While I agree that the sight of the Cutty Sark with a bone between her teeth under full sail would be worth paying to see I am a little surprised by the tenor of some of the suggestions comparing such an event with using something like the Endeavour for training sailors. I might be quite wrong but from recollection, ships like Thermopylae and Cutty Sark were as similar to the Endeavour as Formula 1 racers are to Mini Minors.

Clippers required standards of seamanship and team working that take years of hard graft to acquire; such skills are hard won and not gained by the odd month or two per year as a break from running IT departments; even modern labourers don't match the endurance of the sailors on clippers and assembly line workers don't acquire the same level of automatic response to the overall situation, under stress, as those sailors. We may reminisce and dream and romanticise but their bodies and minds were finely tuned by sheer hard work for endless years.

But it is nice to dream.

Cheers, Rowan