Last July, I was in the process of commissioning RAMONA, my Nigel Irens–designed Romilly, which had not been in the water since 2019. At the end of that season, I had rolled the 206-sq-ft fully battened mainsail around its battens to store it in its bag in the covered boat. A couple of years later I hauled the sail out for inspection before sliding it back into the bag, tying it up, and storing it on sawhorses in the boatshed. When I pulled the sail out of the bag, I could hardly believe my eyes. I had put it away clean, but mice had made themselves at home and, as I thought on first inspection, had destroyed an old but perfectly serviceable sail.
Photographs by the author
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Ben,
Unless I missed it, you didn’t say what the sail is made of. I’m assuming regular Dacron?
Regular 4 oz dacron is the stuff. I’ve taken it up to my favorite sailmakers for repair.
I am really glad I found this. After all years storing sails I had the same urine damage just this past year. Going to give this treatment a try. I just started dry storing my lines and sails in a tight lidded Rubbermaid brand trash can indoors. so far they seem to be holding up. I am also looking into some packs of moisture absorbers to prevent mildew.
Great discovery! Folex has been a problem solver for years of raising puppies, but I never considered it for sails. Come spring, I’m going to try it on some stains from the leathers on the spars of my lug sail.
Thanks Ben!
I recently bought a lovely little ‘glass Wittholz 11 with a badly chewed and stained sail. I repaired the holes and leech line, but regular laundry soap made very little difference in the stains. I’ll try your method next.