Cutty Sark re-opens to the public

The long-term conservation project to restore the famous 143 year-old Cutty Sark clipper ship has been completed and she will re-open to the public on Thursday. A specialist painting team from S. Lucas was proud to play a part in the project.

Cutty Sark was the fastest ship of her day, her sleek lines formed of a wrought iron frame clad with teak and rock elm strakes and fastened with special alloy metal bolts. The Cutty Sark Conservation Project began in 2006 and despite a setback when a serious fire broke out in 2007, she re-opens in a spectacular setting in the Royal Borough of Greenwich.

We painted the outside hull of the ship with a flexible Dulux Weathershield black coating with white rail details, painted the inside of the hull and treated the decking with a protective coating. We also applied special anti- corrosion protection to the fixing bolts.

The S. Lucas team helped to devise a specialist preservation system for two deckhouses that were temporarily conserved at Chatham Dockyard prior to re- installation and completed final protective and decorative coatings to support steels for the ship before the re- opening.