The first Windsurfer World Championship

In August 1974 the Windsurfer class held its first official World Championship at Association Island, home of the North American Sailing Center in New York State. Matt Schweitzer won the men’s title. The women’s title went to Beb Thijs from the Netherlands, who is often wrongly called Bep; she would win the world title again in 1977 and 1978.

Whether 1974 really was the first is still argued about. Bruce Matlack, winner of the 1973 regatta in Mission Bay, San Diego, has claimed that event as the first Worlds because sailors from Europe and Tahiti took part. The class association rejects this: schedules, trophies, published results and yearbooks of the time all call 1973 the US Nationals and 1974 the first World Championship.

What is not disputed is the growth. According to the secretary-general of the international sailing federation, each of these early championships broke the record for the number of countries and competitors at any sailing event until then.