An analysis of the two race crews who will meet in the 32nd America's Cup Match is now rather less speculative.

Alinghi have been the most secretive of all the syndicates and they are not expected to divulge their complete racing line-up until the last possible hour.

"We don’t need to announce it any earlier", said Both Peter about the helmsman. "Holmberg and Ed Baird have been working together and competing against each other for several years. We’ve asked them to do something really tough, to compete for that position while working together and supporting each other."

But some clues are out there when trying to guess who will be on board Alinghi. When one considers that Ed Baird has been at the helm of Alinghi for the majority of its informal racing against eliminated challengers, it's quite likely he will steer the boat in the match.

Similarly, it would be very surprising not to see skipper Brad Butterworth calling tactics, Warwick Fleury on the main sheet, Simon Daubney trimming the genoa, Dean Phipps working the pit or Murray Jones up the mast, in his wind-spotting role.

After all, this is the core group of New Zealanders who Russell Coutts asked to follow him to Alinghi from Team New Zealand seven years ago. It's a group who have won three consecutive America's Cups; a 15 match winning streak.

Excepted the former Russell Boys, very few are those who know exactly who is going to climb aboard until Friday, a day before the first race.

"None of us know who the members of the crew for the Match will be," Italian Nicola ‘Ciccio’ Celon said. "And this is good. Otherwise it would be very difficult to keep up our concentration for so long".

"The teams that form a race crew and a training crew make a big mistake in my opinion", he added. "Because they ask their sailors to give the maximum already knowing that they will never be on board for the races. For me that would be impossible."

But isn’t there a risk that system will cause problems on the day the racing crew is announced?

" No", explained Celon. "Because we are all professionals and we know that here at Alinghi meritocracy works; only the best will be on board."

For the Kiwi team, it's more easier after sail manager Kevin Shoebridge announced that the same 17 crew that sailed to victory in Louis Vuitton Cup finals will take their place on NZL92 in race one of the America's Cup.

"The same crew that stepped off the boat after winning the Louis Vuitton will step back on it for the America's Cup," he said. "We have already decided that in a crew meeting."

Shoebridge's job, among other things, was Team New Zealand's chief selector.

"A couple of years ago I had a list of about 50 and one of my jobs was to say who went where, from helmsman to the support staff on the water," he said. "But it's now changed quite a lot."

After three years sailing together in regattas all over the world a pecking order has established itself. The team meets to discuss selection in crew meetings. But Shoebridge now takes a back seat and skipper Dean Barker and tactician Terry Hutchinson dictate terms.

"We do it differently from rugby [for example]," said Shoebridge. "They don't know whether they are going to play from game to game. But we discuss the process openly in crew meetings and Dean [Barker] and Terry [Hutchinson] are set on who they want."

Team New Zealand's afterguard has changed only once during the regatta when Adam Beashel was injured in the round robin phase. Barker was rested in Act 13 just a few days before the Louis Vuitton started.

But he, Hutchinson, Ray Davies (strategist), Kevin Hall (navigator) and Beashel are firmly entrenched in their respective roles as is the rest of the 17-man crew.

Don Cowie has held the crucial mainsail trimming job. Barry McKay has been a constant on the mast. Tony Rae has been the team's runner for the last five campaigns while Grant Loretz and Grant Dalton add a few grey hairs plus a wealth of experience.

Barker said there was a solid feel and spirit to the team.

"We try have some fun," he said. "Dick Meachem (mid bow) introduced a joke of the day while we're being towed down the canal to break the tension. There have been one pretty bad ones. But we all get on and our 17 is set in concrete pretty much and that helps."

The grinders are the only exception. Shoebridge, a veteran of six America's Cups and a former trimmer who still keeps his hand in on NZL 84, said if the series goes down to the wire then the grinders will probably be rotated.

"The series is so short that fatigue should not be a factor except for them," he said. "They probably will rotate if it goes all the way because they do get fatigued."