£14m Cutty Sark funding shortfall

Six months after a fire ravaged the historic tea clipper, the Cutty Sark Trust said an extra £14 million was needed to complete work on the ship.

When fire took hold on May 21, the ship was quarter of the way through a £25 million conservation project which was due for completion in 2009. The work is now expected to last until 2010 and the head of the project said it could be under threat if the new funding did not materialise.

"We will not be able to complete the work unless we raise significant additional funds very soon and we are looking to corporations and businesses to help us," Cutty Sark Trust chief executive Richard Doughty said. "The public has responded fantastically and we have raised nearly £1.2 million since the fire but we still need some very significant sums to make the project a reality. We need to find the saviours who will ensure that the ship is saved for the 21st century."

Though pictures of the Cutty Sark after the fire appeared to show extensive damage, the ship's composite wood and metal structure meant it came through the fire relatively unscathed - less than 2% of the fabric of the clipper was lost.

The fire clean-up was completed in August and close examination of the vessel, housed in Greenwich, south-east London, revealed no major structural damage.

The original conservation plan, which involved lifting the Cutty Sark by three metres and creating an enclosed glass "event space" underneath, will still go ahead. However, repairing the fire damage meant an extra £9 million was needed, on top of an existing funding shortfall of £5 million.

Stephen Archer, director of communications for the Cutty Sark Trust, said they were now looking for a major corporate sponsor to provide the bulk of the funding they need to move forward. "We continue to get money from the public, but that amount will need to come from the financial world," Mr Archer said.

Mr Archer said a supermarket had shown interest in sponsoring the project but he hoped the ship's association with international trade might encourage a City bank to get involved.

The trust has raised more than £20 million towards the restoration of the ship, with the help of £13 million funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund.