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Lord Jiminy has beaten Extasea to claim line honours in the Melbourne to Devonport yacht race as RMS won the Rudder Cup.

Lord Jiminy has used tactical nous to take line honours in the Melbourne to Devonport yacht race.

Guillaume Leroux's Class 40 boat crossed the finish line at 10.45am AEDT on Monday.

That gave the boat an elapsed time of 23 hours 29 minutes and 5 seconds for the 195 nautical mile race, missing the race record.

Paul Buchholz's Cookson 50 Extasea was the early leader, following on from their line honours win in the ORCV Cock of the Bay Race on Boxing Day.

But during the night, they went east of the rhumb line while Lord Jiminy stayed to the west, and the smaller boat's tactics paid off.

"We wanted to stay west of the rhumb line to have a bit of leeway when the wind started picking up, and also in case it went more southerly than west," Leroux said.

"We didn't know where Extasea was during the night but we saw them on our AIS early this morning and we were surprised to see them behind us."

This is the boat's third major victory in ORCV races, having taken line honours in the Melbourne to Stanley race and the Melbourne to Hobart last year.

Jason Close's J133 Patriot was third across the line and in third place in the AMS handicap division.

RMS claimed the the Rudder Cup, finishing first in the AMS handicap category.

The Melbourne to Devonport was the only interstate yacht race on the sailing calendar over the Christmas period, following the cancellation of this year's Sydney to Hobart because of the coronavirus cluster on Sydney's northern beaches.