Old sail revival....

wgsmith 20647's picture
Submitted by wgsmith 20647 on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 02:07

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All, I have on old Mirror 20647 with sails that have turned orange over time and have lost their 'firmness'. I came across www.sailcare.com which claims to clean and restore sails, I reached out to them and they do not add color back tho. A rough estimate based on their web site to clean and restore would run around US$100. Has anyone used this service? What was the final cost? What was the service like, What was the resulting work like?
Thanks for your comments,
Bill

62816inBerlin's picture

62816inBerlin

Wed, 01/03/2018 - 13:28

If you are not into racing the boat, a restoration is probably not necessary. It probably only involves cleaning and application of some kind of stiffening varnish. When I still had my old mainsail (which is now somewhere in Ohio/USA) I simply hand-washed the spider-shit marks out in a tub by hand, then did a gentle wash in our machine, with no spin-dry after. I hung it out flat and then it looked OK (aesthetically).
I do not think any amount of restoration will correct a badly stretched sail and mine was definitely in that condition (see picture on page 18 of my 2012 publication ), so in the end, in the interest of a bit more upwind efficiency, I ordered a new mainsail from Trident UK. It arrived in Berlin, complete with my number on it, within a week after I'd placed the order. The new, extremely stiff sailcloth took some getting used to, as the old sails had been made of a very soft pliable material.
Cheers, good health and have a great 2018 sailing year!
Gernot H.