Your crossword puzzle answer is halyard, a shortened word for "haul yard".
No , the sails are called the sheets. Wrong - the sails are called SAILS. The control lines to the sails are sheets.
No , the sails are called the sheets. Wrong - the sails are called SAILS. The control lines to the sails are sheets.
to hold up the sails, and to help steer the ship. its called rigging, by the way...
Halyards, ropes and stays
The halyard holds the sail up. When a rope has an assigned job on a boat (or a ship) it is referred to as a line.
Stays, lines, ropes and halyards.
On a ship, the entire assembly including masts, yardarms, sails and ropes are collectively referred to as rigging. The ropes themselves are usually called cordage or lines.
rigging
The "ropes" that raise or lower the sails are called HALYARDS and the "ropes" that control the sails are called SHEETS. Halyards are the lines (ropes) that raise sails. Downhauls lower them (note that they are not always included as gravity does usually help out, though they are sometimes necessary). Sheets are used to pull the bottom corner of a sail aft (or towards the "stern" or back of the ship). Tacks pull them forward (ie towards the "bow" or front of the ship). Square sails also have lines that are used to douse (square sails are often "lowered" by pulling them up, and set by letting them fall down as they are attached on the top edge by a long horizontal spar called a yard) or to reef them (decreasing the sail area in cases of heavier wind) These are the buntlines, clewlines, reeflines, and reefing points. The yards that hold square sails up also need to be able to turn, and lines attached at their ends called braces pull either the port or starboard (left or right) end of the yard aft. There are, of course, many more however these are probably the most important.
Square sails (rectangular) were (are) called four-cornered sails.
On sailing vessels ropes are called sheets. The rope that is used to control the main sail, for example, is known as the main sheet. Ropes that control the jib sail are known as jib sheets, etc. The expression "three sheets to the wind" to describe someone who is inebriated, comes from the fact that if three of the ropes that control sails were loose and "to the wind" the vessel would be out of control.
"Square sails" which are not really square, were/are referred to as four-cornered sails.