Patent ID: 7603958

Claim:
A wind-propelled vehicle, comprising: a light-weight, soft wing-sail for propelling the vehicle, and including a front sail panel defining the leading edge of the wing-sail, and a pair of side sail panels each independently mounted with respect to each other and with respect to said front sail panel, said pair of side panels defining the trailing edges of the wing-sail; a vertical mast carrying said wing-sail and rotatably mounted at its lower end about a vertical axis on said vehicle; a plurality of spreaders having inner ends fixed to said mast at longitudinally spaced locations thereon; a pair of tracks extending along opposite sides of said mast and fixed to said mast only at the top thereof, said tracks also being fixed to the outer ends of the spreaders; a plurality of sliders fixed to said sail panels and slidable along said tracks to permit said sail panels to be hoisted and reefed independently; a boom pivotally mounted to the lower end of said mast; and clews at the trailing edges of said side sail panels secured to the boom such as to permit even rearward tensioning and independent sliding of the trailing edges of said side panels along the boom when trimming the airfoil shape by changing the angle of the boom around the mast.