Cleaning Sails
- Thread starter fdefran12
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I use a very mild detergent like "Ivory Snow", fill a dinghy with water & a small amount of the Ivory Snow and lightly scrub the sails then let them air dry hanging outside.
If they are really dirty you can use bleach or "Oxy Clean" to help the process, but they can also break down the material over time.
If they are really dirty you can use bleach or "Oxy Clean" to help the process, but they can also break down the material over time.
Don't use a detergent...use a soap. Detergents will damage the resin sizing that the sailcloth is impregnated with to make it less porous. Dreft or Ivory Snow are good choices, as IIRC, they're both soaps, not detergents. Oxy-Clean can help a lot too.
For the woven dacron, WHITE woven dacron NOT colored dacron ....
DO NOT use the following for LAMINATED sails (includes cruising laminates with dacron taffeta):
On a windless, humid, and cloudy day and ON THE BOAT:
Get some SodiumSilicate based detergent (usually found at janitorial supply or industrial hardware stores .... sometimes boat chandlieries will carry a product branded "tuff-eNuff". WM can special order Tuff-eNuff, but expensive),
1. spray on as you raise the sail, mist with a little water, scrub lightly with a long handled brush with **SOFT** bristles,
2. Drop to the deck, then cover with a plastic tarp to 'soak'.
3. After soaking for about a 1/2 to 1 hour, respray and rebrush and let soak under a platic tarp (to prevent the detergent from drying). Then scrub the sail and rinse thoroughly with a garden hose to be SURE that ALL the detergent is rinsed out - raise about 3-4 ft. and go at it from both sides of the sail. You may have to repeat with 'stubborn' staining. The soak time is the most important.
3a. These detergents are caustic and the caustic will **dissolve** the mold/mildew cells.
4. Raise and Lower the sail as you spray with copious water to RINSE the sail thoroughly - so that absolutely NO detergent remains.
Bleaching: (caution do not bleach with ANY detergent still on the sail - rinse first)
1. Get some oxalic acid crystals (hardware or paint store --- also known as 'wood bleach'). Dissolve the oxalic in a small bucket of HOT water .... just enough water to dissolve ALL the crystals. Apply the oxalic with the soft bristled brush (as before) to remove the 'shadows' of the mold mildew, the tannin stains from dirty water, etc. Wear gloves, foul weather gear, etc. as oxalic will absorb through your skin and harm your kidneys.
2. Then *thoroughly* rinse the oxalic from the sails. Best to do this ON the boat on a cool cloudyu windless day --- , slowly raising the sails a few feet at a time to apply the chemicals, brush the crud and rinse with a garden hose.
Important - Dont use these chemicals anywhere near BARE TEAK as they will extract the tannins from the teak and that will get all over the sails. Do NOT use 'organic solvents': gasoline, kerosene, toluene, paint thinner, etc. as they may dissolve/soften the polyester and the 'filler' thats held ('calendered') between the fibers.
3. after thorough rinsing, raise the sails all the way to dry .... then stand back and admire your almost totally white and cleaned sails.
4. Rewax the boat's deck, etc. as the above will also strip the old dead wax out of the boats gelcoat.
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GENNAKER and other sails made from RIPSTOP NYLON.
Wash only with mild SOAP and water, no STRONG detergents. You can if the sail is small, put it into a front load washing machine on GENTLE cycle for a brief time after a long 'soak' with soap, etc..
IMPORTANT #1--- DO NOT USE BLEACH (or oxy-clean, etc. etc.) of any kind on any 'colored' areas, well diluted bleach on the 'white only' areas if 'really' needed.
IMPORTANT #2 - you must immediately THOROUGHLY DRY the sail completely before storage/bagging ... or the colors 'may'/will 'bleed' into one another. !!!!! Drying should be done so that no different color is touching any different color (or white); the sail should be thoroughly dried either by hanging or by sailing, etc. in 'light' winds ---- all to keep the wetted different colors from 'bleeding' into one another.
hope this helps.
DO NOT use the following for LAMINATED sails (includes cruising laminates with dacron taffeta):
On a windless, humid, and cloudy day and ON THE BOAT:
Get some SodiumSilicate based detergent (usually found at janitorial supply or industrial hardware stores .... sometimes boat chandlieries will carry a product branded "tuff-eNuff". WM can special order Tuff-eNuff, but expensive),
1. spray on as you raise the sail, mist with a little water, scrub lightly with a long handled brush with **SOFT** bristles,
2. Drop to the deck, then cover with a plastic tarp to 'soak'.
3. After soaking for about a 1/2 to 1 hour, respray and rebrush and let soak under a platic tarp (to prevent the detergent from drying). Then scrub the sail and rinse thoroughly with a garden hose to be SURE that ALL the detergent is rinsed out - raise about 3-4 ft. and go at it from both sides of the sail. You may have to repeat with 'stubborn' staining. The soak time is the most important.
3a. These detergents are caustic and the caustic will **dissolve** the mold/mildew cells.
4. Raise and Lower the sail as you spray with copious water to RINSE the sail thoroughly - so that absolutely NO detergent remains.
Bleaching: (caution do not bleach with ANY detergent still on the sail - rinse first)
1. Get some oxalic acid crystals (hardware or paint store --- also known as 'wood bleach'). Dissolve the oxalic in a small bucket of HOT water .... just enough water to dissolve ALL the crystals. Apply the oxalic with the soft bristled brush (as before) to remove the 'shadows' of the mold mildew, the tannin stains from dirty water, etc. Wear gloves, foul weather gear, etc. as oxalic will absorb through your skin and harm your kidneys.
2. Then *thoroughly* rinse the oxalic from the sails. Best to do this ON the boat on a cool cloudyu windless day --- , slowly raising the sails a few feet at a time to apply the chemicals, brush the crud and rinse with a garden hose.
Important - Dont use these chemicals anywhere near BARE TEAK as they will extract the tannins from the teak and that will get all over the sails. Do NOT use 'organic solvents': gasoline, kerosene, toluene, paint thinner, etc. as they may dissolve/soften the polyester and the 'filler' thats held ('calendered') between the fibers.
3. after thorough rinsing, raise the sails all the way to dry .... then stand back and admire your almost totally white and cleaned sails.
4. Rewax the boat's deck, etc. as the above will also strip the old dead wax out of the boats gelcoat.
----------------------------
GENNAKER and other sails made from RIPSTOP NYLON.
Wash only with mild SOAP and water, no STRONG detergents. You can if the sail is small, put it into a front load washing machine on GENTLE cycle for a brief time after a long 'soak' with soap, etc..
IMPORTANT #1--- DO NOT USE BLEACH (or oxy-clean, etc. etc.) of any kind on any 'colored' areas, well diluted bleach on the 'white only' areas if 'really' needed.
IMPORTANT #2 - you must immediately THOROUGHLY DRY the sail completely before storage/bagging ... or the colors 'may'/will 'bleed' into one another. !!!!! Drying should be done so that no different color is touching any different color (or white); the sail should be thoroughly dried either by hanging or by sailing, etc. in 'light' winds ---- all to keep the wetted different colors from 'bleeding' into one another.
hope this helps.
I hope I don't sound to stupid here but how do I know what my sail is made from. I have a new to me 1995 Catalina. I am pretty sure I still have the original sails. I am assuming they are Dacron. My boat comes home for the winter. Last year I laid my sail on a cheap 20' x 40' blue tarp that I fastened to the ground with tent spikes. I used a janitors bucket and rope mop(new) with a combination of Ivory Snow warm water and a little bleach. I thoroughly soaped then rinsed before any drying occured. Once dried I flipped the sail and did the opposite side. My yard is on an incline so water runs off. i don't get any puddling.
Could I have done any damage mixing the soap and bleach?
Could I have done any damage mixing the soap and bleach?
Most probably you have WOVEN dacron ... but possibly do have a cruising laminate as this is rapidly replacing woven in lower cost cruising sails.
An easy, but not perfect, means to identify is to hold the cloth in front of bright light and look for a shadow 'pattern' (blocks or X's) in the material (will look like a repeating 'watermark' in expensive paper or paper money) .. if so then probably laminate. Most 'low cost' sails are made from woven dacron ... although top quality woven dacron can sometimes be more expensive than laminated/dacron.
BTW your 'tarp' method is a very good way to clean a sail .... just dont put a quality sail into a 'washing machine'.
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