Family boat comes second in Sydney-Hobart

A New Zealand father-and-sons trio has taken out second place line honours in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race.

The Volvo 70 Giacomo reached the southern capital about 4.30am (AEDT) on Wednesday, almost two hours behind winner Perpetual LOYAL, but still well ahead of the previous race record.

Owner and skipper Jim Delegat praised his sons Nikolas, 19, and James, 18, who were among the crew of 14.

"This type of yachting is a boyhood dream come true," Jim said after pulling into Hobart's Constitution Dock.

"(James is) quite an experienced sailor for his age and he's fearless. They're very fearless and talented young men."

The senior Delegat, who's found success in the global wine industry, said reading the weather when setting off from Sydney proved instrumental in the race result.

"The key really is we picked a good plan, a good strategy, we really thought about the weather and we looked at where we had to be in the first 18 hours," the skipper said.

"We figured that the first 18 to 20 hours was going to win the race for us and we went out far, a little wider and that enabled us to take a couple of jibes later on at the top of Tasmania.

"The weather is really what it was about."

Despite coming within eight nautical miles of LOYAL, Jim said they were always out of reach.

"It was good to know we were in the play but I didn't ever think we'd overhaul them."

The boat finished in one day, 15 hours, 27 minutes and five seconds, just a couple of minutes ahead of third-placed Hong Kong supermaxi Scallywag.

Fellow NZ boat Beau Geste remains in a tight tussle for fourth in line honours with NSW entry Maserati.