Rust Stains in Sails

[Ozzie]

CONTINUING From the sail storage thread in the general section, which reminded me of an issue from last haulout.

Be cautious. Even though the wire bits of your sails are stainless, we have had to deal with rust stains . Some had obvious cause ie one puzzle hank on the jib has had one ss screw replaced in an emergency with a zinc coated mild steel screw which went off and caused extensive rust staining over winter. Sometimes wire rope can not be good quality and bleed some rust into sails and watch the pop rivets in the headboard of your main have not been repaired using rivets with mild steel mandrills . On a nice moist boat all this stuff will rust and make lovely camouflage patterns on your sail.

As above we have had issues with rust stains over the years and two haulouts ago we tried various stuff . Oxalic acid. K2 rust remover from Home Hardware, CLR from the big green hall, stuff from our local dry cleaner. All this achieved limited success. In the end after chucking all the sails in the swimming pool overnight and then rinsing them off ...nothing. After drying them in the sun I tried the oxalic acid again and sheesh it worked. I thought it must have had something to do with the presoak in the pool and we put them back in the boat.

Last haulout we had some crepe on the main again which I think is the bloody wire boltrope breaking down . Tried the acid again ..use less ...BUT...why the £€¥& did it work last time.

Now don’t quote me on this but I got to thinking what the difference was last time I had duplicated the pool soak and dry out but last time I did it in the hot sun ....and the sails were very very warm , actually HOT. So Mrs Ozzie got her hair dryer and warmed the stained area quite hot and then we hit it with the oxalic.

Pickle me grandma, it worked. All I can deduce is that warming opens the weave of the sailcloth somehow and allows the chemicals, probably any of the chemicals sold for that purpose to work its chemical reaction.

Any chemical engineers among you may have a better rap on it but anyway it worked . Sails are not perfect but a shipload better than they were. There are lots on tips on various sailing forums about stain removal on sails . I’ve read most of them and the results are always varied and inconclusive. What have other posters found ?

[Andrew]

Thanks for the tip Ozzie, rust is a notoriously difficult problem with sails. All ive learnt is dont use bleach as it damages sailcloth, ive tried vinegar solution to remove mould.