Positioning device for a free-flying kite-type wind-attacked element in a wind-powered watercraft

A positioning apparatus for a freely flying kite-like element on which wind acts, having a wing profile as the exclusive propulsion system, as an auxiliary propulsion system or as an emergency propulsion system, which is connected via a hawser to a watercraft, characterized in that a winch is provided which has means which result in the hawser being pulled in if a first predetermined pulling force is undershot and/or in the event of imminent stall or if stall has occurred, and further characterized in that a pulling-in process and a paying-out process, particularly in a relatively high sea state, are carried out in such a manner that undesirable vessel movements in the hawser direction are reduced by a phase-shifted drive with respect to the hawser direction, in order to compensate for sea-state movements with respect to the element on which wind acts, or in that, with an appropriate phase-shifted drive, the sea-state movements of the vessel are reduced at the expense of the movement of the element on which wind acts.