You beat me to it wld. I was about to write:
Am I alone in thinking it's a HUGE amount of money to repair a wooden ship? Yes, I am in favour of having the old girl restored and open to the public – I'm as proud of our heritage as anyone else. But I'm staggered by the vast sums they're going to spend. I assume most of the cost is labour. How much does a skilled carpenter earn?
You could employ 20 good chippies for several years and it wouldn't cost anything like the figures being quoted. I can't help thinking some people are making a huge profit out of this.
Of course I have to admit I've never built anything bigger than an Airfix kit – but at least it didn't catch fire.