Roger Jones Windsurfing: Basic and Fun Boarding Technique Harper & Row: San Francisco, 1985, 128 pp.
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"Fathers of the Sport: Two accounts of "sail-boards" carrying hand-held sails were published in the United States during the mid-1960s. The first by a Pennsylvania inventor named S. Newman Darby, the other by James R. Drake, a Southern Californian. Drake's paper Wind Surfing-A New Concept in Sailing was presented at the first American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Technical Symposium on Sailboat Design in Los Angeles on April 26th 1969, and published by the RAND corporation of Santa Monica, California. In his paper Drake described the development of windsurfing by himself and others, including Hoyle Schweitzer who later became the American manufacturer of Windsurfer brand boards and holder of a patent on the free-sail system.
"Many people now claim to have developed sailboards prior to the Drake invention, and in each country where the patent was taken out distributors and manufacturers have gone to court to dispute the patent. In Britain, for example, one such dispute resulted in the court invalidating the patent there on the grounds of "obviousness." An interesting verdict.
"S. Newman Darby's rather clumsy unpatented design was published in Popular Science, August 1965, in an article headed "Sailboarding: Exciting New Water Sport For High-Speed Water Fun . . . A Sport So New That Fewer Than 10 People Have Yet Mastered It." A square-rigger, Darby's sailboard was designed to be pushed by the wind. A limited number were sold around 1965 but the design didn't catch on. It was the success of the Drake/Schweitzer system that led to today's numerous types, sizes and brands." p. 9
"With a simplicity in itself beautiful, the Drake/Schweitzer system consists merely of a long slim hull with tail fin (skeg), universally-hinged mast, sail, wishbone boom, and a centerboard/daggerboard in a slot behind the mast. No mechanical devices, no pulleys or levers come between you and the elements. No shrouds support the rig. No rudder steers you. This is why boardsailing is so direct, why it differs so markedly from traditional sailing. The rider supports the sail by holding the boom, steers by tilting the rig and by exerting force on the hull with the feet.
"Most of the problem-solving associated with the development was by Jim Drake, an aeronautics engineer whose many projects include contributions to the B70 supersonic strategic bomber and the Cruise missle. Drake reports that the concept grew out of conversations with his friend Fred Payne, a scientist, beginning in 1961. Drake also acknowledges development contributions by Allen Parducci (an anthropologist {psychologist} and Hoyle Schweitzer.
"The idea of an articulated mast, which led to the patent, was conceived by Jim while driving westbound, alone, on the San Bernadino Freeway. By early 1967 he was experimenting with two versions of a free-sail system, one with a fully-articulated universal on the mast foot, the other with the mast attached rigidly to the centerboard. The rigid connection made the centeboard swivel back as the mast was tilted forward. Both versions allowed the sail to swing in a full circle.
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"In 1968 patent processes were initiated in Britain, Germany, Australia, Canada, Japan and the USA, and a copyright was registered in the Netherlands. Schweitzer decided to go into business making the new craft and by 1970 he was producing a limited number . . . In 1973 he bought out Jim Drake's share in the patent.
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"The acceptance of boardsailing into the 1984 Olympic Games was a tribute to the sport's unique qualities, in that other water sports of longer standing have repeatedly been denied Olympic status." p. 10