AArrrghhh! me spinnaker colors done run together!

[MasterandConniver]

Just bought the boat, P.O. put away an almost new light nylon spinnaker wet a year ago, instead of molding, the colors (blue stripes) have imprinted on to some of the white panels. Looks bad.
I have released dye from non sailing fabric items with RID dye removal products before, but concerned what it will do to this very light fabric.
Anybody got a clue?
Sorry for the dumb pirate talk. I just got frustrated.

 

[RichH]

Very common problem of poorly dyed (non 'solution dye' - dye INSIDE the fibers) synthetic fabrics.
You can 'attempt' to extract the dye from the white but expect that the 'residuals' and shadows to remain for a 'very' long time. To extract, you will be constantly fighting with the 'free' dye to constantly 'bleed' and if the colored panels become rewetted will also 'bleed' into the white. Nylon is not very 'compatible' with 'bleaching' as it is easily 'oxidized', thus weakened. So your choice is to 'bleach' - strongly NOT recommended; or use the sail a LOT and let the sun bleach out the 'color shadows' - UV will quickly degrade nylon especially nylon without UV stabilizers.

Its the reason you dont put 'colored' fabric into the washing machine with your 'underwear' .... lack of 'colorfastness'. Nylon is usually the 'least colorfast' of all synthetics because it rapidly ABSORBS water (up to ~15% of its mass) and the 'free' dye is carried along with the water INTO the individual fibers.

The sail was probably purchased from an offshore 'discount' source.

 

[Tim R.]

Unless you wear gray underwear!

Time to dye it blue all over. This will probably make it look the best.

 

[RichH]

Maybe you should just 'fly' your grey (greige) underwear from the rigging and let the sun bleach it.

 

[Tim R.]

Maybe you should just 'fly' your grey (greige) underwear from the rigging and let the sun bleach it.

I already do Rich. How do you think I dry it?

 

[Ron20324]

He saw John Candy do it in Summer Rental

 

[jimmcgee]

Umm, dirty boxers aside. I'd take it to a local sail loft and ask what they'd charge to clean it. After all they know how to wash sails

If they can't get the color out they may be able to make suggestions for safely dying the panels to make it look better.

 

[Ken Cross]

Tie dye??????????????

 

[RichH]

You cant dye nylon !!!!! The colorant dye has be added before the nylon fibers are 'formed'.

If you 'dye' after the fibers are 'formed' the material wont be 'colorfast' and will 'run', 'bleed', ... forever. There are processes that can 'dye' after the fibers or fabric is made, but that is a 'heat/pressure process' and usually can only be done to 'rolls' of material.

I have had such a 'problem' with a wet-stored spinnaker, I put it in a front loading washing machine with detergent and washed until the 'shadows' almost totally faded, but accepted that a lot of color removal would happen to the full colored panels, then QUICKLY air dried the (horizontal and touching NOTHING) spinn to prevent the inevitable 'bleeding'. I did this immediately after noticing the 'bleed' so that the migrating dye wouldnt full absorb into the white fibers, .... the wash and rinse water looked like BLOOD from a spinn with 1/3 red panels. I was damn lucky. Your outcome may vary.
The only true way to remove the shadows is to recut and resew in new panels.

 

[Tim R.]

The panels can be stained blue but not dyed blue?

 

[RichH]

The panels can be stained blue but not dyed blue?

Profound and correct statement
.... you can 'dye' but the dye certainly will not be 'colorfast'. For just about ALL synthetic fibers the 'dye' must be IN before the fibers are formed (excluding some 'heat/pressure' methods).

 

[BrianH]

RichH

I beg to differ, but most nylon is not solution dyed. You will find in the carpet industry for example that the dye is added after the fiber is produced. This process is called batch or skein dying. The result is a fiber that looks similar to a radish where the color is only on the outside of the fiber. When you get chlorine bleach on the nylon, it removes that outside color leaving you with a yellowish area.

Solution dyed fibers (usually olefin, polyester and and acrylic) are created adding colors to the molten batch prior to the fiber production. These fibers have color throughout, similar to a carrot. Solution dyed fibers are not affected by chlorine bleach and usually do not accept any additional dye.

MasterandConniver, NEVER use bleach on nylon as it turns it yellow. Will you use the sail in it's present state? If no, then you have nothing to lose by trying to clean it. You could try the the RIT dye removal product. If you do, try just a very small area first to see what affect it has and if it works. You will find it works better if it's heated up. Just blot the area and if it's going to work it will work almost instantly!!

If all else fails, you could always redye the entire sail, keeping in mind that you can't dye something lighter, only darker. It has to be significantly darker to hide the marks that are on the white. Think of dying similar to staining wood. You have to go VERY dark to hide all the grains in the wood.

Good luck.