During the summer of 1983, as selection trials took place for the Cup defence that autumn, the New York Yacht Club challenged the legality of the keel design.

[4] Australia II sported a number of other innovative features that contributed to her success, including radical vertical sail designs, all-kevlar running rigging and a lightweight carbon fibre boom.

[9][10] Furthermore, it is well established that Lexcen had been experimenting with wing adaptations to the undersurface appendages of boats before, including his 1958 skiffs Taipan and Venom, although in the latter application they were not determined to be effective and not further adopted.

Bloody Archimedes..."[11] In May 2024 after the release of the Netflix TV documentary 'Untold: The Race Of The Century' (2020), the Journal of Science Engineering Ethics published a paper claiming that Ben Lexcen should not have been named as the inventor or designer.

[17] Australia II, skippered by John Bertrand, faced Dennis Conner sailing the 12-metre Liberty in the ocean off Newport, Rhode Island.

[19] The crew of Australia II for the America's Cup races was John Bertrand (skipper), Will Baillieu, Colin Beashel, Rob Brown, Peter Costello, Damian Fewster, James Hardy (alternate helm), Ken Judge, Skip Lissiman, John Longley, Scott McAllister, Brian Richardson, Phil Smidmore, Grant Simmer, and Hugh Treharne.

[24] For the 150th anniversary celebrations of the America's Cup in 2001, she was removed from the museum and shipped to the Isle of Wight, sailing with the original crew for several days of commemorative regattas.