As rough and calm as the wood from which he builds his boats: Stefan Züst is one of the last wooden boat builders in Switzerland – and as a passionate sailor feels just as at home on Lake Constance as on the rough seas of the world.
This content was published on Jun 23, 2023 Jun 23, 2023
Conny Brügger, SRF
Other languages: 3 (de original)
With his strong build, thick beard and long hair, the Thurgau man looks like a sailor from the old days – and the 42-year-old shares his passion for boats and sailing with them.
Stefan Züst has undertaken many adventurous sailing trips: With the midnight blue Ailean Mor, his 5.8 meter short wooden cutter, he has repeatedly sailed alone on the ocean for weeks at a time. For example in Scotland, around the North Cape or through the Bay of Biscay, one of the most demanding sailing areas in Europe.
Züst is definitely not a fair-weather sailor. The more intensely he feels wind and weather, the better. He seeks the connection to nature, with as little material as possible between himself and the water. Being alone doesn’t bother him either: “I rarely feel lonely, but rather free.”
Push your own limits
On rough seas in a small wooden boat, even an experienced sailor will reach his limits. But Stefan Züst remains calm even when thinking about stormy situations. He says laconically: “There is nothing better for bringing water out of a ship than a man who is afraid – and a big bucket.” That’s what it’s all about: “The fact that you keep finding your own limits, exploring them and pushing them upwards.”
After his adventurous sailing trips on the world‘s oceans, the “loner”, as he describes himself, always returns to calmer waters: back home, to Lake Constance. “You have to fight for the sea, you can just have Lake Constance.”
At home on Lake Constance
Growing up in Güttingen on Lake Constance, Stefan Züst was fascinated by ships even as a child. In the 4th grade the boy got a kit for a canoe from his godmother. “From that moment on, I spent most of my youth on the water or in some garage or backyard tinkering with my first sailing ships.”
Basically, he still does that today, albeit professionally. Shortly after completing his apprenticeship as a boat builder, he became self-employed. Today he runs a shipyard in Altnau with seven employees. With his team he builds, repairs and maintains boats and restores old classics.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s sailing yachts, motor boats or rowing boats – the main thing is that they are made of wood, the building material he loves: “The sound in the ship of the waves hitting or knocking on the hull is a completely different sound than when they are banging knock a plastic thing.”
Carved from their own wood
Instead, the waves on Züst’s boats are beating on special wood. So-called moon wood from his own forest, which he was able to take over from his grandfather a few years ago. For this purpose, the trees are felled during the waning moon in winter.
So they have less moisture in them “and we get a much calmer wood as a result,” Züst is convinced. So confident that he gives his boats a guarantee until his retirement.
In accordance with JTI standards
More: JTI certification from SWI swissinfo.ch