Looking extremely good! 

Lets see some videos of him sailing! 

with palpable jealousy ; )
chris

Nice boat!  I am in Na Jomtien. If you are any where near there I would love to come and have a look.

Thanks a lot for all your uplifting comments. It helped me a lot in situations that were not easy here.
Tomorrow morning we will sail over to Chalong Bay on Phuket on a mooring. Some minor work is to be done there and in the afternoon wi will go sailing. There is little wind now, just right to try her without worries and in a easy way.

I forgot my rucksack with my camera in a friend’s house, so I only have a picture taken with my old mobile phone so I poste that.

Timothy, if you can come here for a sail, you are welcome. I leave for Switzerland on 2th April and be back o 5th May. Just call me. 085 476 06 28

My plan is to test her and bring her to good sailing abilities in May and to leave then to Malaysia and Indonesia for a cruise. I don’t plan further on, But there are some regions I would like to sail to..I will see.

Many thanks again. More will follow.
alexander

That picture hurts! A nice beach, warm wheather and a proa waiting in the water….
I’m sitting here at 58 degrees north, it is -8 degrees celsius outside and there is 20 inch solid ice covering all the water within a 45 km radius from home….

Nixe looks very very nice in the water! You have a lot of nice cruising ahead. Those lines looks like they are born out of the sea itself. Beautiful!!!

Cheers
Johannes

Lovely!

Yesterday we had our first sail. There was only little wind, but that is good for a first try. She sailed over 5 knots (I could not measure the wind). That is what I wanted, sailing also in very little wind, what is quite often here. I did not aim for a high top speed, she is not a racer. In my previous boat, a heavy junk rigged pilot cutter, it was very boring to motor in little winds. We could not hoist the mainsail, half way up the sliders did not want to go up more, so we sailed with only the two foresails, but even with these I was satisfied.
Now there is some word to do. The sheets need to be arranged different. They are to hard holding back when I furl the sails in. Maybe a thinner line could do. The easylock clamps are too small for a 10mm rope, even when they are sold for that. The rudders are too much preballanced. As I wanted to make a spare rudder anyhow it is not addidional work. The handles for the outboard need improvement and I have to mount the nets between and outside the beams and the solar panels have to be placed.
In total I can say I am satisfied with the abilities of the boat.

Alexander

Youtube is a very nice site! 😉

Congratulations on your first sail!
Ghosting along at 5 knots in very little wind seems like a dream to me!!!

Cheers
Johannes

Bravo Alexander!  We have all been enjoying the build—now on to the voyage.

Congrats on a huge milestone.

Chris

Keep posting! That you tube hint is good too…..
Love the boat.

Nixe looks very good on the water! Congrats on your first sailing.
I have one question: Why did you choose not to extend the cockpit platform until the ama? It would permit easy access to the water. Or to the boat, for that matter.
I guess you must enjoy the feeling of accomplishment now. Must be great.
Cheers,
Peter

Thanks again for your compliments. It is a good feeling to be supported mentally by a group of people who love the same kind of unusual boats.
Peter, you are right, the access to the cockpit on the last pictures is not easy. But I have a net, just had no time to put it on for the first sail. It is on now between the two beams so I can just walk in from the dinghi. Two other nets I have, two triangles along the beams and along the main hull. Same thing, no time to put it on. They will be a safety factor when sailing as I do not have a rail along the hull to the cockpit.
Next tuesday I fly to home for a month to see my family and friends. So in month of may I will be back here to do some work, sailing and measuring what Nixe is able to do.

Cheers
Alexander

Dear Alexander,
having so much looking forward to each installment of your build-blog I wait eagerly for the sailing-blog to begin properly.  Any news?
Can I say again, what a lovely looking boat, I am trying to think of one better, but not succeeded as yet!

Cheers
Mark

Very nice looking, well done and gratulations!
/Garg

Hello
After a longer visit to Switzerland I am back in Thailand again.
Short time after I arrived, Andrew an american sent me an emai saying he would like to come to Phuket an have a look at my boat because he maybe would like to build one more Nixe. He came here and stayed for about a month. I could show him chandleries, marinas and places where he could build his boat, and made contacts to people he will need to know when he builds his boat. And we went sailing.
Out of Chalong Bay in moderate winds was beautiful. We had planned to sail to Koh Raya, an island some miles south of Phuket to anchor there and eat and sail back to Chalong after. But some miles out a line of dark cloud appeared and came closer very fast. The wind was up to 40 knots and shifted later about 90 degrees, so we had waves from two sides later. What I can say now is: the rig with the rollers just rolling the sails around a wire is sh…....(sorry). In light or moderate winds it works nicely. In strong winds it does not furl correctly, the upper part of the sail is flabbing. So we had to take down the genoas. Having the whole power of a forestay on the halyard roller was too much. One roller was pulled out of the mast and the wire halyard was eating down the mast about 20 cm and we had hard to work to get the sail down. The hull behaved very nice. That is the positive experience we had. Nothing was flying around in the boat, we could sit comfortably in the cockpit, only got sometimes splashed when a big wave hit the side hull fully abeam. So I can say I am happy with the boat itself, just the rig needs improvement. That we do now. Nixe is ashore, the mast we laied down today and I will take off these rollers and go for traditional rigging having the foresails on a stay and a downhaul to take them down from the cockpit.
In that storm a ferry from Phuket to Phiphi nearly sank because planks opened (they set her on rocks near a small island to prevent sinking). All passengers and crew were saved. At the shore about 70 small fishing boats were smashed.
Andrew is back in U.S. to sort out his personal things and to find partners who want to take a share on the boat. He wants to buy my plans, but will change the interior to have two double cabins. Also he wants a rig with an A-frame. That will be interesting. I look forward to see two Nixes sailing together.

Cheers
Alexander

Alexander,
it imust be frustrating to develop a unique craft to find a developed technology lacking. My family boat is a high volume production dinghy and the furling jib is a pain.

Sounds though as if Nixe is not only very pretty but very capable as well.

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