Newman Darby

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S. Newman Darby is an American inventor best known as the inventor of the sailboard.[1]


He grew up in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and began building boats when he was 12. His first boat sank, but he fished it out of the Susquehanna River, near his home, and made it into a home for snakes.

Today, Darby and his wife make their home in Saint Johns, Florida[disambiguation needed].


Darby first conceived of a hand-operated square sail attached to a catamaran in 1948, when he was 20. In the mid-1960s, Darby conceived the Darby Sailboard": a hand-held square rigged "kite" sail on a floating platform for recreational use. See photograph of S. Newman Darby on Susquehana River in 1964 at Archives Center.

Darby had taught himself to sail a 10-foot model on lakes in high wind between 1964 and 1965. He published his design in August 1965 Popular Science magazine, and although it did not show any connection between the rig and the board (i.e., a universal joint; the mast simply rested in a depression on the board) it did refer to a "more complex swivel step for advanced riders not shown."

Sailboarding, Popular Science, August 1965

Darby and his wife, Naomi, organized Darby Industries, Inc. in 1964, with his brother, Kenneth, was also active in the company.[2][3][4][5] However, the sailboard design never gained popularity, and Darby's company ceased operations by the end of the 1960s. he was born in 1900

Windsurfer patent cases[edit]

Main article: Windsurfer

Darby did not patent his design or any of his subsequent models attached to surfboards, and the Californians Jim Drake (a sailor) and Hoyle Schweitzer (a surfer) took out the first patent on Drake's Windsurfer design in 1968. The universal sail system with pivotal mast was already in public use from Darby's invention at that time.

Developed commercially through company Windsurfing International Inc., after Hoyle bought Drake out of his half of the patent for $36,000, he quickly expanded the company thorough licensing the patent internationally. However, Europe was now the largest growing market for windsurfers, and the sub-licensed companies - Tabur (later Bic Sport),[6] F2, Mistral - wanted to find a way to remove or reduce their royalty payments to Windsurfing International.

Tabur lawyers found prior art, in Englishman Peter Chilvers, who as a young boy on Hayling Island on the south coast of England, assembled his first board combined with a sail, in 1958.[7]


In 1983, Schweitzer sued Swiss board manufacturer Mistral, which is today still a major sailboard manufacturer, and lost. Although started before the British case, it ended after the closure of the Canadian case, with Mistral's defence hinging on the work of Darby.[2][3][4][5]

In the 1980s, Darby received a design patent for a one-person sailboat, the Darby 8 SS sidestep hull. His latest project is called the Windspear, a combination kayak, canoe, and surfboard, with a paddle and fin combination. Darby's latest design (2006/2007) is being tested, timed and fine tuned.

See the Archives Center for further information.


  1. ^ Horobin, Wendy (2003). How it Works: Science and Technology. Marshall Cavendish. p. 2006. ISBN 0-7614-7314-9. 
  2. ^ a b "Darby Electronic Museum". Retrieved 2013-04-22. 
  3. ^ a b [1]
  4. ^ a b "Lemelson Center Invention Features: Newman Darby". Retrieved 2013-04-22. 
  5. ^ a b
  6. ^ a b "History". Bic Sport. Retrieved 2009-06-05. 
  7. ^ E. L. Cussler, G. D. Moggridge. Chemical product design. Retrieved 2009-06-05.