Team NZ strategist Ray Davies pointed to the opening exchanges as being the key to today's win over Desafio Espanol which secured a Lousi Vuitton final berth.
In rough seas, the New Zealanders secured a 1m 18s victory to take the best of nine semi-final 5-2.
"We reallyput pressure on Dino [skipper Dean Barker] to pull off a good start and he absolutely nailed it," Davies said.
"It was tough conditions to manoeuvre the boat, with big waves and plenty of breeze, but it all worked out pretty nicely for us. From the controlling position we had at the beginning, it was relatively plain sailing."
Desafio's Polish helmsman, Karol Jablonski, was aggressive in the pre-start, but then found himself locked out beyond the committee boat as the clock counted down.
He was reduced to the role of follow the leader, as Barker hit the line a full 14sec ahead.
Up the first beat, Team NZ slowly extended their advantage as NZL92 looked comfortable in conditions that drenched sailors on both boats.
The Spanish, however, copped plenty of water in their cockpit during the opening leg and two of their crew had to use buckets to bail it out.
Davies said there were no issues with NZL92 coping with the rougher than usual conditions, although the crew did play it safe at times.
"It was wet and windy, but we had no problems at all with the boat," he said.
"We were being a little conservative with our hoists and drops just to make sure we didn't have any problems."
Photo gallery of today's race