Software helps save Cutty Sark

The use of IT experts at the University of Greenwich to help save the Cutty Sark has been awarded the regional Best Partnership award.

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, a UK-wide programme to help businesses benefit from expertise in neighbouring universities, says the partnership between Greenwich and the Cutty Sark Trust has yielded “dramatic results.”

Professor Chris Bailey and Dr Stoyan Stoyanov in the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences have been helping the trust conserve the Victorian sailing ship by using software predictions to ensure it is dismantled and restored in the safest possible way.

The Historic Dockyard at Chatham has played its part in saving the ship, too: the masts, rigging and much of the planking were safely stored there when fire broke out on board the Cutty Sark last May.

The partnership was hailed as “a key aspect of the £20m+ conservation project to save the ship as a future major visitor attraction in London” by Knowledge Transfer Partnerships at the awards ceremony.

Peter Mason, chief engineer of the trust, worked with the university to develop and validate finite element analysis techniques to test how the wood and metal components would behave in various renovation scenarios.