In order to provide a rigid sail or aerofoil sail which has a lower overall weight, is cost-effective to manufacture and does not affect the passing under bridges, power lines or similar structures arranged over busy waters, in the case of a rigid sail for vessels, in particular, for large ships, such as bulk carriers, tankers, car transporters or bulkers, comprising a mast and a first aerofoil wing body mounted on the mast with a base and a head, wherein the mast is inserted through the base into the first aerofoil wing body and is arranged within the first aerofoil wing body, it is proposed that the mast, starting from the base, does not extend beyond a maximum height of the first aerofoil wing body, in particular, less than 75% of the maximum height.

An aerofoil sail (30) for providing motive power to a waterborne vessel, the sail comprising a leading aerofoil portion (35a) and a trailing aerofoil portion (35b), and the sail comprising a spar (32), at least one of the aerofoil portions rotatably positionable, and the sail comprising a controller to control individually the angular position of at least one of the aerofoil portions relative to the spar, and the spar rotationally positionable about its longitudinal axis.

In order to be able to determine with precision the location of the stagnation point at different zones along the leading edge of an aerodynamic profile, a system comprises rows of pressure sensors distributed on either side of the leading edge and forming, virtually, patterns that are spaced apart from one another in the form of simple polygonal lines, and a computer connected to the pressure sensors. The computer determines, along each of the patterns, a respective stagnation point position that is defined by a curved abscissa for which a pressure interpolated on the basis of pressure measurements provided by the pressure sensors of the corresponding row is at a maximum, and by an altitude evaluated on the basis of respective altitude data from the pressure sensors of the corresponding row.

An autonomous sailing vessel may include a hull, a mast, a sail, and a rudder. The mast may be mechanically coupled to the hull. The sail may be mechanically coupled to the mast. The rudder may be mechanically coupled to the hull. A heading of the autonomous sailing vessel may be regulated by actively controlling the rudder without actively controlling the sail. Alternatively or additionally, the autonomous sailing vessel may include an anticapsize stabilizer tank, a lidar system, and/or marine mammal monitoring and identification.

One embodiment of a mast-head standing rigging connection device, allowing for sail module rotation about a mast axis, is disclosed. The embodiment allows for connection of shrouds and conventional single mast forestay and backstay rigging systems. Additional embodiments, utilizing modifications of the first embodiment, for multi-mast and triangular fore-aft sail mast roller reef-furl systems, are described.

The invention relates to an at least partially wind-propelled ship, comprising a double airfoil mounted on a structure controlled angularly around a generally vertical axis, where the double airfoil comprises a fore flap and an aft flap separated by a slit. At least one of the fore flap and the aft flap has a fore-to-aft asymmetry, wherein each flap comprises a series of shape members distributed in height. The structure comprises a fore mast and an aft mast connected by a boom member and by a gaff member. The shape members of the fore flap are traversed by the fore mast while being able to turn around an axis defined thereby, while the shape members of the aft flap are traversed by the aft mast while being able to turn around an axis defined thereby.

The systems and associated methods are for autonomously launching and recovering payload objects such as vessels, equipment and people by partially submerging a multi-mode unmanned vehicle in a controlled manner. Mechanical, power, signal and logical system components operate in a coordinated manner to repeatedly and reliably perform unmanned launch and recovery of payloads in a variety of conditions and sea states from a catamaran style hull with multi-mode, high-performance characteristics.

A nestable wing sail having two or more sections. Where one section is configured to nest inside the first section, and can move out of the first section to extend the effective sail area of the wing sail.

In order to provide a rigid sail or aerofoil sail which has a lower overall weight, is cost-effective to manufacture and does not affect the passing under bridges, power lines or similar structures arranged over busy waters, in the case of a rigid sail for vessels, in particular, for large ships, such as bulk carriers, tankers, car transporters or bulkers, comprising a mast and a first aerofoil wing body mounted on the mast with a base and a head, wherein the mast is inserted through the base into the first aerofoil wing body and is arranged within the first aerofoil wing body, it is proposed that the mast, starting from the base, does not extend beyond a maximum height of the first aerofoil wing body, in particular, less than 75% of the maximum height.

An autonomous sailing vessel may include a hull, a mast, a sail, and a sail release device. The mast may be mechanically coupled to the hull. The sail may be mechanically coupled to the mast. The sail release device may be operably coupled to the sail and may be configured to automatically release the sail to spill excess wind. Alternatively or additionally, the sail may include a fore sail element coupled to the mast and an aft sail element rotatably coupled at a fore of the aft sail element to an aft of the fore sail element. In this and other embodiments, the autonomous sailing vessel may further include a camber control assembly to automatically set a camber angle between the fore and aft sail elements.