now attached to the Flute style manifold. 

Here is a better view of all the hoses underneath of Cihan in the first photo above.  Black two no the Right are Fuel Fill & Vent lines, flanked by two large White hoses for the Grey Water tank below.

White hose going into the side of the Sea Chest is for emptying Black Water Tank.  Large Grey PVC pipe up on the ceiling are Extraction Vent Ducts for the Battery Compartments and the Basement.
White tank just visible on the Right above and here on the Left, is a 150L / 40USG emergency fresh water tank that is completely independent of all the 7100L / 1875UG of Fresh water in the integral hull water tanks.

Cihan has this tank plumbed to be filled from the main Fresh Water manifold on the output of the 150LPH / 40GPH Delfin Watermaker as is the case for ALL our built in fresh water tanks that are built integral to the aluminium hull framing and hold a total of 7100L / 1875 USG.

The tank is then plumbed to a second Cold water only faucet on the Galley Sink which sits directly above this aft Stbd Basement corner.
Back in the Workshop Cihan was busy installing this SS sink in the Workbench on the Aft Port/Left side.
Wherever possible we use PEX tubing and fittings like these for all our water lines as it is SO superior to anything else.  Easy to work with and route, continuous lengths with no joint or connections, push-on fittings which in my experience almost never leak and all plastic construction so no corrosion issues.
Sink now sealed into the Workbench with Blue PEX tubing all ready for installing the Cold water lines.  Faucet installed and ready for connections.
Drain lines installed, Hot & Cold SS lines ready for their connections.
Here is where this Sink is located back near the air compressor and the sides of the HazMat locker.
More PEX goodness with these simple manifolds built from Push-On PEX valves and T’s.
Following the Blue/Cold PEX tube and the Red, now sheathed in Black EPDM insulation foam, you can see how easy PEX tubing is to route.
The H&C PEX lines continue forward to this tray where they turn 90 degrees to run across the ceiling overtop of the walkway in the front of the Workshop to the WT Door into the Corridor.
The go through this penetration at the top of the ER Enclosure on their way to that vertical penetration you see in the background where they will go up to the other SS Sink in the Outdoor Galley inside the Port/Left Vent Box.
Labeled layout of the Outdoor Galley to help visualize this area.

Primary purpose of these two Vent Boxes on the Aft Deck is to provide ducting and Mist Eliminators for the Supply & Extraction Air for the Engine Room and Workshop but we also used these as the foundations for the Outdoor Galley.
Adding all the hoses for the sink water and drain along with the drain for the Mist Eliminator requires some new access holes be cut into the Sink compartment on that Port Vent Box. 
Cihan is at least as highly skilled in aluminum work making all our brackets and access ports so he made short work of cutting in the new access ports for these water lines going In/Out of the Upper Front compartment of this Port Vent Box.

This allows him to bring the Hot & Cold PEX lines up to the faucet on the Sink that fits into this compartment.  Each PEX line has its own Push-On shut off valve on each end and the hoses from the faucet will connect to these.
Not to be left out, this small Blue drain pipe from the Mist Eliminators in the ER Intake Air vent will cross over through that round penetration on the Left and ………
…….. join up with the Hot & Cold PEX lines over here under the Outdoor Galley sink going down into the Engine Room which you saw up in the photos above.
The interior of this Port Vent Boxes is divided up into four compartments and it gets a bit busy in here with all the various bits and bobs of plumbing, ducting, sinks, etc. so I thought this labeled shot of the Upper Aft compartment of the Port Vent Box might help keep things straight.
Switching from water to hydraulic fluid/oil, Cihan did a great job of running the 28m/60’ of hydraulic hose it required to get from the Accu-Steer pumps at the very aft end of the boat up to this area below the dashboard of our Main Helm where they connect to this Kobelt manual hydraulic steering pump.

The Black Block in the background upper Right corner is for the connection to the small header tank that mounts up inside the Helm Station upper Right corner.

This manual steering pump has a traditional steering wheel which we can slide onto the SS shaft you see here just in case we should ever experience complete loss of ……
……. our doubly redundant Accu-Steer HPU400 powered hydraulic steering pumps which Cihan has also pretty much finished plumbing.

Aluminium Work:

Let’s start with the first Quiz Question for you;

Can you guess what these new aluminium pieces that Nihat and Uğur are working on will become?
We will soon have these aluminium stairs to get In/Out of the Basement!  Up to now we just had a set of makeshift wooden stairs left over from another job which worked well enough but these new aluminium ones will be much steadier and easier to get in and out.
Uğur soon has them all welded and cleaned up and bolted in place up at the top.  He also added some nylon “shoes” on the bottom to keep them quiet where they sit on top of the Battery Compartment lid.
Everyone on Team Möbius gave them a quick test and thumbs up all around.
Seen from directly up above you can see how they sit.  Normally there will be an aluminium hinged lid with a gas assist strut and the finished flooring on top so you won’t even know this hatch is there but a quick pull will open up the lid and let you safely climb in and out of the cavernous Basement whenever needed.
With the stairs all done they quickly moved on to the next aluminum item on the To Do list.  Any guess what this 25mm thick AL plate they have just brought over is about to become?
Uğur starts cutting out the different shapes which might give you some clues but this is a tough one to guess at I think.
These are the mounting brackets for the six anti vibration mounts, two on either side of the front and two on the rear of the Gardner engine which is not shown here and will be on the Left.  Then two for Left/Right side of the Red Nogva CPP Servo box. 

This is a quick screen grab from the Fusion 360 3D model I created while designing each of the six mounting brackets.  Just showing three Port/Left side mounts and brackets here.

The two sloped 25mm / 1” thick Beds you see top and bottom run lengthwise down each side of the Engine Room as part of the hull and the six flexible motor mounts will connect to each individual mounting bracket bolted to the Gardner and the Nogva CPP.

Zooming to show the Front Gardner bracket on the upper Left which bolts to the front side of the Gardner and then the Rear Gardner mount on the Right.
Looking at the other side of the Front Gardner bracket to show the added extension to the Bed for the flexible motor mount to bolt to and the additional 25mm vertical gussets I’ve added below to ensure this is rock solid.
At the aft end the flexible mount for the Nogva serves double duty being both a mount to share the load of the overall Gardner/Nogva solid assembly as well as being a thrust bearing to deal with the fore and aft forces transmitted by the propeller shaft as it drives the boat forward and reverse.

As shown here, this bracket needed to be designed to fit below the Beds to provide a solid Base Plate for the mount to bolt to.
My hand will help give you a sense of size and scale of these pieces, this one being the vertical gusset for the rear Nogva mounting bracket.
As you can see in the model, I’ve kept the shapes all very simple geometry so Uğur had all the individual pieces cut in a few hours on Friday afternoon.

Mr. Gee:

Designing all these mounting brackets took up most of my waking hours this past week as the tolerances are pretty tight and I had to get them all just right so I didn’t get any time to work on Mr. Gee himself BUT I can give you a sneak peek at this beauty which I unboxed for the first time since it arrived direct from Gardner Marine Diesels. 

I’ll leave you to ponder just what this strange looking contraption is and tell you all about it next week.

ELECTRICAL:

Our lead Sparkie/Electrician Hilmi was as busy as ever this week too.  Seen here and below he has added four more of the little Black LED dimmer controls ……..
………….. inside the lighting junction box in the Upper center here inside the Guest Cabin.
Down in the Basement inside the Main DC Distribution Box he has mocked up this layout for the three Shunts that connect to the three Victron BMV712 Smart Battery Monitors which are so critical to a Battery Based Boat.

Now that the layout is finalised Hilmi can now replace the two copper tie strips with full size 50 x 10mm copper bars to provide the necessary ampacity for the 900 Amps from Bank A & B and the total 1800 Amps connecting to the Main Negative Bus Bar at the bottom.

With thanks to several of you who pointed out typos this is the basic schematic of the overall Electrical System on XPM78-01 Möbius where you can see how these three Shunts connect.
Hilmi spent quite a bit of time this past week installing all these Red/Pos & Black/Neg cables coming in/out of the Main DC Distribution Box where they connect to either the Lower Negative or Upper Positive copper Bus Bars or to one of the many rotary switches.
As with the other Distribution Boxes this Main one in the Basement is quickly filling up with all the individual cables, switches, fuses, circuit breakers and remote relays.
The last and perhaps most exciting jobs that Hilmi worked on this week is all the indirect LED lighting strips that go into the toe kicks underneath all the cabinetry and some up along the Blue Horizon Line BHL Handholds throughout the boat.
The colours are way off due to the influence of the overhead work lights but you can imagine how great this will look at night and how much of a safety factor this will be whenever we are walking around on night passages with these all fully dimmed.

Every light on the boat is LED and all the interior lights are on full dimmers so we can have the Goldilocks just right brightness at all times.

MASTER CABIN:

Moving on to interior cabinetry let’s work our way from front to back starting with the Master Cabin.

As you may recall from past weekly posts Omur & Selim had finished the Rosewood Hatch Liners and this week they got round to installing them into the inner aluminium hatch frames.

This is one of the matched pairs over our Bed and you can see the one in the Shower & Head in the background.
Here’s what it looks like when finished.
Same routine for this one overtop of the center Vanity sink at the very front of the Master Cabin against the front WT Bulkhead.
Another part you’ve seen being built in past weeks, these Ro$ewood vent grills are now in place on these two steps up to the landing on the Port/Left side of the Master Bed.  These two grills supply air to the AirCon/Heating Air Handler under that sits inside the cabinet on the Upper Left here.

GUEST CABIN:

Moving all the way back to the Guest Cabin these “hairs” can mean just one thing; the Guest Shower is getting glassed in.  Same method as they did in the Master Cabin Shower, the interior marine plywood walls first receive this first layer of fiberglass mesh and resin to fully seal and tie together the walls, ceiling and floor.
This creates the foundation for the next step which is to cover all these surfaces with thin 3mm thick sheets of fiberglass they have laid up in a mold in the Composite Shop with one surface being smooth shiny White gelcoat that becomes the interior finish.  Then corner joints are filled and sanded to a nice radius and the whole thing polished to a glass smooth finish.

We much prefer this built in place method rather than building the whole shower as in a mold in the workshop and then bringing that onto the boat as a large single piece.  Doing so requires that you put these shower and bathroom units in while the hull is being built and before the decks go on which in our case would have been almost 2 years ago.  Doing it this way, we can build them in place at this much later stage of the overall build when all the metalworking and other major construction dust is finished.

SuperSalon:

Up, up, up we go to the ceiling of the SuperSalon which Omur & Selim mostly completed this week.  These outer ceiling panels that form the Soffit that runs around the whole outer perimeter of the SuperSalon are now all finished and snapped into their FastMount fittings on the Black Soffit grids.
All of the ceilings above the Main Helm station at the very front of the SuperSalon are finished in Black leather to help reduce glare and reflections when we are on night passages so you peer thought the protective plastic covering which has a blue tint to it, you can make out that the forward three ceiling panels over the Main Helm itself and this Soffit Ceiling Panel are all Black leather.  The next row of ceiling panels extending over to the Left will also be Black Leather and then they all switch to White for the rest of the way back.
Omur came up with this nice L shaped edge treatment of the Soffit panels which adds a nice touch to the overall ceiling we think. 
The White sockets in the phot above are the female FastMounts where the matching male components here on the Left in this Soffit ceiling panels click into.  It is a very slick system that holds the ceiling panels very solidly and quietly in place and yet can be popped out in seconds anything you need to access what’s behind them.
The two aft most Soffit Ceiling panels have these Rosewood grills set into them for the eXtraction behind them to pull all the fresh air through from the front of the SuperSalon and out to the Aft Deck.
I wasn’t fast enough to get a phot before they upholstered these Soffit panels with their White leather and then covered them with protective blue tinted plastic but you can use a bit of imagination to see how these two aft corners will look when fully finished.

This grill is on the rear Port/Left corner with the Entryway Door out onto the Aft Deck just visible in the Upper Left.
Our lead upholsterer is eXtremely good and fast and here are a couple of sequenced photos I grabbed to show how he covers all those Ceiling panels. 

Hole in the middle is precut for the LED light that will be installed here and the holes around the outer edges are predrilled for all the FastMount pins to thread into.

The upside down White epoxy covered marine plywood ceiling panel is placed on top of upside down White Leather and the four corners are folded and fastened with SS staples using a very sweet little pneumatic staple gun.
Then pop! pop! Pop! before you can blink each edge is folded, stretched tightly around the edge and stapled in place.
Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!

Rinse and repeat and one more panel is ready to be taken out to Möbius and snapped into the awaiting ceiling grid.
Selim has finished installing the Rosewood Stair Risers leading up to the Entryway Door.
Galley on the Left that we’ll be seeing much more of a bit later and the reversed stairs leading down to the Guest Cabin, Ship’s Office and WT Door into the Workshop on the Right.
Up in the “doghouse” over the Entryway Door, the Solid Rosewood trim piece is glued into place.  The WT doorframe is all nicely brushed aluminium and provides a lovely contrast to the polished Rosewood trim.
Forward of the door in the Doghouse the Rosewood Hatch Liner is now in place.

Black corner box visible at the bottom here is one of several “alcoves” we have built into the interior that will house electronics such as network switches and hubs, NUC computers, N2K Multi-Port blocks, routers and so on.  I’ll show you more of these as they are installed.
Stepping a bit further Aft on the deck will give you a better perspective on this Doghouse on the inside of the Entryway Door and how that Black corner block fits in.

For orientation, the Upper SkyBridge Helm is on the Left side of the Doghouse wall.

Inside, the Galley is on the Right, Main Helm Station at the far forward end of the SuperSalon.
Speaking of the Main Helm Station, the two triangular Rosewood ‘Handkerchief” lids on either side of the Helm area are now installed.
Flip up lids reveal a LOT of storage space underneath with removable bottoms to access cables and such inside.
Same setup on the opposite Starboard side of the Main Helm above the stairs leading down into the Master Cabin.  We think these two storage areas will provide easy access to things like binoculars, notebooks, charging stations, laptops, pens & pencils, and the like.
This quick render by Yesim several months ago will give you an idea of how the Main Helm area forms the front of the SuperSalon.
Taking a step back in the real world, if you can mentally block out all those cables with a nice Black leather covered dashboard angling up to the base of the center window with two side by side daylight readable 20” touch screen monitors, you can visualize what this Main Helm Station will look like.
And Omur now has the removable “lid” for that sloped Helm Wall all glued up and it is now up in the Finishing Shop getting its many coats of PU varnish all rubbed to a satin gloss so that should be in place for me to show you next week.

GALLEY:

Every week seems to have things that excite us but this week was all the more so true with what you can read in the other posting about getting Möbius officially registered and flagged in Jersey.  AND we also saw another new milestone in our Galley that we are eXcited to show you now.

Of course I’ll need to keep you guessing for a bit longer so here’s your first clue about the eXcitement that’s been cooking up in our Galley this week.

These special tools were involved.

Oh, and your second clue is in this week’s title.

More tools of the trade involved here; a diamond saw.

How about if I add the final clue that you are looking right at it?

As are Omur and Selim in this photo as they unpack the first few slabs from their wooden crates in the background.

Yup, time to start cutting and fitting the awemazing slabs of this Turquoise marble our fabulous Interior Designer Yesim found for us. 
Yesim has been mostly working from home the past few months as her job works very well for that but she came in a few days this week to help organise and oversee the beginning of the marble work.
The majority of the marble is in the Galley and these are most of the slabs laid out in approximate position of the countertops.  Omur in the bottom Right is kneeling about where the induction cooktop will sit, Selim in the bottom Left corner is where the “peninsula” sits alongside the walkway as you come down the stairs from the Aft Deck.

Yesim is where the L-shaped settee will be.

The biggest cut-out by far is for our big double SS sink so that was the first order of business which the diamond blade you saw in the clue above made quick work of.

The slabs arrived from the quarry cut to widths and with some edges already having their bullnose edge ground and polished but the smaller details are now being done here in house.
The first batch of stone that arrived had some cracks and other defects so Yesim worked with the stone company who were great about it and sent us pretty much an entire new order so we have lots of these beautiful marble slabs of all sizes to chose from and find the Goldilocks just right combination of grain and colour to match together.
Selim & Omur have been working for the past month at cutting out these white templates in place atop the Galley cabinets to get the sizes, cut-outs and radius corners all just right and now our Marble Guy is using these to cut and trim each piece, do the cut-outs and radius the edges.
He does as much work as he can down on the shop floor to keep the marble dust down there and here is is doing the final shaping of the large radius on this corner and the smaller one on the Left.
Pretty soon though, they were able to gingerly carry the biggest single piece with the sink cut-out in it, up to the Galley and set it in place for the first test fit. 

The fit is a bit tricky as there are so many elements already in place that the marble has to fit in just perfect such as along all the edges of the Rosewood Garages like the long one you see here.

But the templates worked as they should and this first piece of marble fit Perfect!

As did this second piece that creates the countertop behind the L-shaped settee that will be on the far Left.

Christine and I are super happy with our decision to stop the Garage on this leg short to give us that nice big open portion of countertop on the end.  Will make it easier for passing things back and forth from the Galley to the Settee and for the food chopper to work just out of the way of the head Chef.

Work proceeded very quickly and Selim is busy checking that the underlying surface for the last piece is all perfectly flat and level before it is set in place.
Here’s that final piece of marble with the far corner now cut out as well as the rectangular hole cut in the opposite corner where some of the wires come up into the Garage for light switches.
Omur stays on top of everything throughout the whole process, here making sure that this last countertop is perfectly level and on the same plane as all the other countertops.
With the OK from Omur it is fastened down with adhesive and clamped in place so it doesn’t move while the put the awaiting Garage in place on top and pull the light switch wires through the chase inside the Garage.
With the wires pulled through the switch opening they can apply the adhesive to the Garage and clamp it into its final position like this.
Being sure that this big mitred corner is also just right and clamped into its final position.
Difficult to get it all into one shot but this will give you a bit better sense of what the whole Galley layout looks like with all the marble countertops and Garages now nestled into their new homes.
As you’ve been seeing all along I have a “thing” for well radiused corners on ALL edges which Omur knows well and so this is how it all comes together with the various levels and layers of Rosewood and Turquoise marble. 

Difficult and eXpen$ive  to execute? 

In the eXtreme! 

But views like this show the lifelong dividends this will return.

Test fitting the big deep double SS sinks which also fit in just right.  Christine tried this out on her weekly Friday visit and is delighted with the placement of these sinks which we debated for weeks.

Induction cooktop will soon be fitting into that open rectangle on the Right.
One last shot as I close out the week.  This shot will help you imagine the overall size and scale of things and how each area fits together.  L-shaped settee in the bottom Left and steps leading up to the Entryway door to the Aft Deck which you know well by now, on the far Right.
I will let all these photos speak for themselves and wish you adieux until next weekend when I’ll be back with the next progress update.

Hope you are enjoying following along as much as I’m enjoying taking you along. 

And even though I am woefully tardy in answering the past 2 weeks of comments, PLEASE do add your questions and comments in the “Join the Discussion” box below.  I WILL answer them and I do thank you for your patience when it takes me longer than I would like.

-Wayne