D-day to the finals of the America's Cup is looming as many New Zealands gear up to watch Team New Zealand take in Oracle tomorrow.

Emirates Team New Zealand design boss Dan Bernasconi has talked up the engineering skills of helmsman Peter Burling as being crucial to the rapid development of their radical America's Cup catamaran.

- Audio courtesy RNZ

Team New Zealand lead defenders Oracle Team USA 3-0 in the America's Cup match with racing resuming on Sunday.

The Kiwis need four more wins to win back the Auld Mug.

It seems the off-the-water talents of the key sailors are playing a huge part with their feel for the boat and suggestions for improvements helping Team New Zealand's innovative design team.

Tauranga's Burling is halfway through an engineering degree and Glenn Ashby, a multi-hull specialist, has a history in sail design and construction, operating a loft in Australia.

"Both Pete and Glenn are a massive asset to the design team because they are intimately involved in everything we do. That goes for the other guys as well – Blair (Tuke) and Andy (Maloney) and Josh (Junior) and the others. They are really involved in every step of the progress," Bernasconi told Stuff.

Peter Burling always had the gift of making a boat go faster.

That's what Tauranga Yacht and Power Boat Club commodore Nick Wrinch told SunLive following Team New Zealand's win in Bermuda.

Burling, the Tauranga raised helmsman of Emirates Team New Zealand, took the challengers into the America's Cup contest, by defeating Artemis in the challenger finals.

'I think he always had a good knack of making a boat sail fast, whatever that knack is its probably an unseen skill, it's probably almost instinctive,” says Nick.

'And Peter always had that gift and that's shown from an early age when he was a pre-teenager, he could always make a boat go fast - and I guess some people have that gift, and he certainly does."

-Additional reporting from Stuff.co.nz