Cost of saving Cutty Sark soars to £40m as rust eats into hull

THE cost of conserving the Cutty Sark has soared to £40million, the Evening Standard can reveal today.

The re-opening of the tea clipper to visitors has also been delayed until the summer of next year at the earliest.

The setback is a result of severe corrosion to the ship's iron hull which has been revealed during conservation work. Competition with the 2012 Olympics for the best workers and contractors is also adding to costs, prompting fears of a funding shortfall.

Evening Standard was given exclusive access to the ship this week to witness progress on its transformation once again into a major tourist attraction.

The iron hull, stripped of wooden planks, has not been seen since it was built in Scotland in 1869.

When completed, the ship will be raised 10ft above the ground at its current berth in Greenwich, allowing the public to walk under its keel.

But the head of the Cutty Sark Trust warned today several million pounds more may now have to be raised to pay for steel supports for the rusting hull.

A fire, which appeared to ravage the Cutty Sark in May 2007 but caused less damage than feared, has nevertheless put the opening back at least two years. This delay and the rusting have added as much as £15million to the original £25million price of the project.

Richard Doughty, the Cutty Sark Trust's chief executive, said: "The cost of the project could rise to somewhere between £38million and £40million.

"The project should have been completed by now but because of the fire it is instead running into a period when the Olympics construction work is happening. The Olympics factor has undoubtedly pushed up the cost."

Mr Doughty said that stripping back the ship to its streamlined iron hull has also revealed far more damage.

"The condition of the wrought-iron is in places worse than we feared. Particularly on the prow and stern, the corrosion has gone absolutely wild and there is no metal left in places. This damage is nothing to do with the fire - it is all down to the London rain and salt in the metal work." About half the iron frame has now been stripped of rust, cleaned up and covered with specialised paints to prevent further corrosion. The work is painstaking.

Meanwhile, the wooden planks which covered the frame - and which due to their thickness remarkably survived the 2007 blaze - have been removed for treatment off-site.

Mr Doughty estimates only about twoper cent of the ship's original components, including decking, were lost in the fire. The blaze was caused by an industrial vacuum cleaner that had been left on over a weekend. Legal action is likely to follow.

Critical parts of the ship - such as the masts - had already been removed to Chatham for conservation work.

The trust has so far raised £36million in pledged donations - including £23million from the Heritage Lottery Fund - leaving a funding shortfall of as much as £4million.

Mr Doughty said a public appeal will be launched nearer the time of the official opening. There are also fears some of the money pledged may not be so easily turned into hard cash in the current economic crisis. Mr Doughty insisted, however, that the trust had no foreseeable "cashflow" problems.

● Progress on the Cutty Sark can be seen at the trust's stand at the London International Boat Show, held at the ExCel centre in Docklands from today until 18 January.