Clipper fleet skipper Wendy Tuck has defied expectations and resisted playing her joker in the Sydney-to-Hobart yacht race.
The Sydneysider helms Sanya Serenity Coast, which is running second in the 11-boat Clipper Round the World race, which includes the Sydney-Hobart 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 Sydney-Hobart 10 times and was widely expected to play her Clipper joker for the race, which would double any points her boat accumulates.
"As a team we thought hard about it. Everyone expected us to play it," Tuck told AAP.
"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 628-nautical-mile Sydney-Hobart wouldn't usually be considered a sprint but it's one of the shortest sections of the mammoth 40,000 nautical miles of the Clipper race.
"That makes it no less tough because tactics come into play far more than any of the other races," Tuck said.
The Clipper fleet is among a race record-equalling contingent of 27 overseas boats.
