Windsurf · Invention
1972
Europe's first windsurfing regatta
On Sylt, sailing instructor Calle Schmidt imports two Windsurfers in spring 1972 and in September holds the Sylt Cup, the first windsurfing race in Europe.
12sailors
Sylt Cup, Blidselbucht, 23 September 1972
Calle Schmidt ran a sailing school on Sylt, the German island in the North Sea. In January 1972 he read an article in the magazine Die Yacht asking whether sailing on a board had been solved. In April he ordered boards from Hoyle Schweitzer in California; they were only sold in pairs, by air freight, and his first tries were in the Blidselbucht, a shallow bay on the Wadden Sea side of the island.
On 23 September 1972 he invited friends to a race in the same bay. Twelve sailors came to the Sylt Cup, the first windsurfing regatta in Germany and in Europe. The next day five of them took the boards into the surf on the open North Sea coast.
Others in Europe were starting at the same time. In Sweden Per Fjaestad ordered fifty Windsurfers in 1972 and became the agent for Sweden, and in December the Dutch firm Ten Cate signed the European licence. In September 1973 the first European championship was sailed on Sylt, again in the Blidselbucht, with about 130 competitors. Derk Thijs of the Netherlands won.