Ground-based crosswind rope drive or straight rail could be used with a crosswind kite flying straight on a side of the moving anchor (board, cart, ship, or nothing with a ground-based rope drive) without figure excepted the half turn in the end of the trajectory, and driving directly the generator. Flying in such a way (sort of “drag” mode?) allows to reach high speed in water (so also likely the same on the ground, using a rope drive or a rail) as for the video below:
Now if the kite flies by making figure-eight paths in front of the moving anchor like on the video below (sort of pull mode?), a rope drive or a rail can also be used (see NTS rail, and also Kitegen carousel):
Between these two ways (“drag” and pull modes?) of flight I am not sure about which one is more powerful. In the other hand the first one (“drag” mode?) would allow the generator to reach a far higher rpm, so a lesser torque.