Best way to clean sails

[Jason]

I did a search, but did not come up with any hits.

Looking for safe ways to get mold spots off the main sail (Dacron).

The PO was not to diligent in his care of the sails.

I'll be stopping by the North Sail loft in Chicago on Friday, they might have some ideas, but hoping others will as well.

I'll post up later this week how the guys at the loft said to clean the mold off of sails.

Thanks!

 

[rwthomas1]

The PO of my boat used to drop the sails off at the end of the season at a sail loft for cleaning, inspection and maintenence. Seems a worthwhile cost considering the expense of new sails. RT

 

[Shadowfax]

Sail Cleaning

I drop mine off at the sail loft I use in the fall every other year. They clean, survey, make small repairs and store the sails for the winter. Generally cost is under $200, depending on repairs

 

[Sean Engle]

SailCare...

I used SailCare for my original headsail, which was filthy and needed a new cover.

So, I boxed it up, shipped it via UPS and they inspected it and then sent me an estimate. I had them clean it, then re-resin it, and put a new cover on.

They're not cheap - but their work was first rate (the sail looked brand new when it was finished).

//sse

 

[Emerald]

Hi Sean,

How long ago did you have SailCare do this work? I want to know how the sails have held up. The prior owner of Emerald had done the same thing, and when I had some sail work done, the sailmaker saw the SailCare stickers and basically went "OH SHI>>>!, you're sails have been trashed by SailCare". I have since talked with 6+ folks about this, and they all agreed that SailCare makes the sails look really nice, and about 2-3 years down the road, the sails start having serious problems with the fabric (Dacron) deteriorating. I've had some pretty lengthy conversations with folks in the sail business about this, and the general word has been that you can't really put the resin back in like they claim, and that when they do the washing to get the sails back to nice crisp white, the sails get treated with chemicals that starts a slow process of fabric death. The folks I've talked to believe that part of what is happening is that the sails never get the cleaners fully rinsed out of them, and these slowly eat away the sail.

So, where does this leave us? If you call SailCare and raise these questions, they will assure you that there is nothing to worry about and that sailmakers don't like them because they cut into the sailmaker's business. I've talked about this to folks who not only are sailmakers, but are in the business of selling sails, and the guys who I know selling sails wont touch a SailCare sail because they believe it will come back to haunt them with an unhappy customer, and the guys selling the used sails are not gaining anything by not selling the SailCare treated sails, but in fact are turning away business, which would eliminate the argument SailCare uses regarding why sailmakers don't like what they do.

Now that I've achieved doing nothing but stirring the pot, we can all wonder who's right, and what to do. I will say that as I was bagging the staysail last weekend, I thought, gee, nice and crisp, but then I noticed the dacron at the head of the sail fraying much more than I remember last time I bagged it, and was wondering if I was starting to see the fabric fail as my sailmaker cautioned me about.

Anyone else out there with SailCare treated sails, or familiar with the "Don't do it" words I've been told?


-David
Independence 31
Emerald

 

[Sean Engle]

SailCare...

Oh my...

No, I never heard anything negative about them (but had seen something from GOB on them - attached below), and was happy about the way the sails came back - but - I don't own the boat anymore, so I have no idea how the sail has been holding up since then, etc...

I guess in the event of this discussion - given what you've stated - that my inclination would be to take the sail to a good loft (I also used North Sails here in Seattle) and ask them about it, have them clean it, etc.

I had never heard anything negative on SailCare...and would also be interested in hearing from other users who have utilized them long term and what the results were, etc...

//sse

 

[Emerald]

Hi Sean,

it is a quandry. Seeing how my 3 primary sails all made a trip to SailCare, I certainly hope the bad stories I've heard are not as bad as they were told. What I will say is that I am still using the sails and don't have any intention of doing anything but using them until they tear, blow out, etc.



-David
Independence 31
Emerald

 

[Frank Langer]

I sent my mainsail to Sailcare two years ago, and it came back clean, but feeling quite flimsy and not at all with the crispness that I would have expected from a "re-resining" process. They agreed to re-do it at their expense (after some persuasion on my part), and the sail came back much better (ie. felt like it had more body, though still nowhere near a new crisp sail). When I raised the sail, it looked as if it had shrunk along the luff--ie. when I tightened the halyard, I still had little wrinkles/pockets along the luff, that hadn't been there before. I solved this by soaking the sail in water, then raising it with tight halyard until it dried, which seemed to stretch it again fairly well and got rid of most of the wrinkles. They also replaced the leech line, but made it a bit too short, so the leech is too tight between the battens, and doesn't have quite the normal fuller round body. I decided not to make a further issue of this with Sailcare, and just "lived" with the sail as is until I sold the boat earlier this year. The sail still worked reasonably well, but I don't think I would recommend Sailcare based on my experience--I spent almost half the cost of a new sail, and ended up with a less than satisfactory older, but very clean, sail.
Just my experience....
Frank.

 

[Seth]

Mild soap and water

The best solution is a mild dish soap (or similar)-no Comet or abrasive type soaps-and scrub with a plastic kitchen scrub pad-NOT steel wool.. Mildew is almost impossible to remove completely, and even when someone SailCare does it, the mildew stains often return. You can usually get SOME of the mildew, but rarely all of it.

Most other soaps will damage the resin, threads, etc.

Also, doing the "re-resin" thinking is, IMHO, a total scam. Once the original resin has broken down, and the dacron itself has stretched beyong its' ability to recover, the fabric can never be rejuvinated. By adding more resin, you add weight (bad), but the resin is now doing ALL of the shape holding-and that "shape" is already distorted; no longer a useable shape. Finally the new resin breaks down very quickly, and the effects (which again-do NOT include changing/improving the blown out material) are nil. All you are doing is getting the sail to hold it's already ruined shape for another season.

If you really want to get another year or 2 from a blown out sail, and want to spend some money doing it, you will be MUCH better served by having the sailmaker do a recut. He can cut away the worst parts of the sail (near the outside edges) digging into "fresher" fabric, and removing some of the"hook" in the leech (if there is some). He/she can re-shape the luff curve to some degree, which will again yield SOME improvement. You will lose a small amount of sail area, but the improvement, however small, will be better and longer lasting than what you would get from reconditioning.

If this is what you are considering, take the amount quoted by the reconditioner, and use that # as a limit (more or less) for the amount you are willing to spend on a recut. So, if they want $500 for re-resin, tell the sailmaker your "cap" on a recut is $500. Spending more than this is wasted $$.

Personally, I might go for a minor recut BEFORE the sail is completely shot, and after that, rather than spending more on a dead sail, put the $ in the new sail budget, and when the time comes to replace, you will have some of the costs "covered". No reason to throw away good $$.

My opinion is that the people who think they have had good results from reconditioning were doing this to sails that still had some life in them anyway, and likley did not need this. The biggest thing you gain is "weight aloft"-not very
Not that I have an opinion!!

 

[The Blue Heeler]

Old Haunts Revisited

Now that my beautiful Blue Heeler is in her new home. The PO just left early this afternoon.
He set up all my rigging and sails and he and his wife went out with us to teach us how to raise the sails on this boat and where they typically ran the lines.
BTW, this incredible couple is driving 16 hours round trip to come help us do this. We didn't find the triple block for the mainsheet although it's probably somewhere in storage in the boat and we'll find it later. I'm going to go ahead and order a new one anyway since we can't find it.

Back to the subject. My wife, the admiral, just asked me to post the question on how to clean the sails. Sounds like at the end of the season, we need to ship them somewhere to have them cleaned and inspected. Where is the current' favorite location to have this done? I guess my wife can spread them out in the grass and scrub them with soap and water but I don't know how much progress she would make. They appear to be in decent shape, just dingy. (thats dirty, not the small little boat).

So two questions, any suggestions on where to order the triple block for the mainsheet and where to send the sails at the end of the season.

Thanks!
Bart and Cheri.

 

[Howard Keiper]

I have very good results spreading one sail at a time out on my driveway and scrubbing with a commercial rug brush that I rent from my local supermarket. I use liberal quantities of Emerald Green. You'd be surprised how much just plain junk comes off with soap and water. The scrubber is very benign...more so than I'd like if I were shampooing my carpets. But I've been VERY satisfied.

Also, i like to use common Clorox in a little spritz bottle on mildew. You have to be careful not to get any on any canvas or stitching; and yes, I know the many prohibitions against it's use on a boat...but when you need it, you need it.

Howard Keiper

sea quest

berkeley

 

[Steve]

Rug brush - help

Howard.. could you define a "commercial rug brush" --- Thanks

 

[FL Dave]

This is the cleaning method I have used for 4 decades -- seems to work fine for me. Get a brand new plastic trash can (however big it has to be to hold your sail) and rinse it out well. I put the can in the back of my van before filling it. Place the sail in it, add water and about 1/2 bottle of Woolite then, I drive around with it back there for a couple of days. Seems this motion is just enough to agitate the sail. Then I empty the can and rinse the sail VERY well -- several times. Sometimes I empty the soapy water out and refill a couple times with fresh and drive another day before spreading out the sail and rinsing. I have repeated the cleaning cycle on really dirty sails.
I know it doesn't re-resin. But it is the cheapest and gentlest cleaning your sails will ever get, and honest it works!

Dave
E31

 

[Howard Keiper]

Steve...

A commercial rug brush is an appliance that many supermarkets rent for shampooing rugs. They typically have a pair of rotating brushes at the bottom and a resevior for shampoo just above them....looks a lot like an upright vacuum cleaner. I have never had much luck with the machine cleaning rugs, but it's a dynamite sail scrubber. I don't use the shampoo either...but maybe I should... don't see how it can hurt. I do use a thinned out solution of water and Emerald Green, though.

howard

 

[scourge]

SailCare

Hi all,
I know that the thread is old, but I was just thinking the other day of using SailCare to clean and 're-furbish' my main and genoa over the winter. I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with them lately.
We are probably buying new sails within the next 4 years as we are getting ready for retirement and will buy when I still have a 'working income'. We were thinking of having our old sails cleaned, etc by Sailcare.
Anyone out there with any other experience with Sailcare?

 

[Seth]

Cleaning

Just remember, there is no such thing as "refurbushing sails". The only thing you can do to improve the shape or performance of an old sail is to have a very good sailmaker take a good look at the sail and determine based on the condition of the fabric if it is possible to recut the sail. This could be a simple hollowing of the leach to get rid of hooking, or opening up and tweaking the shaping seams, or removing the luff hardware and re-drawing the luff curve.

All of these can really help an old sail if the cloth has not given up the ghost, but cost money.

No improvment in performance, shape or longevity can be otained from any of the so called processes used in the cleaning business. Be especially leery of the guys who claim they can add resin to freshen up the cloth-this is a big scam, and you MIGHT see a little change until you go out in any breeze. 10 minutes of luffing the sail will shake it right out and you are back to square 1.

Cheers,

S

 

[scourge]

Thanks,
I think I'll just clean them myself or get them cleaned and get an estimate to have two new sails made.

Len