My recent purchase (P16) came with a nice set of sails. It does seem that the boat got knocked over in some petroleum waste though. Not a lot, but enough small tar balls on the sails to be annoying. Any ideas on what might remove/reduce those? It's a real nice set of sails, apart from that.
It's on both sides, and more toward the top of the rig. Blue on the bottom is clean. Makes me think it got dumped in the Gulf during the D/H thing. Anybody have any luck removing tar from sails?
By the way, thanks for all the info, it's priceless.
I've never used it on sails, but have used WD40 to remove tar from all kins of things, including my skin. So I would think it would be safe for sails, but maybe test it on one spot. Afterwards I'd clean the whole sail with OxiClean, I've washed dacron sails by simply laying them out in the (concrete) driveway, hosing down, then lightly scrubbing with a strong solution of OxiClean and then a good rinse.
dishwashing soap should work unless it has some solids in it
Edited by matt922 on Jul 20, 2011 - 01:11 AM.
use the dishwash soap they use for removing oil from wildlife....? I forget the brand 😕
Dawn.
Sounds reasonable, if it can clean up an oiled Egret it ought to get tar off a sail. The sails look really good and if I can get the majority of the spots off or at least minimized it would be very nice.
this past winter i had my sails restored @ sail care. there were rust stains, hydraulic fluid, chicken grease, mildew, and a few unidentifyable ones on them. they dryclean them then do a 3 part process of a mildercide, uv protec, and water proofing...a process they call lamanuay(?). they also did a number of sail repairs. they turned out real good...as like new as a set of 33yr old sails can be. it's not cheap, i spent 425$, but the before and after is amazing, they were rough.
I am going to try Dawn first. If I still have a lot of black spots I may give sail care a shot this winter. The sails are in pretty good shape overall, cleaning would be pretty much all they would need. Do you remember how much of the $425 was cleaning?
i think the clean/re-resin part was about 130$ add 65$ if you want to keep on old sail numbers(they sew them on because glued ons will come off during treatment), shipping was about 14$ each way.
Damons idea works, I've done it with large tarps. However for tar, I would modify the approach. Tar has a nasty habit of smearing around, what started as a 1" blob, quickly grows to 1 foot!
Use something like Goof Off, or rubbing alcohol, & spot clean each glob of tar. You cuold even tape around them so they cannot smear onto other parts of the sail. Once you get the individual areas clean, then go for the whole burrito. This just might save you some grief.
You are correct, 5 minutes with Goof Off and i had diminshed the spot, but it is now a larger dull stain. Methinks I will sail what I got till winter and then bundle them up and send them off. I looked at the web site for sail care, works for me.