195.26.33.65: /* Life */

2024-09-17T09:02:13Z

Life

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{{For|the British musician|Peter Chilvers (musician)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2015}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2015}}

'''Peter Chilvers''' was an [[inventor]], [[engineer]] and promoter of [[sailing]] and [[windsurfing]]. He is credited with an early version of a sail powered surfboard. He died from lung cancer on 26 February 2015.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ukwindsurfing.com/hall-of-fame/peter-chilvers/|title=Peter Chilvers | UK Windsurfing Association|website=ukwindsurfing.com}}</ref>

==Life==
[[File:Peter-chilvers-cuttings.jpg|Collected press cuttings of Peter Chilvers|thumb]]
Chilvers had been an engineer for [[Lotus Cars|Lotus]] and founded a sailing and windsurfing centre in London. 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.

The windsurfing centre in London's East End was founded by Chilvers<ref>[http://www.lddc-history.org.uk/water/index.html "LDCC Water Use Strategy"]. ''ldcc-history.org''; LDDC - London Docklands Development Corporation. Mentions Chilvers Windsurfing usage. Retrieved 2010-06-20.</ref> as a [[philanthropic]] venture to promote [[sailing]] and [[windsurfing]] amongst underprivileged children of the East End in the 1970s. He created and maintained the centre for over 25 years.{{Citation needed|date=June 2010}} Peter was certainly still running the sailing centre together with a bar on a Dutch sailing barge at Royal Victoria Dock into the 2000s. He also used to park his very distinctive prototype short wheelbase blue Lotus Esprit outside.

Chilvers headed the bid for a £40 million sailing and windsurfing centre on [[Hayling Island]] to regenerate the area and recognise it as the place where Windsurfing was invented and where he grew up.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070302205801/http://www.havant.gov.uk/havant-6961 "Destination Hayling Island. Project Summary"]. Havant Borough Council lists Chilvers as involved. Archived from the [http://www.havant.gov.uk/havant-6961 original] 2007-03-02.</ref>

==Claim of previous invention in windsurfing patent case==
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. Although the Chilvers Sailboard differed in some respects from the Windsurfer it had all the elements of a modern Windsurfer. The court ruled for Tabur.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://slcc.strath.ac.uk/scotslawcourse/ip/ip/patent/windsurf.html |title=Windsurfing International Inc. v Tabur Marine (GB) Ltd. (1985) RPC 59 |work=SLCC - Scots Law Courseware| publisher=The [[University of Strathclyde]]| accessdate=2010-06-20 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617005334/http://slcc.strath.ac.uk/scotslawcourse/ip/ip/patent/windsurf.html |archivedate=2011-06-17}}</ref> This case set important precedents for [[patent law]] in the United Kingdom, originating the well-known Windsurfer Test regarding the steps of [[Inventive step and non-obviousness|inventiveness and non-obviousness]].

The case, Chilvers, Hayling, and a replica of Chilvers' original board, were featured on an episode of ''[[The One Show]]'' in 2009.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.windwise.net/component/content/article/1-latest-news/107-bbc-one-show.html |title=The One Show 7pm BBC1 Friday 5th June!| author=Simon Bornhoft| work=WindWise.net |publisher=Simon Bornhoft's WindWise| date=June 2009| accessdate=2010-06-20}}</ref>

==See also==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060514014218/http://www.hayling.co.uk/news/story578.html Destination Hayling Island] More information on the proposed redevelopment of Hayling Island that Peter Chilvers headed.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chilvers, Peter}}
[[Category:English inventors]]
[[Category:English windsurfers]]
[[Category:English philanthropists]]
[[Category:1946 births]]
[[Category:2015 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century British engineers]]

Peter Chilvers - Revision history

195.26.33.65: /* Life */