Wild Oats XI has made Sydney to Hobart history, becoming the first boat to clinch the line honours, race record and handicap treble since Rani in the inaugural event in 1945.

The Australian super maxi won the yacht race's IRC division, making it only the sixth boat in history to win line honours and handicap.

The official announcement will be made on Friday, but Wild Oats has set an impossible target for the 2005 fleet.

Ray White Koomooloo was the last boat in contention for handicap honours but rough weather has thwarted her hopes.

By 1700 (AEDT) on Thursday, Koomooloo still had 115 nautical miles to cover before 2200 to snatch handicap honours.

She would need to average an impossible 23 knots to beat Wild Oats' mark.

Wild Oats finished the 628 nautical mile race just after 0800 on Wednesday, smashing Nokia's 1999 line honours record by more than an hour.

The $10 million high-tech carbon fibre yacht is the first boat since Sovereign in 1987 to win line honours and handicap.

A Sydney to Hobart debutante, Wild Oats had contested only a handful of short races after her launch in November before taking on the gruelling Bass Strait conditions.

Nevertheless, owner Bob Oatley, founder of Rosemount Wines, said the race was decided "at the starting line".

Skipper Mark Richards made a race-winning move inshore on the first night, leaving New Zealand maxi Alfa Romeo - which was designed and built by the same people - waiting for wind offshore.

Alfa Romeo finished second - one hour, 16 minutes and 21 seconds after her near-identical rival.

"We just kept sailing away from Alfa the whole time," Richards said.

Wild Oats encountered its first real obstacle six nautical miles from the finish line, when Richards was forced to dispense with a damaged main sail and end the race under head sail.

"We thought it was too easygoing the whole way here and something had to go wrong and it did," he said.

"It doesn't matter. We still finished and broke the record."

Richards said he expected the new-breed super maxis to shave the new record of 1:18:40:10 to around 35 hours, "given the right conditions".

"Bigger boats go faster, it's as simple as that," he said.

"I'm sure this record will be shattered."

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