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Sailcare running up the tab?

6K views 21 replies 16 participants last post by  TakeFive 
#1 ·
I sent my 13 year old mainsail to Sailcare for cleaning and re-resining. They had told me over the phone that their base price would be about $100 for my 129 sq ft sail.

I just got the quote back from them, and with all the extras the total is over $350. For example, they want $88 to sew on the numbers and insignia. They're already stuck on very well, but the guy told me that they might start to come off a little when they clean the sail. But it seems that all these extras have tripled the price of the work.

My main question is how many of the extras are generally necessary, in your experience? Does everyone have their numbers and insignias sewn on, or is it OK to just re-glue them if they start to come off in their process? $88 seems like an awful lot of extra cost to add on to a $100 cleaning job.

I do plan to call the guy and talk to him again about the necessity of all this, but thought I'd get a second opinion first.
 
#4 ·
I had the same experience. 200 turned into 600plus shipping. I let them do it and was very impressed with the cleaning job. BUT, I would never let them do repair work again. Nothing with a sewing machine. Terrible work at very high price. Have repair work done before you send it. I had to have it all redone. They even sewed my baton pockets shut "repairing" them. But these problems did come back on a surprisingly clean sail. Would never do it on a newer sail, but if you just don't want to look bad it works
 
#6 ·
We had SailCare "recondition" an old main and 135 Genoa for our previous yacht in 2000. The sails looked and performed as new after they were returned. For the sake of comparison, a new main for your C-250 from a discount sailmaker is upwards of $900.00. From a mainline sail maker likely a good bit more. Considering the foregoing, SailCare's pricing isn't too bad. You can, of course, re-glue the numbers if it comes to it so that could be a savings.

Good Luck!
 
#8 ·
Just pay to have it cleaned as you originally intended. Upselling happens everywhere, when you take your car in for service, and in a restuarant. The consumer can make the choice.

Dave
 
#9 ·
Kind of like all of the engine cleaning services they sell to add revenue at service stations. A total waste.

* Sails that have been well-stored do not benefit
from cleaning. Period. At most, a light scrubbing on the front lawn and rinse. Lightly bleach a few spots, if really needed. Easy DIY. Most of the work is getting the sail on-and-off the boat anyway.
* Clean sails don't work better.
* Heavily cleaned sails have been beat up in the process. Loosens insignia, hint, hint.
* Resinating a sail doesn't help the shape. I had a friend that sailed one-design that had his sail done; it was actually slower. Yes, it was crisp, but they had locked in a blown out shape and it was that much harder to down-haul the pocket forward. He ordered a new sail a week later, poorer for the expereince.

While it might "feel" like good maintenance, it probably results in no net functional benefit and the money would better go to a new sail. They have their fans, though. Probably people who wax their gel coat twice a year. I guess I'm just not that into "clean." I'm into functional, low cost, and longevity.
 
#10 ·
What about black mold stains? I've been told that the cleaning services can not get them out either.
 
#22 ·
Have you ever left Jiffy Lube paying only for a 19.99 oil change?
Actually, I NEVER get any of the extra services at those places. I can replace my own air filter, thank you. And the thing they do where they put the transmission fluid on the paper towel is a total scare tactic and scam. So it's out of character for me to get those extra services. But, of course, this time we're talking about my boat, and that's my weakness. ;) So you can see my decision in the previous post.
 
#12 ·
I know from talking to a previous owner (prior to the guy I bought it from) that my boat was not used at least 4 years of its life, so the sail does not have a full 13 years of use. I've hand-washed this sail twice before, and know I could make it look perfectly clean by myself. I believe it has a decent amount of life left in it. The draft is in about the right place, for cruising it appears to drive the boat OK. The stitches have no apparent UV degradation, the batten pockets are in great shape (though I prefer not to have them stitched shut :mad: ).

I had heard good things about Sailcare, and was interested in their process to re-resin the sail, which is included in the cleaning treatment. I realize that it will not restore the original shape of a new sail, but re-resining it will strengthen it enough to prevent small tears from getting larger. That's what I still plan to do.

I saw what a badly worn sail looks like when I retired my genoa, which had severe UV degradation. The mainsail is nothing like that.

I'm going to have this done, the only question is whether to spring the $88 for stitching the numbers and logos. I talked to the guy about it today, and he says that the cleaning solvents can soften the adhesive and cause the numbers and logo to de-adhere. I told him I'll think about it overnight and will call him tomorrow.
 
#14 ·
Their estimate should have appraise you of any likely collateral damage. They know damn well that sails have sail numbers on them, and if those are likely to come off an old sail, they should mention that up front.

I'd tell 'em to clean it like the said, and if they damage the sail numbers, they can glue them back on. Same as any car wash that damages my car, that's their problem, especially when they don't warn me.

How else did $188 become $350?
 
#18 ·
I hate to disagree vis-a-vis sail numbers, logo's et al, but at least here we often see boats sailing with unmarked sails, particularly if they are replacement sails for original equipment and the owners are not racers. Of the 40+ sail boats in our little 55 slip marina, I suspect less than half have marked sails. N'any case, re-gluing or even hand sewing isn't a big deal. I've redone ours a couple of times as the sun here (southwest Florida) can really eat up glued markings.

FWIW...
 
#15 ·
Rick,
I've always used Moorhouse Sailmakers in Lumberton, NJ. Every other season I get the sails cleaned and repaired. The cleaning is $99 and the minor repairs/re-stitching usually come in around $25-$35.

Skip sold the business last year but I'm told the woman who did most of his work is still there so I'm going to give them a try.

So there are local options if you're not happy with Sailcare's work.

Jim
 
#16 · (Edited)
I understand exactly where Sailcare is coming from with the add-ons.
Clean a sail and send it back with peeling numbers- customer is now unhappy.
Clean a sail and send it back with the same failing stitching as it had when it came in- customer is unhappy.

Mention to the customer AFTER he receives his sail and he calls in to express his dissatisfaction that you could have fixed the numbers and the stitching, and the customer says, "why didn't you tell me you could do that/ the sail needed that/ that could happen? I would have paid for it!"

From a customer service standpoint the vendor is in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't," situation. But at least if you tell the customer what his sail needs to come back to him in the best possible condition, prior to starting work, then the customer has the choice of opting for the $100 and understanding the possible outcomes, or opting for the work recommended.
 
#20 ·
Yes, that is exactly the situation, and I fully understand his desire to take the most conservative approach to ensure that I come away fully satisfied. The pain of an additional $88 would go away much faster than the dissatisfaction of losing a logo or a number.

He's explained that to me very clearly, and it's up to me to decide whether to take the risk and save $88. My numbers and logo are at least 95% adhered - just a little loss around the edges. If everything stays on and doesn't get torn, I can easily reglue them. The risk is if something comes off completely and gets lost or ripped.

So at this point, the most valuable advice I could get would be from someone who got the Sailcare treatment and opted against having the stitching done. How well did your numbers make it through their process?
 
#17 ·
I had the sails on my boat cleaned and repaired at Sailcare a few months ago and I had a great experience all around....the repair work they did was good quality and about the same cost as a quote I had gotten from a local loft, and the cleaned and resined sails perform incredibly well - I think they hold their shape better now but that might just be my imagination. Once the Sailcare folks got the sails they sent me a quote that detailed out the repairs that they recommended, which were in line with what I had expected. The sails are over 10 years old and had gotten dingy and rust stained....today they look like brand new.

I have no connection to Sailcare other than being a satisfied customer, but all in all I think I got good value out of their service. Five years from now I'll look for someone to build me a new set of sails, but in the meantime I'm enjoying flying some crisp white canvas for a change!
 
#21 ·
FWIW, I called Sailcare today and told them to go ahead and do all the work they recommended. While $88 is a lot of money to me, it's better to make sure the logo/numbers are permanently attached before doing the cleaning. It just wasn't worth the potential aggravation of risking completely losing or tearing them. This is a one-time cost that will eliminate any need to reattach them now or in the future, so my feeling was just do it.

The other "extras" that were quoted were some localized mending and resetting the bolt rope, which had shrunken from moisture exposure. This latter item will actually improve sail shape somewhat, though it obviously does not undo the stretching of the fabric. However, the sail is in good overall shape and worth putting some money into to prolong its life.

With my refurbished mainsail and the new headsail that I bought from Doyle 2 years ago (which just "broke in" to a nice foil shape this year), I should be good to go for the next several years, by which time I may be looking for another boat.
 
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