Cutty Sark rigging

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Location	Cutty Sark
Price	Included with entry to Cutty Sark
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See the terrifying height Cutty Sark's crew scaled as they climbed the masts and the rigging that helped make it the fastest ship of its day.

To help it reach speeds of up to 17 knots (20 miles per hour or 30 kilometres per hour), the ship originally had 32 sails and a total sail area of 32,000 square feet (2,976 square metres).

To help set and control this huge sail area, Cutty Sark needed over 11 miles of rigging and a main mast 152 feet tall (47 metres).

Built for speed

Cutty Sark was built in Dumbarton in 1869, designed to carry tea from China to England as fast as possible.

The ship successfully made eight voyages to China in pursuit of tea. However, Cutty Sark never became the fastest ship on the tea trade. Dogged by bad winds and misfortune, it never lived up to the high expectations of its owner during these years.

Cutty Sark collected the last Chinese tea cargo in 1877, by which time steamers were taking over the tea trade. The owners had to find a new future for the ship.

Record breaker

The advent of Cutty Sark's teenage years marked its most successful phase as a working cargo ship, when it made its name as one of the fastest clippers of its day - transporting wool from Australia.

In 1883, Cutty Sark left Newcastle, New South Wales after loading up on bales of wool and casks of tallow. It departed in December 1883 and arrived back in London in March 1884.

The passage of 83 days was the best of the year, beating every ship sailing at about the same time by 25 days to over a month. This was a remarkable feat, considering that Cutty Sark was 14 years old, almost halfway through the ship's expected working life of 30 years.

Your chance to climb

For the first time since the ship's arrival in Greenwich in 1954, visitors can now climb the rigging of Cutty Sark and get a taste of what it would have been like to sail the historic ship.

Starting with a briefing underneath the ship’s beautiful hull, those brave enough to take on the challenge head up to the Main Deck and climb onto the ship’s 'ratlines' (rope ladders).

From here you can make your way up into the rigging, just as hundreds of sailors did during Cutty Sark’s long and fabled career at sea.

The Cutty Sark Rig Climb is open every weekend until the end of October 2024. Are you ready to take on the challenge?