Olympians and SailGP stars have been tasked with bringing the inaugural Women’s America’s Cup title back to New Zealand from Barcelona next year.

After a star-studded group of eight were invited to attend a week-long trial for five positions in the Team New Zealand squad, Liv Mackay, Jo Aleh, Erica Dawson, Molly Meech and Gemma Jones have been named as the quintet to sail in Spain.

It’s a strong group of talent for Team New Zealand to work with, and they will begin working in early February to come to terms with sailing an AC40 on the water rather than on the simulator and figure out who is best suited for what roles on the boat.

They’ll be joined in that pursuit by Team New Zealand’s youth team, which was also named following a separate week-long trial. A group of 10 trialists were initially named for the youth team, with six for the women’s team, so two of the prospective youth team members instead joined the trial for the women’s team, including multiple-time windfoiling national champion Veerle ten Have.

Ten Have will line up for the return of the Youth America’s Cup alongside Seb Menzies, Leo Takahashi, Oscar Gunn and Josh Armit.

Mackay and Takahashi already have experience sailing an AC40, joining Team New Zealand for a period of two-boat testing earlier this year.

Takahashi, fresh off a podium finish as crew in the World Match Racing championships, said confirmation of his place in the team was “icing on the cake”.

The teams will compete in an AC40 in Barcelona. Photo / America's Cup

While the main America’s Cup regatta will feature six teams competing for the Auld Mug, the women’s and youth events have twice that number.

Every America’s Cup team was required to enter a team into the other two regattas, while the rest of the 12-strong fleet will be comprised of yacht clubs from around the globe who have been invited to compete including entries from Spain, Sweden, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and Germany.

Team New Zealand sailor Josh Junior, who led the selection process, said the syndicate had been able to put together two exciting groups for the respective regattas.

“Selection is just the first step of a mountain to climb, we want to win both,” Junior said.