[Alberg30] Sail Cleaning

Villo Marmei marmei_v at pathcom.com
Sun Sep 28 08:44:24 PDT 2003


Hi ROGER......

Call North.....They stand by their products with a full guarantee....The 
sail is defective and they will replace your NO GOOD SAIL sail with a New 
sail. There is no reason that water and humidity should go in between the 
Mylar laminates.
An alternative is to fumigate the sail...have one of those fumigating pest 
control companies open one little corner of your sail and blow some special 
cyanide gas ( they know what to use) into the sail and kill the 
mold....then you could treat the sail with an inert gas like nitrogen to 
stop new mold bacteria from attacking the sail for a second time. Make sure 
to sew and glue (Contact cement) the small opening in the sail 
closed...very tightly.
Happy Sailing
William A30




At 11:12 AM 9/27/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>Albergers (how I learned to stop worrying and love the cholesterol),
>
>I have a 130 Genoa by North made of some form of laminated Mylar, I think 
>they call it "NorLam."  It probably was expensive and is in pretty good 
>shape; plus, it is my only sail that fits the roller fuller.  Problem is 
>that must of been rode hard and put away wet because it has so much mildew 
>(apparently between the layers) the sail is completely grey (almost looks 
>like it was intended to be that color).
>
>I seem to have several options; 1) sell the boat, buy a Whaler and go 
>fishing, 2) risk ruining the sail by cleaning it with harsh chemicals, 3) 
>dye the sail a dark color (no, really, this might work if I can figure our 
>how to dye Mylar without "dying" the sail or dying the deck after it 
>rains), 4) live with it till I can afford to replace it then make it into 
>some kind'a weird tent.
>
>Since it involves no expenditure of time or money, the latter option may 
>prevail by default.  Of course, the Kingsland family risks our A30 peers 
>saying among themselves during cockpit cocktails, "that sure is a pretty 
>boat but have you ever seen her with the 130 flying, yuk."   Maybe I could 
>add some windows and a bunch of telltales and pretend it is some sort of 
>secret, high tech, experimental sail I am test driving for North (of 
>course, since their development team now consults with me on a regular 
>basis, it would be an easy sell).
>
>There is also an opportunity to use the mildewed Mylar as the conceptual 
>basis for renaiming the boat (our other conundrum).  Instead of "My Last 
>Boat II" (thanks to Bill Mahony for that one) or "Dad's Money Pit" (thanks 
>to some motor boater's wife for that one), we could name her "Grey Lady" 
>or "Mal de Mylar."  How about, "Genoa-a-Go-Go" or "Jib's-a-Joke"  (do you 
>think the bridge tenders will be able to figure out the hyphens?).
>
>Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  The thunderstorm has passed and 
>the sun comes forth, so back to rubbing and scraping the nameless boat 
>(please, Gord, don't even think usurping naming responsibility).
>
>All for now
>
>Roger Kingsland
>Chief Financial Officer (AKA, check writer)
>The sailing artist formally known as Mahina Manu,  A30 #148
>N40°  29.288'
>W79°  54.228'
>
>Author's Disclaimer; This email was produced exclusively by the sender 
>and, in the interest of expediency, without the benefit of editing by 
>others.  The sender, thank goodness, is a much better architect/sailor 
>than speller/editor and, frankly, constantly laments an obvious flaw in 
>"spell check," it does not know what the author is thinking.  Please 
>accept the sender's sincere apologies for any "typos" that may appear in 
>this document.  If present, they are certainly unintended and hopefully do 
>not cloud the message, or spawn any unnecessary lawsuits.
> >
> >
> > > Hi Christos,
> > >
> > > Depending on how much of the sail is soiled you can spot clean it or
> > stretch
> > > it out on a clean lawn and hand wash and rinse the whole thing - it is
> > time
> > > consuming but your sail will keep it's structural integrity. The other
> > thing
> > > is to make sure it is dry when you put it away. Don't hang it in a breeze
> > to
> > > flap about as some people do as it again breaks down the resins.
> > >
> > > We are on the Great Lakes so rinsing salt off is not an issue.
> > >
> > > Very soft brush or cloth only.
> > >
> > > Try to walk on it as little as possible - it's really quite straight
> > > forward.
> > >
> > > You can talk to good sailmakers about more aggressive cleaners if you 
> have
> > > to have them absolutely clean but avoid those commercial cleaning
> > companies
> > > like the plague. I saw a beautiful suit of A-37 sails (Murphy Nye's)
> > ruined
> > > by a commercial cleaner and was with the sailmaker when he unbagged them
> > and
> > > the first words out of his mouth were - "oh no, they've had them 
> cleaned."
> > > He then showed me what it had done to the cloth.
> > >
> > > I have only spot cleaned my sails when something was really yucky like
> > bird
> > > poop or limited area of dirt. They don't stay absolutely white forever -
> > but
> > > a little discoloration is normal. I do rinse them from time to time 
> to get
> > > any airborne grit off so it doesn't work it's way in, but the resins do a
> > > good job on their own of keeping grit out, and an occasional rinse is
> > mostly
> > > all I do.
> > >
> > > Best of luck
> > >
> > > Cheers,
> > >
> > > John
> > >
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "Christos Katehis" <GreekSailor at worldnet.att.net>
> > > To: "Alberg 30 public list" <public-list at alberg30.org>
> > > Sent: Friday, September 26, 2003 7:09 AM
> > > Subject: Re: [Alberg30] Sail Cleaning
> > >
> > >
> > > > John,
> > > >
> > > > Have you washed your sails? Other than lots off space to hang and wash,
> > > what
> > > > else is important?
> > > >
> > > > Thanks
> > > >
> > > > Chris
> > > >
> > > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > > From: "John Birch" <Sunstone at cogeco.ca>
> > > > To: "Alberg 30 public list" <public-list at alberg30.org>
> > > > Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2003 1:43 PM
> > > > Subject: Re: [Alberg30] Sail Cleaning
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > > As a rule of thumb - never clean your sails with anything stronger
> > than
> > > > > detergent and a very soft brush or cloth - and do the work by hand.
> > > > > Commercial washers put them in machines which breaks down the resins
> > and
> > > > > ruins them. The cloth becomes much more "stretchy" as the resins that
> > > help
> > > > > bind the threads & fibres and are broken down in the commercial
> > cleaning
> > > > > process. I've seen this damage first hand - sail looks great but you
> > can
> > > > > stretch the cloth by hand off the bias - something you can't do with
> > > cloth
> > > > > in good shape.
> > > > >
> > > > > I have no specific knowledge of the company you are referring to.
> > > > >
> > > > > My source is my sailmaker and every sailmaker I've talked to and 
> books
> > > > I've
> > > > > read.
> > > > >
> > > > > Thx.
> > > > >
> > > > > John
> > > > >
> > > > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > > > From: "Christos Katehis" <GreekSailor at worldnet.att.net>
> > > > > To: "Alberg 30 public list" <public-list at alberg30.org>
> > > > > Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2003 12:42 PM
> > > > > Subject: [Alberg30] Sail Cleaning
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > Has anyone used  "The sail Cleaners" in Ft. Lauderdale, FL ?
> > > > >
> > > > > Christos Katehis
> > > > > Kasia #383
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