The first yacht of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race is expected to arrive in Qingdao on Saturday for a 10-day stopover.

The fleet, which consisted of 9 yachts, departed Singapore on February 2 and the yachts named Spirit of Australia, Jamaica Lightening Bolt and Qingdao would probably be the first team members to arrive in Qingdao, a coastal city of east China's Shandong Province, said Wang Xiulin, vice mayor of Qingdao, at a press conference on Friday.

Qingdao is the last stopover of the fourth leg in the race's overall 13 stopovers of 7 legs. The fleet is scheduled to leave for California on March 2.

The race from Singapore to Qingdao is one of the toughest. After several months in the tropics, the crews face big ocean waves and extreme cold weather. The demands during this race on both crews and boats are high and breakages are common, said Ian Dickens, marketing director of the Clipper Ventures PLC.

After the stopover of Singapore, the yachts from Australia, Finland and Jamaica are the top three for the time being. The yacht, Qingdao, from China ranks in the eighth.

The Clipper 09-10 Round the World Race will last 10 months, covering 35,000 miles of ocean. Departing from Hull in Britain on September 13 last year, the yachts are expected to return to Hull on July 17 this year.

The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, held every two years, is the largest amateur yacht race in the world and most of its crews are non-professionals.

This is the third time that the Clipper race comes to Qingdao, the host city of the sailing events of the Beijing Olympics.