Mildew and green algae on genoa

[John_Clarke]

Our roller furling genoa is 4 years old and the rash of black mildew speckles has increased each year. This autumn it has also become streaked with green algae along the luff rope and foam inserts.

Is this normal and is there anything which can be done to stop it getting worse? We live in N. Ireland so the damper climate is a problem. Would furling the sail more loosely help it to stay drier?


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[MainlySteam]

We also have a foam luffed genoa, it also has a long foot and is relatively heavy for hard conditions, so the roll is fat and we suffered the same problem. We now take it down and bag it if it is not going to be used for any length of time outside of the main summer months when it is warmer and drier (if it gets wet it will dry rolled if warm weather, but not in winter).

To fix the initial problem we hit it with bleach in the same concentrations and time as recommended for domestic laundry (it is a polyester sail, don't do it otherwise). It actually, by accident got an extended soak but does not seem to have done it any harm. The house we were in at the time had a very (very!) big round bath so I put it in that and went out leaving it for our teenage son to pull the plug on and then fill with rinse water. Only trouble was he could not reach the plug to get it out with the weight of more than 500 sq.ft. of sail on top of it so had to wait for me to get home quite some time later.

That cleaned it up except for some staining still in the glue lines and the foam but which is not really noticable for a working (rather than pretty) sail. We are religous about keeping it down, as said above, now. Others don't seem to have the same problem and leave theirs furled all winter, so I suspect it is partly to do with the foam luff.

John

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