BYYB Forums

Can anybody recommend to me the best way to clean sails? My Weekender sails are about twelve years old now and I've washed them once, but didn't really notice a difference.

I've just been looking at old sailing pictures and I miss my crisp white sails. The boat has been re-painted once and still looks great but the sails are gross.

It all got worse this year because the intense forest fires in the N.W.T. caused two bona-fide "pyrocumulonimbus" clouds a week apart that basically dumped black paint on the city. I have Interlux "perfection" on the boat (I know, Paul, like feeding strawberries to a jackass right?) and it still took scrubbing with a "magic eraser" to get that black stuff off. You can imagine what the sails look like., and what's worse, it's all stripey because of the way I had the sails flaked on the boom.

Anyway, I would like to clean the sails. They're the standard weekender sails from Rolly Tasker. Anyone know how to get 'em white?

Hey, Hey Keith,

If you love your jackass, go ahead and feed him strawberries.

Al

Thanks Al.

Agreed, taking care of your ass is always a good idea.

There are about as many concoctions for cleaning sails as laundry detergent decisions for your better half. Usually what happens is the fibers in the material get stained, which is much worse than a topical smear of dirt. Oxi-Clean products will do a good job and there are some specialty products intended to be specifically for sails. As to which one works, well this is a crap shoot and you'll probably try a few, before you get any luck.

One method I used several years ago, when cleaning some old sails that where very badly stained, was to use "Purple Power" (available at the big box stores), I saturated the sails with a pressure washer on low, let it sit for about a 1/2 hour then blasted the crap out of the sails, which where hung from trees in my yard. This might look odd to your neighbors, but mine are pretty use to boats, engines and sails hanging from one or more of my trees. This did make a big difference in the look of the sails, though some stains persisted. Stake the sail down at the corners good, so the pressure washer doesn't push them around much and the water pressure can do it's business.

Hey thanks. I'll try the oxy-clean and then the purple stuff. I guess there's lots of things to try. It's too bad they don't liquefy what ever the stuff is in those "Mr. Clean magic eraser" things, because they can get anything off of anything.

I hadn't thought of pressure-washing for some reason. I'll have to wait until spring now.

Pressure washing in winter is possible, as the water gets fairly hot going through the pump. Possibly pressure washing on the back porch might do, in the great white north. The Magic Eraser stuff is non-chlorine bleach and some other stuff. Maybe by a box of Magic Eraser pads, drop them in a pot and boil them down to something usable.