A: The best way to clean the sail yourself is to lay it out somewhere like a driveway and wash it with soap, water, and a soft brush. Something like Simple Green works well. This will take off most of the dirt and oil spots. For the tough spots you can use a one part bleach to ten parts of water solution, (1:10). For rust stains you will need to use oxalic acid. You can buy it at most supermarkets in small bottles that are used for removing rust stains from fabrics. The stuff I use comes in a brown bottle and is called "Whisk Stain Remover". You just put it on and let it sit for a bit, no scrubbing, and it will oxidize the rust stain. Afterward you always want to rinse the sail really well to remove any cleaning residues. Let the sail dry be leaving it laying out, turning it over from time to time to get totally dry. One of the worst things you can do to a sail is to hoist it up and let it flap around in the wind to dry.

If the sail is really dirty, stained, or mildewed you can bring it into the loft and have it professionally cleaned.