Peter Chilvers

Chilvers is credited with creating a crude sailing craft propelled by a free-sail system while living on Hayling Island in 1958.

His craft was recognized as prior art in later court cases in England regarding sailboard patents and royalties.

[3] Chilvers came into the public eye in the 1980s as the result of patent infringement lawsuit brought by Windsurfing International, Inc. against Tabur Marine, a competing manufacturer.

Tabur disputed the validity of the patent, and presented to the courts evidence of a creation by Chilvers, who, as a twelve-year-old in 1958, on Hayling Island, assembled a board powered by a freesail system ten years before Windsurfing International filed for its patent for the Windsurfer.

[4] This case set important precedents for patent law in the United Kingdom, originating the well-known Windsurfer Test regarding the steps of inventiveness and non-obviousness.