Washed my Sails

[Squidd]

Noticed it this winter when I laid out the #4 that I made (reconstructed) on top the Genny I got off e-bay just how dirty and rust stained my sails were...



I wanted them to look "presentable" on the lake considering all the work I did to spruce up the boat...More like this...



I looked at the main and laid a "comparison patch on it at the head and the reef point



Then went to work following the suggestions I gleaned from RichH and others...

Big Tub (about the size of cockpit floor) and small bucket of Sodium Silicate Detergent...Soaked sails one at a time for 3 days..Stirring a couple times a day with a canoe paddle ((Just weren't clean enough after a couple hours or even overnight)...




Dumped tub and rinsed with clean water...Then to get rid of rust stains, I mixed a bucket with a gallon of water and half a small bucket of Oxalic Acid and scrubbed the "rusty" ares with the brush on a tarp I laid out on the lawn...Then back in the rinse water for another day to let the rust remover do it's work...

Rinsed one more time and hung out on a line to dry...



Sails look much more presentable cleaner whiter and no noticeable rust staining, but still a little "wrinkly"...I'm still tempted to "iron" them but will wait to see what stretching them out sailing on the lake does...(they'll just get wrinkly when I put them in the bag anyway..)



Whole project less than $50...

[Peter]

Nice job on the sails, Sqidd. A tip on rust stains: a dab of Davis FSR gel on both sides of the sail makes them go away. It also contains oxcalic acid.

[earlylight]

I second the tip of using FSR. It worked extremely well removing 2 small rust stains from my new Quantum 130 Genoa.

[lsheaf]

Wow look good, I’m thinking of trying this out. Where did you buy the sodium silicate?

[atomvoyager]

It's an 8 year old thread so they may be gone. If you google Sodium Silicate Detergent you'll find several common brands available. I haven't used them and don't know what is best but give it a try.

[lsheaf]

I Didn’t realize it was that old when I posted. I wasn’t sure if it was a pretty common ingredient found in regular stores but I did find it on amazon. After doing more research I wound up using oxiclean. The mainsail came out pretty good.