I sail mostly in salt water. I am lazy about washing the sails. I do try and let them dry rigged before storing. The salt wears on the grommets and anything metal, also seems to break down the finish on dacron sails. My pentex sails are much easier to clean and dry so I do every couple months or so. Salt seems to have little effect on pentex. Life jackets and harnesses are hard to get salt out of, I rinse them every now and then but thats it.