The chief engineer of a project to restore the Cutty Sark says he is set to resign after claiming that planned work for the ship will damage it.
Peter Mason said that the project, in which the vessel is hung in midair from a support structure, should be “stopped and reviewed” because it might cause the 19th century tea clipper to fall apart.
The aim of the project is to hang the ship as the centrepiece of a major tourist attraction in Greenwich, south-east London, where it is under restoration. It was severely damaged by fire in May 2007.
Visitors would climb aboard to explore the vessel, which would be positioned directly above a restaurant.
But Mason said that the machinery and support structure used to lift and hang the ship would damage the original Victorian fabric of the hull.
Tourists walking about the boat could cause further damage, he warned.
Mason said: “I’m about to resign. I’m not happy.
“The project and the idea of lifting it should be reviewed. The lifting support system will do damage to the fabric of the ship. It will have quite an impact on it.”
The aim of the restoration project was to keep as many original components and design elements as possible.
But the steel support system, which will be used to hang the ship in the air, will mean that some of the original parts of the hull will have to be taken away so the new structure can be attached to the vessel.
Mason says the details on how the lifting support system would damage the fabric were revealed in the results of finite element analysis modelling at the University of Greenwich.
The computer simulation was used a year ago to look at the best way to dismantle and reassemble the ship. The team which conducted the simulation won an award for their work last month.
But after seeing the results, Mason came out against the project.
“They should not lift up the ship,” he said. “I’ve turned against that after what I’ve seen. They should leave it on the ground.”
The restoration project is also running into problems with funding and will be delayed from reopening for at least another year.
The work was due to finish next summer but rising costs have forced the main funder, the Heritage Lottery Fund, to withdraw its main funding scheme, delaying the project until 2011.
Mason said: “It’s a serious situation. The project costs have escalated so much that they have been stripping out funding.”
© PE Publishing, 04 November 2009
