How do I clean filthy sail?

[Modulation]

Irecently bought a boat with a furled jib which had been left up for the last 3 years. You can imagine the state it was in.
I had it washed and valeted by my local sailmaker which imoroved it a bit. However, it's still got a lot of ingrained fine dirt - perticularly along the leech and the foot. I think this is because the boat was laid up very close to a dredging dock.
Anyone got any ideas or know of a miracle cleaning product? I've tried one or two from chandlers - Boatpride, I think - no effect.

 

[Guest]

Sadly if the sailmaker can't improve it nothing will that won't damage the sail cloth.
The best thing for a sail is slightly soap water and then thourghly washed in fresh water. I've had better results with that than any product an the market.

 

[PaulJ]

I once had to do a similar job on a filthy sprayhood and used a pressure hose but be warned - it tended to fray any raw edges and I don't know what it would do to the porosity of the fabric...... it got the sprayhood clean though! You could try it on a small area and see how it goes.

 

[robp]

A poster on here a few months ago said that he soaked his sails overnight in wheelie bin with Biotex. Apparently it was very successful. Be warned about machines though, a Sail Maker told me more recently, "don't launder your sails in a washing machine, it'll knock the stuffing out of them". I guess also that the original quality of sails has some bearing on the matter.

 

[steveh]

We tried the Biotex method and it worked very well - we also put lemon juice on the stains and left in the sun to bleach Now have nice white sails.

 

[jollyjacktar]

Use a filthy sail cleaner NM

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[bedouin]

If the problem is mainly in the UV protection strip, as your posting suggests, it is a comparatively easy job for a sailmaker to replace it