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November 2021 - Chang

by Alex Niffeler

In 1995 I decided to build a sailing yacht.

Until then I had owned several dinghies: a 12 feet Greek fishing boat I made a lateen sail for, and a proa (hulls and rudders made of plywood, the rest made of bamboo).

All on the lake of Zurich. One of the dinghies, a Debaros, 20 ft, half decked with centerboard of steel I had changed to junk rig. This I found great, so I decided the new yacht should have a junk sail.

I was fascinated also by the French pilot boats and I decided to build one, on a smaller scale, with some small changes.

Chang was bult in ferrocement, a strong material, easy to use and very nice for heavy boats.

In Phuket I found an American who once had a shipyard near Bangkok where he made ferrocement boats.

He didn't have a shipyard any more but he introduced me to Mr. Him who had worked for him several years.

“Mr. Him could do it all”, he told me. And he was right.

Working conditions in Thailand are different from the Western world, but the work gets done.

I did not work on the ferrocement hull, but on the second stage, when working with wood (making the deck, the interior and the rigging) I worked with Mr. Him and some other workers.

Chang was a heavy boat and more a motor-sailer than a sailing yacht.

But I always felt safe in her no matter what weather there was.

I sailed in the Phang Nga Bay, down to Langkawi and to Indonesia.

In 2008 my wife and I took a sabbatical of one year and sailed around Malaysia to the gulf of Thailand and back.

She was a great liveaboard, very safe, easy to handle although she was heavy.

I could carry 600 liters of water and 200 liters of fuel.  When there was not too much wind, I could raise and handle the 45m2 main sail on my own, without winches.

In the beginning I had only the mainsail as a junk sail, and carried also a triangular foresail and a genoa.

But I did not like handling these foresails so I ordered a foremast and new junk sails.

The mast step for the foremast was built in from the beginning.

Later I added a small mast and sail of 6 m2 at the end of the overhanging cockpit extension to help steering and keep her straight at anchor.

She would hold a steady course for a long period of time.

Eventually I sold Chang.

The purchaser was quite new to sailing, but on two occasions I spent two weeks with him, to introduce him to the region of the Phang Nga Bay, and to become familiar with the boat.

He enjoyed the sailing, but after a year he became very ill and I lost contact with him.

The boat was left on a hardstand for a number of years and the bills were unpaid. Then the termites ate the woodwork.

Alex also writes: “In 2012 I decided to build a proa and went again to Phuket and built Nixe with the help of Mr. Him and some workers. She is a fast cruiser but not a racer. In 2019 I decided to sell her for financial reasons. It is very expensive to work in Switzerland and have to pay the maintenance and a place for a boat in Phuket. A hardstand there is meanwhile more expensive than a place in a harbour in Germany. I was lucky to be able to sell before corona. Next year I will be retired and plan to build another proa, this time with junk sails maybe here in Switzerland. It is possible to sail the canals to the Mediterranean from here”.

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