Emirates Team New Zealand became the first team to advance into the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup Challenger Play-off Final at the expense of Land Rover BAR on the Great Sound today.

The Kiwis started day three of their best-of-nine semi-finals with Land Rover BAR with a comfortable 3-1 advantage and got the job done with another brilliant display of boat-handling in the fluky conditions and variable breezes.

Team New Zealand won two of their three races against Land Rover BAR on the day to take the overall series 5-2 with two races to spare.

Not bad for a team whose America’s Cup hopes literally took a nosedive during a spectacular wipeout in white-knuckle conditions two days earlier.

“Full credit to our shore crew and everyone who pitched in after our capsize the other day to get us back out here with the boat working 100 per cent and going fast,” Peter Burling, the Team New Zealand helmsman, said.

“The boys in the shed have done an amazing job getting us a boat that’s working pretty much 100 per cent.

“In the last race we knew what had to do to win and I think the boys did an amazing job getting the boat around the course and thanks to our shore crew now we’re getting tomorrow off.”

Land Rover BAR made a fist of it, producing some of their best sailing of the regatta, but it ultimately wasn’t enough.

“I’m proud of the way the team sailed today,” Sir Ben Ainslie, the Land Rover BAR skipper and team principal, said.

“We struggled coming into this for a lack of speed for a number of different reasons and the whole team dug so deep to get us more competitive and we did that to the point where there was actually not a huge amount between the two boats today.

“A huge thank you to everyone back in Britain for supporting us. We will be back next time and we will be stronger.”

In the other semi-final, Artemis Racing swept all three matches against SoftBank Team Japan to turn a two-point deficit into a 4-3 overall series lead.

The Swedes took the lead in the series after Team Japan were hit with a penalty having failed to stay clear in the wake of their rivals getting the hook rounding the weather mark for the final time.

“That was a tough race, we didn’t quite get the start we were looking for,” Nathan Outteridge, the Artemis helmsman, said. “But we knew we had the power and had to keep chipping away and saw an opportunity and stole the victory.”

Dean Barker, the SoftBank Team Japan helmsman, took responsibility for his team’s poor showing.

“Just a couple of mistakes on my part and it’s never going to be easy against those guys,” the former America’s Cup winner lamented.