sail

Google is your friend.

http://www.boat-ed.com/images/graphics/PartsSailboat2.gif

I do believe you are referring to the "masts"

Main mast, mizzen mast, fore mast - there could be quite a few masts on large ships. There are some good websites that will give you a lot of information - like what the spars are, etc. As someone said, Google is your friend. Puma

If you are talking about the horizontal 'poles' I think the name is the yardarm. Thats if the sail hangs from it. The vertical 'poles' are the masts.

I found this site. it has more masts than I knew existed, and I was in the navy.

Calliopenjo said:

If anyone can tell me the name of the poles that a sail is attached I would appreciate it. Just so that you know I am attempting to describe what the MC sees on her deck. Which is a plain wooden deck and when the MC looks up two sails are seen. I would appreciate any help.

Click to expand...

I'd say if there are two sails, and it's a bermuda-rig (what you see on most modern little/medium sized sailboats), both sails (namely the mainsail and the jib) are mounted on the mast. The bottom of the mainsail might be attached to a horizontal 'pole' called the boom. A ship with two sails wouldn't have any spars/yardarms. There is a less-common type of rig called a gaff-rig, in which the sails are suspended on angled poles called gaffs. But I'll bet you're thinking of a bermuda-rig. Wikipedia is awesome for learning names of sailboat bits.