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Riptide
Joined: 15 Jan 2011 Posts: 411
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gvogelsang
Joined: 09 Nov 1988 Posts: 435
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Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2016 8:34 am Post subject: |
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Thanks for the article.
It was the discovery of Mr. Darby's prior art in windsurfing that allowed Bic and the rest of the European windsurfing companies to avoid paying licensing fees to Schweitzer and Drake. That was a big deal for the development of windsurfing in Europe. |
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U2U2U2
Joined: 06 Jul 2001 Posts: 5467 Location: Shipsterns Bluff, Tasmania. Colorado
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joethewindsufa
Joined: 10 Oct 2010 Posts: 1190 Location: Montréal
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Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2016 10:44 am Post subject: |
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another piece of windsurf history is gone ...
the question always was - who REALLY invented windsurfing
we all know about Drake and Schweitzer
some knew about Newman Darby
at some point I also found this :
discussed here - http://joewindsurfer.blogspot.ca/2007/03/history-of-windsurfing.html
NOT to take anything away from Mr. Darby - who got some recognition, but NO money ... |
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isobars
Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935
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Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2016 12:25 pm Post subject: |
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IIRC, the key to getting the patent was the universally flexible joint at the mast base, which separated the sailboard from all previous sail-powered watercraft. Given that, maybe I shouldda patented the solo shortboard watercraft I rigged and sailed with a universal joint (actually, two u joints, for better symmetry and balance) in the early 1950s in Phillips Inlet on the Florida panhandle. I couldn't beam reach or pinch, but it broad reached and ran before the wind quite adequately. The entire craft fit into a small backpack, it was inflatable for easy transport, it had movable fins to accommodate both tacks, the boom clamped onto both the luff and the clew for very quick rigging, both masts articulated fully, and it sailed only in displacement mode. Its primary drawbacks were the non-rigid/non-planing hull, the prototype cotton sail ... a bummer for a while after immersion, which fortunately was rare ... and having to walk it back upwind. (Hey ... did I invent the Walk of Shame, too?)
OK, OK ... the board was an air mattress, the sail was a beach towel, the masts and boom were my arms, the u-joints were my shoulders, the boom clamps were my hands, and the fins were my feet. At 10 years old, I was on a budget. |
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Riptide
Joined: 15 Jan 2011 Posts: 411
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Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2016 12:40 pm Post subject: |
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Chilvers
Chilvers came into the public eye in the 1980s as the result of patent infringement lawsuit brought by Windsurfing International, Inc. against Tabur Marine, a competing manufacturer. Tabur disputed the validity of the patent, and presented to the courts evidence of a creation by Chilvers, who, in 1958, on Hayling Island, assembled a board powered by a freesail system 10 years before Windsurfing International filed for its patent for the Windsurfer. Although the Chilvers Sailboard differed in some respects from the Windsurfer it had all the elements of a modern Windsurfer. The court ruled for Tabur.[3] This case set important precedents for patent law in the United Kingdom, originating the well-known Windsurfer Test regarding the steps of inventiveness and non-obviousness. |
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GURGLETROUSERS
Joined: 30 Dec 2009 Posts: 2643
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Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2016 1:02 pm Post subject: |
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I think Chilvers was a bit of a 'try on', to get around the patent thing.
There was a drawing I once saw in an old, supposedly 17th century, manuscript which showed some Saint standing upright on some hastily lashed together raft (his ship had sunk) holding an upright pole with a makeshift sail fastened on. It clearly showed the mast was tilted forward at an angle to the 'deck', and he appeared to be using it to steer his way to landfall. If it had just been rammed into a gap in a flexible part of the raft, it would indeed have been a U.J. of sorts.(I think the illustration had a religious significance, to show the heathens that God looked after his own!
I would be very surprised if the ancient Egyptian expert reed boat builders and sailors of several thousands of years ago had not also discovered the obvious. i.e. hand held non supported mast, perhaps with a kind of boom control, rammed into the flexible reed bundles, and steered by upright sailor. How could such inventive people NOT have discovered such an obvious makeshift (in emergencies) answer to saving themselves?
But there were no patents in those days, and anyway, nobody had the leisure time to play! |
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GURGLETROUSERS
Joined: 30 Dec 2009 Posts: 2643
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Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2016 2:10 pm Post subject: |
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Just to add,Thor Heyerdahl, the Norwegian explorer proved, in the 1970's that a large reed sailing boat (Ra) built exactly to the ancient Egyptian drawings, and carved stone monuments, was capable of crossing the Atlantic. (He reached Barbados.)
The first boat he built broke up in mid Atlantic and sank, because he hadn't understood clearly what a feature in the drawings was supposed to brace. (The reed bundles) His second boat (Ra !!) did incorporate the bracing, and did successfully cross the Atlantic , including some rough seas, and held together.
The Egyptian rig and sail arrangement copied from the drawings proved to be surprisingly efficient, so it now seem beyond doubt that the Ancient Egyptians did in fact cross the Atlantic, but probably were never able to return.
It's a bit humbling to think that all those thousands of years ago, without the aid of computers or much scientific knowledge, human ingenuity could achieve such feats. I wonder what such people would think were they to be 'time transported' to our present day? |
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Goodwind
Joined: 06 May 2005 Posts: 323 Location: On water
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