SailCare was the idea of owner Bill Toy, who has been in the dry cleaning business for more than 70 years. Bill practically grew up in the cleaning business, working after school and on weekends in a retail cleaning shop, and he eventually opened his own successful dry cleaning operation.
Over the years he made an extensive study of effects that cleaning solvents and chemicals can have on all the varied material that a retail cleaner faces day to day: what they do, how they work, and what you can expect when you use them on various fabrics.
This knowledge was the basis of The LaMauney process for sail cleaning, the uniquely effective cleaning and restoration technique that Bill invented.
A New Process for Cleaning and Restoring Sails
Bill has two passions: the cleaning business and sailing. Late in the 1970s the two came together. Dacron/polyester sails had been the standard since the 1950s, but at that time there was no really effective way to get them really clean. Most stains and soil were effected only 50 percent by washing. Convinced that there must be a better way, Bill went to work on what eventually became the LaMauney Process – SailCare’s unique and effective means of restoring sails to like-new condition.
SailCare Makes Landlocked Hometown the Sail Capital of the US
SailCare is located in Ford City, PA, a small town north of Pittsburgh. And though the town is totally landlocked, it is known to many as the Sail Capital of the US! SailCare handles thousands of sails every year, providing mail-order convenience to people everywhere.
The LaMauney Process Leaves Sails in Like-New Condition
The LaMauney Process is the delicate art of cleaning Dacron/polyester sails and then replacing the resins that bind the fibres together to form a durable, waterproof, stain- and UV-resistant sail material. Soiled sails are carefully cleaned and impregnated with fresh resin, which is thermally set. The resin is the catalyst that carries a fungicidal agent to inhibit mildew growth, along with strong ultraviolet protection and a waterproofing formula, back into the cloth.
For many years the sail-cleaning dilemma has been that the fabric in adequately cleaned sails tends to lose its matrix, resulting in loss of shape. SailCare has resolved this problem by replicating the polymerization process and returning the sail to its owner in a near-new condition.
There is also a full-service loft that compliments the cleaning side of the LaMauney Process. Here sails are received and measured and inspected for needed repairs. The sails gets a complete going-over from Bill Toy personally. All needed repairs and modifications such as roller furling and full batten conversions, including hardware, etc., can all be done in-house. When the sail is finished it is again inspected before being shipped back to the customer.
