A fleet of nine 20.7 metre yachts is on its way to Tauranga with the first vessels expected to begin arriving next week.

The Clipper Round the World Race fleet is for the first time making Tauranga a port call on the leg from Geraldton, Western Australia.

The clipper yachts begin the race in the UK. See video below to see the kind of sea conditions the yachts are racing in.

The depleted fleet is today passing south of Tasmania and steering for Foveaux Strait, assisted by a strengthening tail wind.

When the leaders arrive off A Beacon early next week, the finish will be officiated by the Tauranga Yacht and Power Boat Club.

The yachts will finish by passing between the beacon and a club committee boat, says commodore Wayne Eaton.

'When we know they are at about Mayor Island we will be heading out there – it depends on what progress they are making,” says Wayne.

'We will anchor off A Beacon and be the finish line.

'I have got a couple of boats on offer, we may well alternate depending on the hours.

'If you spend three hours out there at night, you might not feel too crash hot about doing it again the next day.”

The yacht club team will include the regular race officers Warren Belk and Bill Whitiskie with Wayne and vice commodore Garry Smith giving them a hand.

'Their course is taking them round the bottom of New Zealand and up the East Coast, so that might slow them down a bit,” says Wayne.

'They are charging along wherever they are now, and then because of the Rena we are making them go around Mayor Island, which keeps them well out to sea out well beyond White Island.”

The yacht club's responsibility is to finish and start the race.

Wayne says the club will also be hosting the prizegiving for the leg on December 2.

The fleet departs on December 4 for Southport on the Gold Coast.

'It's not a very long visit to New Zealand and they don't have any crew changes in New Zealand,” says Wayne.

'It's a bit of a step on the way, rather than an individual leg. The boats don't get pulled out of the water here.”

Two boats are delayed; Singapore has headed for Melbourne with steering problems, and Quindao is heading for Tasmania with an injured crew member.

Race leaders on Tuesday are Gold Coast Australia, New York and De Lage Landen.

They have passed south of Tasmania and are heading for Foveaux Strait, pushed along by a strengthening tail wind.

The crews on the 10 clippers come from all walks of life and 40 different nationalities.

'The ratio is about 60-40, male female and 40 per cent of them have never set foot on a boat before,” says Clipper Round the World sponsorship manager Katie Beney.

'But everybody gets five weeks training back in the UK.

'There are 17 crew on each boat, and a commercially qualified skipper,” says Katie.

'Ten of them are onboard round the world – they are doing the whole race. The other seven are either on for one or several legs.”

The ages of the sailors range from 18-72.

A single leg costs £7000, or about NZ$11,000, Staying on board for the whole 40,000 miles of the longest ocean race costs about NZ$80,000 at current exchange rates.

The decision to add the New Zealand-Australia East Coast leg was made partly because Australians represent the second largest nationality in the race crews.

There are eight Kiwis, one of whom is from Tauranga, says Katie.

'We're very excited about coming to New Zealand for the first time. We've also found a lot of crew that have done previous races who want to sign up for this leg.”

For Tauranga, the Clipper fleet arrival will mean the whole shore based community including media, sponsors, plus family and friends of the 180 crew will be in town for the period round the ten day port call.

There is a mobile workshop in a 40ft container that will be set up at the Tauranga Bridge Marina travel lift hard stand and the race office in port until the December 4 restart.