What kind of sails??? dacron, polyamid, mylar

If WHITE Dacron, you can use just about any INORGANIC 'high caustic'
detergent. I prefer a sodium silicate based detergent .... WestMarine
sells a product called "Tuff-eNuff". With any high caustic detergent,
wear goggles, etc. DONT use any detergent that possibly has ORGANIC
solvents ... will/may soften the dacron.

Clean the *Dacron" sails ON the boat, at the dock (White sails ONLY):
On a cloudy windless day .....
Clean the deck
Drop the sail to the deck
Spray on the detergent one panel at a time
Let soak a few minutes,
Scrub with a long handled soft brush
Raise sail to next panel and repeat
Continue to all of one side is wetted/scrubbed with detergent
Lower sail to deck
Repeat on opposite side.
Drop sail to deck and cover with plastic tarp. Spray on a bit ow water
to be sure all is wet. Let sit 1+ hour
Rescrub as you raise each panel again
With garden hose .... slowly raise (several times) sail to *completely*
rinse out the detergent. Raise and lower several times to be *sure*
detergent is out.
Look for rust stains - treat with mix of oxalic acid --- then rinse
again (caution Oxalic needs special precautions - dont let ANY oxalic
mix touch your skin as it will quickly absorb through the skin and
can/may/probably seriously affect your kidneys). Commercial cleaners
containing oxalic: "Zud", Bartenders Friend, etc.
Rinse again.
Raise again or go sailing until dry
Should restore the sail to 'fairly good' cleanliness ....
Then rewax the boat as the caustic detergent will strip off any
wax/dead wax from the gelcoat.

DONT put in a 'washing machine'
AVOID washing a sail on the ground - how are you going to rinse it? ..
Wet dacron when wet picks up dirst faster than when dry. Dirt doesnt
release well from Dacron.
DONT jam it into a large tub and poke at it with a stick.

The caustic detergent will remove a lot of those teeny black spots
(probably artillery fungus, air pollution, etc.) by **dissolving** the
'cells' that are growing there. Dacron is a bitch to get clean as it
holds dirt "like a magnet".

-----------------------------------
Wax a sail???? Not to do or the wax will oxidize and accelerate the
degradation. A wax will only accumulate MORE dirt and FASTER.
If you mean 'plasticizer' the polymer thats added to 'fill-in' the
weave - then you have to look up a sail "reconditioning" business -
some of the others on this NG will list them. Typically if a sail
needs new plasticizer, then its usuallly better to buy new or build
your own - www.sailrite.com for kits, etc.

Hope this helps.



In article , christos
wrote:

i want to clean my sails and then to wax what is the proper cleaner and what
to use for waxing

christos