We studied the coverage-dependent self-assembly of the flat-lying phase of ethylthiolate on Au(111). At low coverage, we observed the formation of short stripes of chiral Au-(SC2H5)(2) complexes that arrange in a disordered phase. The latter grow partly at the expense of the native Au(111) surface reconstruction, which is fully lifted for a coverage of similar to 0.60 ML. We found that the lift of the reconstruction and evaporation from step edges are competing adatom sources. Close to saturation coverage (0.70 to 0.75 ML), large, well-ordered domains with a (8 x root 3)rectangular superstructure formed. Alternation of chirality was found in adjacent stripes as already reported for other short alkanethiolates. We suggest that, because of a simple geometrical consideration, the chirality should, on the contrary, be preserved in the stripe phase of longer alkanethiolates.