A ship-mounted auxiliary sail system featuring a plurality of sail units mountable and movable about the ship on a rail system. The sail units can have automatic reefing safety features and/or automatic mast release safety features.

One embodiment of a deployable reversible camber sail system, based on a deployable shell (58) contained within a mast-sail assembly (11, 12) and supported and controlled by additional assemblies (13-15), is disclosed. The embodiment may be easily and quickly configured into the furled, feathered, port tack and starboard tack sail forms. In addition, this embodiment represents a highly efficient sail module which may be controlled by a single human operator or automated computer-based control system. Additional embodiments, utilizing assemblages of the first embodiment sail system module, are described.

A sail system comprised of square-rigged sails each set in self-contained units attached to the sides of existing, ocean-going commercial freight ships, which sail system will be deployed in arrays along the sides of the hull of the ship and controlled by proprietary software. The Tig Rig sail system is a roller-blind design of sales, which can reef from full up to full down in increments of one-tenth of the length of the sail drop. The sail system unit has a mast that can rotate and be fixed in position through 360 degrees, which reefing and mast angle can be controlled through control cables, cogs and worm screws in three different ways, in addition to automated reefing and mast release functionality. The Tig Rig sail system is designed to utilize and maximize wind efficiency thereby reducing the reliance on fuel of such ships, with a particular focus on retro-fitting existing ocean-going commercial freight ships.

A method and a spinnaker launching and/or recovering system releasably attachable to the deck or integrated on the deck or into the hull of the sailboat for launching and/or recovering a spinnaker. The spinnaker setting and/or recovering system has a first spinnaker guide member, which is attachable, e.g., to the bow, a bowsprit or is built into the deck near the bow with an opening through which the tack line and/or a retrieval line attached to the clew corner or to the lower luff of an asymmetric spinnaker or retrieval lines attached to the tack corner and the clew corner or to the lower luff of a symmetric spinnaker. Running with the asymmetric spinnaker, tack corner may be taken forward by a second tack line operated from the cockpit. The first and second spinnaker guide members may be connected by a sleeve, e.g., made of textile, or a solid material.

The invention relates to a system and method of sail propulsion for sailing vessels and tugboats, consisting of one or more rows of sails secured at their upper vertices or corners by means of the ends of masts, and cables or ropes located between the upper ends of the masts, or the ends of the radial arms of said masts, with masts provided in the bow and others in the stern. The sails are secured at their lower vertices or corners to rings fixed to the deck, to ropes or cables, the ends of which are attached to the deck, to small posts, to the lower region of the main masts, to the ends of radial arms fixed in the lower region of the masts, or to pulleys on which the cables are wound using motors. The rows of sails, aligned from bow to stern, include a mast at the end sails. Cables or ropes form the upper ends of the intermediate sails.

A wingsail structure for a wind-assisted propulsion arrangement of a marine vessel can be stowed in a space saving manner. The wingsail structure includes a wingsail frame including a rigid or semi-rigid main wingsail and flap having an aerofoil, and at least one upper and lower coupling member connecting the main wingsail and the flap. The wingsail structure includes a foundation arranged to be fixed to a body of the vessel, the wingsail frame being rotatable in respect to the foundation. The upper and lower coupling members are configured to bring the main wingsail and the flap to a first unfolded standing position and to a second folded standing position. The wingsail structure includes a tilting arrangement configured to bring the wingsail frame from the second folded standing position to a third tilted position.

A marine gangway has a tower adapted for attachment to a marine structure, rotatably about a tower rotational axis extending in a longitudinal direction of the tower. The tower has a tower aperture and at least one tower doorway arranged below and/or above the tower aperture where the tower aperture and the at least one tower doorway is adapted for people and/or goods to pass through. The marine gangway includes a gangway device comprising a gangway platform attached to the tower movably in the longitudinal direction of the tower, and a gangway rotatably attached to the gangway platform. The marine gangway further comprises a lift arranged inside the tower movable in the longitudinal direction of the tower. The lift has a lift doorway adapted to align with the tower aperture and with the at least one tower doorway as the lift moves in the longitudinal direction of the tower.

A vessel is provided with a mast, sail, and halyard for hoisting the sail. The sail includes dollies configured to be movable along the mast. The mast includes a guide member, the guide dollies configured to cooperate with said guide member, wherein: the sail includes rigid panels, articulated two by two; the mast is equipped with a transit part positioned at the end of the guide member, which has a flared lower portion and is open at its opposite ends, wherein during hoisting of the sail, each dolly is received in the transit part and is guided along to leave it through its upper opening and cooperate with the guide member, while during its lowering, each dolly is disengaged from the guide member, is received in the transit part, moves along it, and escapes from it by following the movement of the portion of the sail with which it is integral.