The America’s Cup has always been about the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’. In the America’s Cup World Series, watching the racing in the AC45s it’s not that easy to tell the rich from the poor. That’s the great thing about the AC45s - at less than a million euros they’re cheap (by Cup standards), and they’re all the same. The wing rigs are all identical. The only thing that’s different are the jibs and gennakers. At some point every team has led a race. That’s the beauty of one-design competition.

But when you look at how the teams operate ashore, the differences start to show. When the Oracle crew step ashore, their job is done. It’s the shore crew that are left to pick up the pieces, put the boat away, make sure it’s fully race ready for the next day. At China Team, on the other hand, it’s often the same five guys who were racing the boat who will be working on fixing it until late in the night. It’s not much different at the two French team bases, with Aleph and Energy Team both operating on a shoestring.

The China Team crew have been operating without pay for much of the time, while Aleph’s decision to bring in two guys for San Diego from the Extreme Sailing Series was a big deal. They cost between 800 and 1000 euros per day, considerably more than the rest of the low-paid Aleph crew.

Thing is, if you’re fretting about spending 1000 euros per day on a sailor, you’re not really in the market for lavishing 10 million euros on the construction of a new AC72 catamaran. That’s considered to be the bargain basement cost of building one of these monsters, and that doesn’t take into account the cost of maintaining one - or worse, repairing it, if and when it breaks.

For some teams, money really is too tight to mention. Some of the ‘have nots’ have not even purchased their AC45s. They’ve been using them on long-term loan from America’s Cup Race Management. The intention had been for the roadshow to move on from San Diego across the Pacific to Auckland or Brisbane, or both. But the cost of putting on these events does not sit well with most city politicians in the current gloomy economic climate.

So there is quite a hiatus until the next event: Naples in April, followed a month later with Venice. Word is that we could have up to 12 boats by Naples, with Swedish challenger Artemis said to be bringing a second boat on to the circuit, and recently announced Luna Rossa joining the fray.

More telling than the predicted number of AC45s in Naples, however, is who is pressing ‘go’ on construction of an AC72. The experts say that if you’re not starting to build one by early 2012, then there probably isn’t any point in building one at all, not if you’re serious about the 34th America’s Cup in summer 2013. Strict rules mean practice time is severely limited in the AC72, a cost-saving measure borrowed from the world of Formula One where race teams are restricted on track time. America’s Cup teams are limited to a maximum 30 days of sailing aboard the AC72 in 2012, starting from 1st July. With sailing opportunities in such short supply, it’s easy to see why teams need to start building now.

Of the ‘have nots’ the rumours are most encouraging for Team Korea, which is hoping to take advantage of a multi-million dollar technology grant from the Korean government. It would be great to see the Koreans join the ‘haves’, and hopefully a few more teams too, but the only definites at this stage are Oracle, Artemis, Emirates Team New Zealand and their new technology and training partners, Luna Rossa.