Sail Cleaning and Repair

Our boat came with 5 sails. A main sail, jib sail, stay sail, 150% genoa, and drifter. Each sail needed cleaning and some needed repairs. I am not an expert. I took sewing classes in high school and have sewn many things over the years since then. I have researched ways to clean and repair sails, take what is practical in light of my budget and facilities, then I just do it.

CLEANING SAILS:

All sails were cleaned, using what I call the bathtub method of cleaning. I've tried the driveway, the yard, a line in the yard, and the bathtub; by far the most efficient and cleanliest is the bathtub method. I use laundry detergent and Oxy-clean, a sponge, and warm water. If I have a tough moldy spot then I use a small amount of bleach on that spot and rinse thoroughly.

I start by letting them soak for a couple hours, at least. Then I scrub with a soft sponge starting at the head of the sail and work down the sail.

 Sail soaking in bath tub, this was the Stay Sail, we have a Cutter Rig.

This is the same sail hanging over the curtain rod. I cleaned both sides with sponge and then rinsed. We were able to lay the sail to air dry in our basement on the carpeted floor, while we were in our house. I'm not sure how we will do this at the marina, but I'll research this and figure it out. If we keep them up we probably don't have to clean them often and not all at once, like we did with these.

The most frustrating part of cleaning used sails is the damage and laziness you encounter from previous owners. On our main sail we had spots of lacquer all over the sail, we are baffled how someone got lacquer on this sail. Yet as we tear apart the boat, we find cheap stuff and corners cut everywhere, so it figures they lacquered and didn't bother to cover the sail, even our brass port windows have lacquer on them, UGH! With some elbow grease and basic supplies, I cleaned this things up nicely. When we raised our main sail on the boat last week it was nice and white, love raising a clean sail.

REPAIRING SAILS:

I used my Pfaff 332 to repair the stitches and tears on the sails. Our sailing instructor told us about his wife's patch work on their main sail, and I read about the strongest way to patch a tear, both said to use the a patch material and then zigzag stitch around it, so that is what I did. We bought the sail tape (Dacron-for jib, main, genoa, and stay sails and Nylon - for drifter) and a polyester uv and mildew resistant thread. I was able to use an 18 size needle, and the machine fixed all the patches with ease.

Repair of the Drifter: 

I reinforced the stitching above because it had come loose, and below shows a tear between the clew and tack of sail. This drifter is made of nylon and is very thin and frail, the foot of the sail is easily caught on sharp or pointy objects. It reminds me of a parachute, but I understand it is very helpful in light winds. It is similar to a spinnaker, but without the pole.

 Patched this using nylon tape and zigzag stitch with polyester thread.

Repair of the Genoa:

This sail is made of a lighter weight Dacron, I believe it is a 150% Genoa. The foot of this sail encountered something and endured some tears between Clew and Tack, similar to the Drifter. 

Above is the tear, and below is the patch using Dacron tape and the polyester thread.

 Another small tear.

 Patch using Dacron tape and polyester thread in zigzag stitching around tear.

 More small tears.

 Small patches and stitches.

Repair of the Main Sail:

There was a tiny tear in the main sail. I patched it with Dacron tape and polyester thread.

Here is the Pfaff 332, hard at work!