Cutty Sark faces day of reckoning

The fate of the Cutty Sark will be decided tomorrow by the Heritage Lottery Fund. A grant of £11.75 million is needed to restore the legendary clipper - but a previous application for lottery funding was rejected in 1999.

The Cutty Sark Trust says that if the money is not forthcoming the ship will have to close to the public within two years. A spokeswoman said today: "A negative decision could remove this unique landmark from Greenwich for ever.

"The surveyors' report on the ship isn't very encouraging. The iron framework is corroding rapidly and the wooden planking is decaying behind the metal sheathing.

"The main deck is leaking. The keel is rotting. The bolts holding the planks to the iron frames have mostly failed. The props and shores which support the ship are digging into the hull and distorting her shape."

Raising the cash through ticket sales is not an option, according to the trust's calculations. It says it would mean increasing the admission price to ?50 per person, assuming 200,000 visits a year.