Tuck tricks field with surprising joker play
CLIPPER fleet skipper Wendy Tuck has defied all the expectations and resisted playing her joker in the Sydney-toHobart yacht race.
The Sydneysider helms Sanya Serenity Coast, which is running second in the 11-boat Clipper Round the World race, which includes the SydneyHobart as part of its Australian leg. Her boat won the first Australian section, from Fremantle to Sydney, earlier this month.
Tuck skippered the first Clipper boat across the line in the 2015 Sydney-Hobart, when she also won the Jane Tate Memorial Trophy for the first female skipper across the line.
She’s raced the SydneyHobart 10 times and was widely expected to play her Clipper joker for the race, which would double any points her boat accumulates.
SO WE DON’T WANT TO DO WHAT EVERYONE EXPECTS US TO DO ... WENDY TUCK
“As a team we thought hard about it. Everyone expected us to play it,” Tuck said.
“There’s too much that can go wrong. It’s a short race and we don’t have weeks to catch up if we have a bad start.
“That’s one of the reasons we didn’t play it.
“And the other reason is everyone expected us to play it. So we don’t want to do what everyone expects us to do.”
The Sydney-Hobart isn’t usually be considered a sprint but it’s one of the shortest sections of the 40,000 nautical miles of the Clipper race.
“That makes it no less tough because tactics come into play far more,” Tuck said.
The Clipper fleet is among a race record-equalling contingent of 27 overseas boats.