Cleaning Sails - is this OK to use

[chasroberts]

Sat here in the Med we get a lot of 'red rain' which contains large quantities of very fine sand, presumably from the Sahara. These have left our Genoa badly streaked with reddish stains. This is presumably some sort of iron compound in the sand. Despite scubbing vigourously with detergents etc these stains just will not budge.
A friend in the Marina has the same problem and recently used some sort of oxalic acid solution which admittedly gave startling results.
Now after all this rambling my questions are:
Will this damage the sailcloth?
If not what strength solution etc can i use.

As always I will defer to the wisdom of those far more experienced in these matters than me.
Many thanks in advance for all thoughts and comments.

Chas

 

[eastcoastbernie]

I have in front of me the Sailrite catalogue. Under 'Dacron sailcloth care' it states:

Most sailmakers simply recommend frequent hosing with fresh water and if that is not sufficient, they suggest spreading out the sail on a smooth, clean surface and brushing it lightly with a mild detergent solution then rinsing thoroughly.

For spots and stains:

Rust: soak the affected area in a 5% solution of OXALIC ACID dissolved in hot water. Follow this with a 2% solution of hydrochloric acid in warm water and, finally, rinse well with clear water.

Other advice is given for oil, tar and varnish - tricholorethylene by itself or in a solution with liquid detergent. And for mildew, soak the area in a 1% solution of chlorine and cold water. Vinegar will control mildew if used rather frequently.

Not tried of these myself - but it does give the solution strength if you wanted to give it a go.