Windsurf · One design boom
1977
Sailboards join the speed trials
Windsurf boards are timed at the speed trials for the first time, and Derk Thijs sails a standard Windglider at 19.1 knots.
19.1knots
Derk Thijs on a standard Windglider, 1977
Speed sailing began as a contest between yachts, catamarans and experimental craft, timed over a measured course. In 1977 windsurf boards appeared at the speed trials for the first time, at Weymouth in England.
The Dutch sailor Derk Thijs reached 19.1 knots, about 35 kilometres an hour, on a standard Windglider. He had no footstraps and no harness. It was far from the outright sailing record, but it gave the sailboard a number to beat.
Most accounts, including the speed history of the International Speed Windsurfing Class, date the mark to 1977; one later account gives 1979.
What followed was fast. Within a few years boards were built for speed alone. By 1980 a sailboard had been timed at more than 24 knots, in 1983 at more than 30, and in 1986 a windsurfer held the outright sailing speed record.