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S. Newman Darby, Inventor of the Sailboard, Dies at 88

 
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Riptide



Joined: 15 Jan 2011
Posts: 411

PostPosted: Tue Dec 27, 2016 7:09 am    Post subject: S. Newman Darby, Inventor of the Sailboard, Dies at 88 Reply with quote

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/26/sports/sailing/s-newma-darby-dead-sailboarding.html?smid=fb-share

S. Newman Darby, a sign painter whose passion for boating led him to invent a sailboard that is widely acknowledged as the first windsurfing craft, died on Dec. 3 at his home in St. Johns, Fla. He was 88.
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gvogelsang



Joined: 09 Nov 1988
Posts: 435

PostPosted: Tue Dec 27, 2016 8:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

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

PostPosted: Tue Dec 27, 2016 8:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Appreciate the posting,thank you.
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joethewindsufa



Joined: 10 Oct 2010
Posts: 1190
Location: Montréal

PostPosted: Tue Dec 27, 2016 10:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

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

PostPosted: Tue Dec 27, 2016 12:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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. Very Happy
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Riptide



Joined: 15 Jan 2011
Posts: 411

PostPosted: Tue Dec 27, 2016 12:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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

PostPosted: Tue Dec 27, 2016 1:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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! Wink
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GURGLETROUSERS



Joined: 30 Dec 2009
Posts: 2643

PostPosted: Tue Dec 27, 2016 2:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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

PostPosted: Thu Dec 29, 2016 10:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

S. Newman Darby, the original freestyle boardsailor Laughing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33ix-2DH8Mw
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