Rusty sails

[solentgal]

A problem that I'm sure many of you will have come across is rust stains on sails. I've got several sails that are spoiled by this problem, ......very annoying.
Has anyone come up with a good way of treating this problem? I've tried various things over the years and never had much success, and am afraid to try anything too powerful.
Any thoughts would be welcome please,
Thanks,

[Roger Holman]

Sami, hello.

You are not alone with the rust stains. Whilst I have not tried this remedy on sails, it works very very well on GRP and is regularly used for removing rust stains. It is a development of commercially available products.

Just about all commercially available products designed to remove rust stains, or clean (unvarnished) teak use Oxalic Acid as the active ingredient, the difficulty is that, preumably due to 'Health & Hindrance' the concentration of Oxalic Acid is relatively low. There is a way round this however, as Oxalic Acid is available in crystaline form, over the counter, at your neighbourhood Pharmacy, a box of about 250g (I think) is not expensive. Having bought the crystals, buy a bottle of Fairy Liquid, empy half into another container, and pour acid crystals into the Fairy liquid. This will take a few minutes due to the viscosity etc.

You are aiming for a 'saturated solution' i.e. when you cannot possibly get any more crystals to disolve in the liquid. At that point you will have a green (or yellow) paste, depending on whether you chose 'original, or lemon flavoured Fairy.

This is now an extremely powerful cleaner; we use it for removing rust and other brown stains from white GRP. Squeeze a dollop onto a cloth and spread it over the area to be treated, agitate gently, a 3M's Scotchbrite is ideal, leave for a few minutes, five is normally plenty, and wash off with lots of fresh water. We have never had any problems using this mixture, we normally wear gloves of some sort, and it would probably hurt if you got it in your eyes, but I at least still have all my fingers.

I have no idea if this will work on sails, but I can think of no reason why not, I will try it next time I have an old sail out, but if you try it, I would like to know the result.

Roger Holman
Mystery J247

[solentgal]

Very interesting Roger, thanks for you reply..............I have bought crystals in the chemist before to try and remove salt stains from light wood, but had little success. However, I think I may have mixed it too weak from what you say, so this may well be worth a try. I can try it on an old sail bag first too, so no risk. I have also used a commercial product on GRP for removing stains, I can't remember the name of it, but would recognise the pack if I saw it I think.....that may also work on sails, but the method you suggest is probably cheaper and more easily controlled.
I'll see if I can get some crystals and give it a go and post the outcome soon I hope.

[Nessa]

sent to me by email:

Hi Vanessa,
Noticed a query from "Sami" on cvrda site regarding rust stains on sails. I cannot post a response - ( have mailed Neil to hopefully sort out). Perhaps you could pass on my comment!
Roger Holman has suggested concentrated oxalic acid/dishwash mixture. Whilst I confirm oxalic acid will do the trick do not suggest using conc. mix with detergent. A reasonably dilute aqueous solution will do the trick ( may require repeat application). This method was given to me by Kevan Bloor of Alverbank Sails who knows what he is talking about. The strong acid/detergent mix could affect any sailcloth treatments.

[solentgal]

Thanks very much Nessa and especially to whoever took the trouble to email you, very helpful. I have a couple of old sailbags which have suffered in the same way, so I will experiment on them with various strengths until I get a result.
I have a rusty sail with my YW pram dinghy, and a spare mainsail from my Javelin that was folded in a bag that must have had something like a rusty tin sitting on it........when I got it out to have a look I found it looked as if it had been "tie-dyed" with a repeat pattern, very fitting for a 1970's boat (maaan) , so it would be nice to get it looking good again.

[Stephen Hawkins]

Did anyone try any of these out?

I have aa few sails that could be given a go.

[Mikey]

I was the person who gave the info. to Nessa. I have used dilute oxalic acid on a number of sails (all Dacron). Depending on the intensity of the stain repeat applications may be required. Wash area with clean water after treatment. Only on one sail there was still slight staining.

[solentgal]

Just to update this:

I bought some oxalic acid online (I can't remember which supplier I used now, but there are several) and it arrived through the door in a jiffy bag, and cost around £5 for 500g.

I mixed it in an old jam-jar with about a teaspoon of crystals in an inch of tap-hot water. Having tried it on an old sail bag and tested it for strength afterwards to make sure it hadn't attacked the material, I draped the stain on a sail over a bucket and just poured a drop onto the sail and let it sit in the hollow on the stain for an hour or so. It worked very well, with the light stains being removed with one application, and some others needing 2 or 3 attempts. I was left with one tiny stain in the centre of one particularly bad bit. Having treated it all I washed them out in the bath.

I'm very pleased with the result, and there appears to be no damage.