America's Cup: Team NZ finally book challenge against Oracle for Auld Mug

Team NZ and Artemis watched the wind run out on their America's Cup challenger final. Photo: Ricardo Pint

Team New Zealand have booked a showdown with America's Cup holders Oracle Team USA, after dispatching Artemis Racing in the challenger final off Bermuda.

Holding match-point at 4-2 after two days of racing, the Kiwis were made to wait for their moment of triumph, after the today's opening race was abandoned when the wind literally ran out.

But after a lengthy wait on the Great Sound, conditions picked up enough to resume racing and Emirates Team NZ made no mistake, with a victory that sees them progress to the business end of the regatta.

"They've been sitting in the shed over there and are probably about to go out training," said Burling of the American cupholders. "Artemis has been an absolutely amazing opponent and really pushed us incredibly hard.

"That's something we can take forward into that next round. We've had some really, really hard racing from an amazing team like Artemis, which will put us in good shape heading into the Cup."

In the lighter winds - conditions thought to favour Team NZ - both teams opted for a similar foil set-up to the one that helped the Kiwis to two wins yesterday.

After clearly winning the first start of the day, TNZ helmsman Peter Burling again secured the inside running off the line and forced his rivals wide at the first mark, snatching an early advantage.

They drew 19 seconds clear downwind and sailed a very controlled race, stretching their margin to almost a minute by the finish.

"We were pretty excited to get a race away," said Burling. "This is the first day we've had the configuration spot on and I think it showed during that race - we were seriously fast and we got a good start.

"It was all the little things we worked on all week and we definitely feel like we're in good shape to take on Oracle now."

Team NZ will now take on their arch-rivals and nemeses on Sunday (NZT) in a first-to-seven format, but having to erase a one-race deficit, after the Americans won the challenger qualifying series two weeks ago.

Burling denied his team had been watching Oracle closely, since they finished the series and returned to the training track.

"We've just been worrying about getting past these guys and it was one step at a time," he said. "We're really, really happy to be going through to the Cup match and we feel we can bring it home to New Zealand."

In the opening race today, Outteridge had his boat across the line early and incurred a two-boat length penalty.

By the second mark, New Zealand's advantage was 17 seconds, but as the breeze dropped below the minimum limit for racing, both boats struggled to find enough puff to foil and barely made the third turn.

As the boats converged, the Swedes earned another penalty for passing too close.

With neither team making much headway, even downwind, Artemis struggled to burn off their penalty and although the finish was moved forward to the end of the fourth leg, there was never a chance the racers would make the 25-minute time limit.

"That's all part of sports," rued Burling. "It was an incredibly light race and we're just happy with how we kept fighting, kept ahead, and obviously the time ran out.

"It was probably fair enough they abandoned the race - it would have taken us another hour to get to that bottom mark, but what can you do?"

The result evoked memories of San Francisco 2013, when Team NZ needed one more win to lift the America's Cup and led in a race that was eventually called off for taking too long.

Today's schedule
5.12am Race 7: Sweden v New Zealand - no result (NZ 4-2)
5.51am *Race 8: New Zealand beat Sweden by 56 secs (NZ 5-2)
6.30am *Race 9: Sweden v New Zealand
* if needed