American boat Rosebud has completed an historic hat-trick by taking overall honours in the Sydney to Hobart while her Australian rivals lamented the "fickle finger of fate".

Floridian Roger Sturgeon became the first owner to win handicap honours in the both the Sydney to Hobart and its two major lead-up events, the Big Boat Challenge and the Rolex Trophy Series.

The very first STP 65 boat in competition anywhere in the world, Rosebud finished fourth across the line, just after 7pm Friday night.

Although his wife was convinced in the early hours of the morning that other boats had beaten Rosebud on corrected time, that wasn't the case.

A cluster of highly fancied Australian boats including Ragamuffin, Quantum Racing, Hutzpah and Yendys all failed to arrive in time.

All of them were frustrated by the lack of breeze on the Derwent in the last few hours of Friday evening and the early hours of Saturday morning.

Sturgeon described winning the Sydney to Hobart in his first attempt `was infinitely large'.

"I feel like I came to Mecca, meaning Australian boating and yachting, and took away a few trophies which makes me very embarrassed but very pleased," Sturgeon said.

He said a key factor in Rosebud's success was the accurate daily weather predictions of his Australian navigator Tom Addis.

"Those predictions probably actually won the race for us because they panned out within hours if not minutes, of what he predicted," Sturgeon said.

Sturgeon, who is just the third American to win overall honours and the first in 30 years, hoped to return to the race, provided he could attract more of the new STP 65 yachts.

Although Rosebud was only declared provisional winner, there was no doubt its status, as none of the boats still to finish had any realistic prospect of winning on corrected time.

Earlier this evening, octogenarian Syd Fischer's Ragamuffin was second overall, followed by Quantum Racing, whose skipper Ray Roberts lamented another near miss.

Fourth overall on two previous occasions, Roberts was leading on handicap in the early hours of Saturday morning until becoming a victim of the lack of breeze.

"The vagaries of Storm Bay and the Derwent got us and we were becalmed for up to two hours and I saw our lead disappear very quickly," Roberts said.

"It was just a case of arriving at the wrong time and the fickle finger of fate deals you a bad hand and that's what happened to us.

"We were leading on handicap by about an hour and we only needed a reasonable run up the Derwent, which could normally take you about four hours and it took us seven."

Quantum Racing beat Yendys by just two seconds in their battle for fifth and sixth placings across the line.

Yendys skipper and owner Geoff Ross regarded the conditions as the most unusual he had seen in his 13 attempts on the race.

"This is just the most amazing race I have ever seen from a weather perspective," Ross said.

"It was downwind almost all the way and to not have a southerly front come through, I've never experienced that."

By early this evening, 21 of the fleet had finished.

There were no more retirements on Saturday, with 58 of the fleet still at sea around 7pm AEDT.

There was a terrific battle between the three 60-foot boats in the fleet.

Just 55 seconds separated DHL-The Daily Telegraph in 11th place from Hugo Boss II in 12th, while George Gregan Foundation finished a further three places and 29 minutes back.

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