Cargo ships have been powered by huge inflatable airfoils for at least thousands of years, possibly much longer than that.
Inflatable structures in general are fantastic in theory: air or hydrogen is cheap, easy to put into the desired shape, and has immense compressive strength per gram, effectively unlimited. Same for impact energy. So you can separate out the compressive and shock-absorbing parts of your structure from the tensile parts, and only pay for the tensile parts. The main difficulty is recovery from rupture, especially in a space environment where not only don't you have a steady wind filling your sails, you have a limited, nonrenewable gas supply. Well, and high compressive strength in a small space.
As I understand it, they can go somewhat crosswind, which is all the wing of a 747 manages too. (An angle of attack of 2° is probably a lot better than you can do in a cutter, though, I imagine.) But I don't know much about aerodynamics or sailing, so I could be wrong.
Inflatable structures in general are fantastic in theory: air or hydrogen is cheap, easy to put into the desired shape, and has immense compressive strength per gram, effectively unlimited. Same for impact energy. So you can separate out the compressive and shock-absorbing parts of your structure from the tensile parts, and only pay for the tensile parts. The main difficulty is recovery from rupture, especially in a space environment where not only don't you have a steady wind filling your sails, you have a limited, nonrenewable gas supply. Well, and high compressive strength in a small space.