As police scan CCTV footage in a bid to identify the arsonists who set fire to Cutty Sark, they may wish to take a look at the posting made by a wannabee pyromaniac on our own Gipsy Moth IV website.

At news that the 53ft ketch was to be removed from Greenwich, re-built, and sailed round the world, the would-be fire-starter wrote: ‘Best thing to do with her is apply a gallon of paraffin and a box of matches.’

Gipsy Moth IV is due to arrive in Plymouth on Monday, 40 years to the day that Sir Francis Chichester arrived home after his solo circumnavigation. This time her arrival back in UK waters celebrates not just one man’s voyage, but a passage for more than 100 deprived school-children.

Gipsy Moth IV’s deliverance from her concrete tomb at Greenwich was precipitated by Yachting Monthly’s Editor Paul Gelder after his discovery that the boots of vandals had kicked in her cockpit coamings. It could be that the vandals who torched Cutty Sark will be the indirect cause of her magnificent re-birth.