Tauranga yachts Open Country and Windarra are among the survivors of the second leg of the SSANZ round North Island race this morning.

Conditions at sea have forced 13 yachts to pull out of the race, leaving the Tauranga yachts among the 23 out of 36 starters expected to finish the leg from Mangonui to Wellington.

The Windarra is still in the SSANZ round North Island race.

At 9am, Open Country was tacking into a brisk northerly up the Wellington Harbour entrance and Windarra was entering Cook Strait.

Open Country experienced a fore stay problem off The Brothers in Cook Strait, but the crew are happy, says race director David Cook.

'They have reefed down and made themselves nice and safe,” says David.

'Windarra is probably due in somewhere this afternoon – they are all doing well.

'They have had a pretty rough second leg; the whole fleet has had a bit of a pasting.”

Early Saturday morning, Open Country was sailing out of New Plymouth where several boats took shelter, says David.

'You are allowed to go two miles into shelter and two miles out without incurring any penalty,” says David.

'There was a lot did that in New Plymouth because it was quite rough out there at that stage, and I think people were tired and they just went in and had a bit of a rest and carried on.”

Under the rules, yachts are allowed to anchor, but they are not permitted to change anything onboard by taking on fuel, extra sails supplies or people.

'If they have a problem they can come in and fix it, or they can come in and have a sleep.

'Whatever their problem is, they can fix it and come out again and carry on sailing,” says David.

Conditions in Wellington today are quite fresh, says David.

'We've still got 25, maybe 30 knots, so it's been pretty fresh the whole time.

'I think the maximum they had on this leg is probably 40 knots or something like that. 'Hopefully the next leg will be a bit easier for them.”

The survivors of the second leg start out of Wellington on Wednesday for Napier.