Emirates Team New Zealand earned the right to do battle with defender Oracle Team USA in the 35th America’s Cup Match presented by Louis Vuitton, while Team Bermuda made a promising start to their Red Bull Youth America’s Cup campaign on the Great Sound yesterday.

The Kiwis clinched their berth in the final of sailing’s holy grail for the second straight time after seeing off Artemis Racing 5-2 in the best-of-nine Louis Vuitton America’s Cup Challenger Play-off Finals.

Team New Zealand started the day with a comfortable two-point advantage and sealed the deal with as many matches to spare.

“We’re really happy to be going back to the Cup match and we feel like we can bring it home,” Peter Burling, the Team New Zealand helmsman, said.

“It felt like the first day we’ve had the configuration spot-on. That showed during the race as the boat was going seriously fast. We got a good start and we definitely feel like we’re in great shape to take on Oracle.”

The Kiwis’ passage through to the final has been anything but smooth sailing as they capsized and broke both wing sails in their semi-final against Land Rover BAR.

“One thing about this team is they’ve dug really deep to get us to this point,” Burling, the youngest helmsman in the fleet, said.

“We’ve kept making the boat go faster while fixing things that were broken, and that showed today with how much quicker we were going. We’re just super excited to take on Oracle.”

Glenn Ashby, the Team New Zealand skipper and wing trimmer, is looking forward to having another crack at Oracle after the Kiwis blew what seemed an impregnable 8-1 lead against the American defender at the 34th America’s Cup in San Francisco in 2013.

“We debriefed after San Francisco and the lessons that we learnt have absolutely made us a stronger team going forward,” Ashby said.

Nathan Outteridge, the Artemis helmsman, was disappointed to bow out of the regatta, but exemplified great sportsmanship in defeat.

“It’s obviously disappointing that our challenge has ended today,” he said. “But I’m really happy with how we put together this campaign for this Cup here in Bermuda.

“Hats off to Team New Zealand, they’ve sailed a good event and we’ve had some really good battles with them.”

Meanwhile, Team BDA demonstrated that they will be no pushovers, thriving in the non-foiling conditions to keep their bid to qualify for the final of the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup on track.

The local team finished day one of the regatta third overall in pool B after posting an impressive 4-3-2 record in the three fleet races contested.

“We wanted to start really consistently and get some good results on the board, and we managed to do that,” Mackenzie Cooper, the Team BDA skipper, said.

Land Rover BAR Academy topped pool B after the first day.