"Ian Malcolm" wrote
Hmm, I'm more worried about the amount of rust on the forestay bottlescrew. If there is any crevice corrosion going
on, you could have the whole rig down around your ears next time you take the boat out. Needs looking at by someone
with experience ASAP.

Bottlescrew? Is that the turnbuckle? The turnbuckle's OK.
The forestay broke during a storm and the only thing holding up the
mast was the jib halyard and the backstays so you know what your talking
about. But I had a new forestay made up. They wanted the turnbuckle too.
They said they needed to adjust it to the middle position to make the forestay
the right length. They cleaned it up so it looked like new and they never said
there was anything wrong with it. That was about six months ago. The salt air
rusts things pretty fast.

1. Its almost certainly past the 'take it to a sailmaker' stage, that is unless you *enjoy* public ridicule.

roflmao Do you think I'd be here if public ridicule bothered me?

2. If you can get another sail, maybe a used one, DO. It will need to either be off the same type of boat or measure
the same within a few inches along each side. It should still have some 'crackle' to the cloth, should have no tears
mended or otherwise larger than a couple of inches and the luff wire shouldn't feel crunchy when you flex the luff
betweeen your hands(Bend it in about a 3" radius curve, it should spring back immediately) nor should there be any
more than small slight isolated ruist stains. Most or all of the stitching should be good and none of the corner eyes
should be damaged. If it hasn't got hanks or even eyelets for them, DONT WORRY as long as there is a luff wire and a
wide enough tabling on the luff to add them without cutting any stiching if needed later. If you have any friend who
sails, take them with you when buying second hand.

I could look around on the Internet for used jibs but finding one that's
blue and white like mine's probably impossible. Most sails are just plain
white.

3. If you cant get a replacement (money or availibility) your current sail can *probably* be saved.

I'll save it.... I can hand sew. Duh! I have friends with machines.

4. The Oxalic acid solution I described is TOXIC by skin contact or if swallowed or otherwise ingested and the Formic
acid isn't very nice either. AVOID SKIN CONTACT and have plenty of fresh water to wash off any splashes immediately.
It will attack *any* common metal so dont get it on any corner of the sail you wish to save (unless you want to be
putting new eyes in the corners) and use a plastic container. Spilt or waste acid should be neutralised with pordered
or granular chalk or limestone untill it stops fizzing before dispopsal. Read the safety instructions on the packet.
They will do what I said they would and the oxalic acid is safe on normally stitched polyester sailcloth (not suitable
for high tech laminates), but with a sail in that bad condition it may take several extended treatments to get the
rust out, rinseing thouroughly in between.

Duh! I'm not that dumb. I know acid burns. I'll wear rubber gloves and rinse it
all off several times. I'm just surprised the acid won't dissolve the sailcloth or take
the color out of it. Are you sure it won't turn the blue white?

5. As a last resort after the Oxalic has done its work, if you still cant shift the old luff wire you could unpick the
SINGLE line of zigzag stitching nearest to the wire. Also remove all the hanks and damaged eyelets for them (carefully
cutting the brass with sharp pointed snips in several places round the ring without nipping the cloth then peeling the
brass back works for me). Wearing gloves to protect you from sharp wire ends roll the wire inside the luff between
your palms, shaking as much rust out as possible. You should then be able to snip the wire at several of the eyelets
you removed without further damaging the cloth and remove the wire piecemeal. I would'nt be surprised to find it has
a plastic coating over the wire which would be why it rusted. When you've got it out, a thourough re-treatment with
the Oxalic should get *most* of the staining out of the cloth. Refitting the new wire is much as I described, but
you'll need to re-stitch the zigzag seam by hand with the wire in the correct place, re-using the same needleholes and
either going back over it or using two needles so its double stitched with one thread lieing on each side of the cloth
at every stitch.

Thanks, I *will* get all the old wire out even if I have to unstitch the whole
thing. Your right it's better than cutting the luff in front. That was a good
suggestion. I'm gonna put cord in instead of wire. Those plastic hanks need
something round to grip on or they'll probably slide up and down. Edgar
says those plastic hanks are trash. But they only cost sixty cents each and
they're easier to put on. If they keep coming off all by themselves I can
always take them back off and put on brass hanks. But brass hanks cost about
five dollars each and are just going to get all corroded again....

Cheers,
Ellen

P.S. I wish you wouldn't believe Katy's lies. She's just jealous of me. She's been
poisoning everybody against me from the very start. What a bitch!