Clipper Ventures 10 becalmed after uncomfortable first night in Sydney Hobart

In stark contrast with the first night's beat into 30 knot southerly winds, Clipper Ventures 10 has been becalmed with a high pressure ridge moving over the yacht.

The crew were tested with the uncomfortable conditions during the first night of Australian classic the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race beating into strong Southerly winds.

The Clipper 68 yacht used for training and events at our Sydney, Australia base has now picked up speed and is East of Eden. The team is 78th in the IRC class of the 70th edition of the race with 109 competitors still racing following some retirements.

Skipper Piers Dudin (pictured), who has been a skipper in the Clipper Race twice, said: "We are in the transition between the Southerly winds and the Northerly winds. The wind is doing exactly what the forecast said. We have positioned ourselves inshore, so when the wind does come back, we can take advantage of it. There is no way of avoiding this current situation but we are focusing on sail trim.

"We have been doing a lot of manoeuvres, changing around our sail wardrobe. Our changes have been timely. When the weather settles in we will hoist our lightweight kite. By the end of tonight we should be using the heavyweight kite. The forecast is the for the breeze from the North to carry us all the way to Storm Bay. Despite the current light conditions, we are still on track for a good four day run."

The crew on board Clipper Ventures 10 include international past and future Clipper Race sailors, some of who have done their training on the Clipper Events yacht out of our Sydney, Australia base.

Sang Cho, a Clipper 13-14 Race sailor is the first South Korean to ever participate in the famous Australian race.

He said it had been an exciting first night before the wind died off and the crew tried everything to get moving.

The Clipper Ventures Australia base is open for training and events, and in the Clipper 2015-16 Race the round the world fleet will once again compete in the RSHYR during Leg 4 as part of the 40,000 mile circumnavigation.

Click here to sign up online or contact the Clipper Race UK base: +44 (0) 2392 526000 / Clipper Race Australia base: +61 (0) 29363 2020.

To watch a review of last year's Clipper 70 fleet in the Sydney Hobart, click here.

We will be posting blogs and pictures from Clipper Ventures 10 on our site daily here and on our Twitter and Facebook feeds.

To track the boat, you can use the official RSHYR race viewer.