Owned by Alan Bond and helmed by John Bertrand, Australia II featured an innovative winged keel design developed by Ben Lexcen which helped to make it point higher, sail faster and be quicker in coming about.

The Australia II team was: William Baillieu, Colin Beashall, Ken Beashall, John Bertrand, Alan Bond, Rob Brown, Peter Costello, Damian Fewster, John Fitzhardinge, Michael Fletcher, Lesleigh Green, James Hardy, Stephen Harrison, Laurie Hayden, Warren Jones, Kenneth Judge, Phillip Judge, Ben Lexcen, Cole (Skip) Lissiman, John Longley, Scott McAllister, Ken O'Brien, Michael Quilter, Glenn Read, David Rees, Mark Reid, Brian Richardson, Newton Roberts, Tom Schnackenberg, Edward Silbereisen, Grant Simmer, Phillip Smidmore, Hugh Treharne and David Wallace.

The team also purchased two boats from the 1980 Herbert Pell Cup to use in trials; Australia (renamed as Temeraire) and Lionheart.

During the Louis Vuitton Cup, Challenge 12 was skippered by John Savage and the crew included Graeme 'Frizzle' Freeman, Michael Fletcher (later Australia II's sailing coach) and Damian Fewster (who later sailed with Australia II in the America's Cup victory as a replacement crew member).

[6] Managed by Luca Cordero di Montezemolo and funded by Aga Khan IV and Gianni Agnelli, Azzurra was formed in 1982.

Skippered by Cino Ricci and with Mauro Pelaschier on the helm, the original Azzurra team won 24 of 49 races and developed a large and loyal following in Italy.