Help desperately needed clean a sail

[pucker up]

As a birthday present for a dear friend i am trying to restore her starwind 190, it has been sitting for 11 years. WE WILL HAVE THE BOAT IN THE WATER FOR HER 75TH BIRTHDAY. JUNE 4.

The sails have been sitting in the boat for 11 years, they are strong, but boy are they stained. Right now they are soaking in Woolite and Chlorox II, can be use bleach. They have a type of reddish mold. I have read that if they are dacron, diluted bleach is ok, but I do not know how to tell if they are dacron, nylon or kevlar, They ar orignall to the boat.

Can anybody out there help us. I would really like to have clean sails for the birthday trip.
Thank you JJ

 

[Ross]

They are undoubtedly polyester but if you wish to check try a spot of "Rit" dye. Nylon will accept water borne dyes but polyester will not. water borne dyes will rinse out of polyester but are fast in nylon. melting tempertures and stretch are other defining factors but are beyond the scope of field testing.

 

[BobM]

Very unlikely to be an exotic material if they are white and over 11 years old. I go for the bleach. Note that Clorox is 6% hypochlorite, so you should dilute it ~1:5 to achieve ~1%. Adding a little dishwashing liquid to it won't hurt either and scrubbing gently with a stiff bristle brush. If soaking it for an hour or two (followed by copious rinsing to remove the bleach) doesn't help you are probably doing more harm than good in continuing. You should just send the sails out to a pro, like Sailcare, to see what they can do for you, but in any case you don't have enough time to do so. If you have any doubts about what you are doing, please just stop. Dirty sails still work fine and were I here I'd prefer that to potential damage.

 

[kendall]

Something that I've used is super clean or purple power, wet the sails then spray some super clean on the stains. I normally use a soft bristle hair brush.
Wear gloves, the stuff will defat your skin. Diluted it seems to be OK, but I still use gloves. It's pulled gear lube out of sails for me, and doesn't seem to harm the sails at all.
The last set of sails I cleaned with it sat on the floor of the PO's garage for at least 5 years with all kinds of crap stacked on them. If I'd looked at the sails before buying the boat I would have had second thoughts.

Ken.

 

[Capn Dave]

Got a friend with a pool?

If so and he is not using it, throw the sail in. Let it soak a couple of days. The chlorine in the pool is weak enough that it wont really hurt the sails. Is it warm enough to go swimming where you are? If so jump in with the sail and stir it up once in awhile. Your not really swimming your working, cleaning the sail.

Fair Winds

Dave