You’ve been on quite a voyage since first being appointed chief executive over a decade ago...
I get a wry smile when I think about when I was appointed in 2001. The aspiration of the trustees was that this would be a £5m project at most. I joined wondering how I was going to raise £5m, and here we are £50m later.

How did you feel on the opening day?
Immensely proud. My worst moment was when the Queen waved to the 110 people manning the yards – who all let go of the ropes and waved back! Otherwise it was a very special experience to be able to give Her Majesty and Prince Philip a personal tour.

How would you personally sum up the importance of the Cutty Sark?
Cutty Sark is one of those rare things which is truly emblematic and inspiring. It’s a piece of history that cannot be remade. The ship launched on the 25 April isn’t a replica, it’s the real ship. These are the frames and the wooden strakes that sailed to the south China seas and back.

What can people expect from the new visitor experience?
In the lower hold, the space is quite dark and atmospheric – lights slosh around the inside walls and visitors walk on and beneath tea chests. They go through a forest of screens projecting facts and films as they progress down through the ship.

Digital media really brings the personal stories to life. A magic mirror in the master salon shows the reflections of people who aren’t here now, including a war merchant and a lady from the 1950s touching up her make up when the ship first opened in Greenwich.

What aspect of the project makes you most proud?
The fact that we’ve secured the future of Cutty Sark. The raised ship looks magnificent and our early feedback suggests that the light touch we’ve used in bringing the ship’s stories to life are being very well received.

After the first month of trading almost 50,000 people have visited. The overwhelming response has been very positive. Above all people are spellbound when they enter the dry berth and see the suspended ship.

Why did the costs rise so much?
There were many unforeseen factors. For instance, when we removed the concrete in the ship’s bilges, the wrought iron frames were so badly corroded that we had to add steel to the ship to be able to put it back together again. That was an unexpected blow.

We also had huge problems in the ground – the dry berth structure built just after World War II turned out not to have been built according to the official records of its construction. We had to grout the entire structure, rebuild the foundations and recast the entire top of the dry berth. All those things added hugely to our costs and created significant delays.

What are your aims for the Cutty Sark over the next year or two?
Our initial aim is to achieve our business objectives and ensure the ship is properly maintained and reserves are built up to safeguard her future. The Trust will also be looking at ways to enhance the interpretation offer through a rolling programme of improvement works and the development of diverse learning and family activities. We’ll continue to work closely with our patrons and trading partners. It is also conceivable the Trust will undertake further capital works to augment facilities. 

Royal Museums Greenwich has taken over operational responsibility, although ownership of Cutty Sark remains with the Trust. All establishment staff have transferred to Royal Museums Greenwich including myself, where I’ll sit on the Museums Executive Board with directorial responsibility for Cutty Sark.

How and when did you get involved with the restoration of the Cutty Sark?
We got involved in the project in 2004.

Note that it’s a conservation project – the task was to halt the decline of the historic original fabric of the Cutty Sark, rather than restore her to original condition – an important distinction.

The Cutty Sark Trust wrote to us out of the blue, having recognised other exciting public projects we’ve been architects for, such as the Eden Project in Cornwall. While we had no previous experience of conservation of a historic ship – these projects are rare anyway, the singular recent examples are SS Great Britain in Bristol, and Mary Rose in Portsmouth – we have worked with Grade 1-listed historic buildings before.

Why do you think you were chosen, and what attracted you to the project?
The Cutty Sark project required a good application to the Heritage Lottery Fund in a competitive field for grants, and it was recognised by the Cutty Sark Trust that our experience and reputation could help with this.

It also helped immensely to find an immediate rapport between the client, Richard Doughty, and myself. I have a great enthusiasm for sailing ships and for London, and I personally wanted to do this project very much.

What was your vision for the project?
In 2004 the Cutty Sark was in an advanced state of decay and about to be closed to the public as a dangerous structure. The Trust had very limited funds, paying visitor numbers had been in decline for years and the extent of the conservation work required to halt the decay was well beyond the resources available. The stark choice was to either scrap the ship or to come up with a scheme sufficiently attractive to support a business case for the investment required to conserve the ship for 50 years.

Our vision was to provide a modern, all-year visitor centre by exploiting the space beneath the ship in the dry berth and re-displaying the historic hull by elevating her to a new prominence. In other words, we proposed to lift the ship and allow visitors to view the hull in a unique and dramatic way. As far as we know, this is the first time this has been done in this way.

Do you have any maritime connections?
Like many, I can trace the maritime connections in my family ­– my grandfather was a Thames sailing barge carpenter from Greenwich. I also happen to be a keen sailor.

Raising the Cutty Sark within a dry berth was quite controversial. Why did you feel this was the right thing to do?
Lifting the ship seemed initially like a radical thing to do, but the more we researched it the more practical it was as a solution. The ship had been standing in the wet ‘dry berth’ decaying and distorting for more than 50 years on her keel and a randomly placed set of props. This is a temporary way of supporting a ship for maintenance, but in the long term is very unkind to a vessel designed to be evenly supported by the sea, and she was falling apart as a result.

Our proposal halted the decay by careful treatment of the original iron frame and hull planking, by inserting some new steel frames to relieve the corroded originals, and a new steel skeleton which supports the original keel. Lifting the ship on the new skeleton supported the original structure in a way that simulates support by sea.

How did the fire damage in 2007 affect your work?
The project was delayed for about two years while the client and team regrouped, the project was re-examined for its sustainability and new sources of funding were pursued.

What is your favourite part of the restored ship?
It is an amazing and beautiful experience to walk beneath the ship's newly bright metal-clad hull; to reach up to touch the keel, realising that this beautiful form, weighing 960 tonnes, floats just above your head.

Why did HSBC decide to become the principal long-term sponsor of the Cutty Sark?
HSBC was founded in Asia to finance trade with the West five years before the Cutty Sark first set sail in 1870. The Cutty Sark was a pioneer of global trade, bringing tea from China and wool from Australia to the UK.

Trade is still the biggest driver of economic and business growth. Our research suggests global trade will increase by over 85 per cent by 2026. So while the Cutty Sark is an emblem of past glories, it's also a reminder of the opportunities that global trade represents now and in the future.

How will the partnership work?
We’ll support the Trust in its work to ensure as many members of the public as possible visit, helping to bring to life the ship’s history as a pioneer of global trade and its present as a first class visitor attraction. In addition to funding, we have also committed marketing spend to the partnership.

How will HSBC benefit from the partnership?
The partnership demonstrates HSBC’s commitment to providing exclusive access to a leading UK cultural attraction for its clients and employees while also supporting the business’ corporate social responsibility messaging through championing Cutty Sark’s work within the local community.

HSBC is delighted to be able to support the ship’s future, and excited to be able to use its unique events space for various hospitality opportunities.

What activities have you been involved in so far?
We wanted to bring some of the personal stories to life, so at the end of May we hosted 150 descendants of the Cutty Sark, whom we tracked down with the help of a genealogist.
We found the only known living child of a crew member, Thomas Frank Dixon, aged 73, as well as the youngest descendent, a great great great grandson of a crew member (born this May!). We traced descendants of the ship's designer Hercules Linton, of a war hero, of crewmen who were onboard for the Cutty Sark's 1885 record run from Sydney to London; and descendants of a crewman on board for the 1880 'Voyage from Hell'.

Why do you feel that HSBC and the Cutty Sark make such good partners?
The connections and parallels between us and Cutty Sark are many. We’re connected through time – HSBC was founded about the same time Cutty Sark first sailed. We’re connected through trade – Cutty Sark carried many of the commodities we traded in the past, in the present and – I hope – in the future. And we’re connected through geography – the ports Cutty Sark is most associated with, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, London, were, are, and will be important gateways for us as a business. It’s a great match.

When did you first become involved in the Cutty Sark project?
I have personally been involved since July 2007, but the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has been involved since 2004.

What were the main challenges with funding after the fire?
The key challenge was ascertaining the real impact of the fire in terms of costs, and ensuring these could be realistically assessed then dealt with. In addition the financial crisis meant that maintaining cost required all the partners in the project, the Cutty Sark Trust, HLF, the National Maritime Museum, DCMS, Royal Greenwich Borough Council and all the other funders, to work together so that the vision for the ship could be achieved.

What criteria do you look for when you are deciding on funding?
On a project of this scale and importance we’re looking for huge impact and a transformation in approach to our understanding of such an important part of the UK’s heritage. There was no doubt that raising the ship almost 3m met those criteria, although this approach wasn't without its critics.

What in your opinion are the real triumphs of the venture?
The reality matches the vision and the ship will be in a very good state of repair for at least another 50 years and we hope longer.

The Cutty Sark is already attracting huge interest as a place to visit and experience life on board an ocean-going sailing ship. Lord Sterling, one of the driving forces behind its success, is very keen that every visiting schoolchild is inspired and will remember the visit for the rest of their lives. I first visited Cutty Sark many years ago, when I was 11, and although it wasn’t ‘in the air’ it was still wonderful to go on the weather deck and imagine life on the open seas.

How would you sum up the importance of the project to the UK's heritage?
The Cutty Sark is one of those enduring aspects of our past, which has a wonderful story to tell – not just of technological innovation but also of worldwide trade and the endeavours of all those who sailed on her.

As the fastest ship afloat in 1869 she has been described as the Concorde of her time and there are certainly important parallels.

How would you describe the working relationship between the HLF and the Cutty Sark project team?
It was a very constructive, open, honest and therefore at times robust relationship. HLF attempted to be as co-operative as possible without either compromising the vision and aims of the project (as it is as much a conservation project as a capital works project) or increasing any risk for those funding it – especially the Lottery players’ contributions.