On paper, perhaps, nautical-style progress (4)
I believe the answer is:
roll
'progress' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
I don't understand the rest of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for roll that I've seen before include "Bakery product" , "Drumming pattern" , "directory" , "on which one is regularly successful" , "Swell" .)