Australia II. As well as design and construction, the syndicate had also contracted with the Australia II team to provide basic crew training. As soon as South Australia was launched, trials between it and Australia II were held and the results considered before the design of Australia III was finalised. National small boat champion Fred Neill initially skippered South Australia with 12-Metre veteran Sir James Hardy. Hardy later stood down as skipper but stayed on with the syndicate. New South Welshman Phil Thompson was appointed helmsman and, following poor early showings, became the replacement skipper with John Savage in the afterguard. Irish offshore yachtsman Joe English (sailor) joined as main sheet trimmer. Taskforce '87 (Kookaburra I, II and III) The third syndicate was a well funded group known as Taskforce '87 and headed by Perth businessman Kevin Parry. Taskforce '87 built three boats, Kookaburra (KA-11), Kookaburra II''' (KA-12) skippered by Peter Gilmour and Kookaburra III (KA-15) skippered by Iain Murray. The afterguard of the Kookaburra boats were combined for the Cup finals, with Gilmour acting as skipper in the pre-race through the start, while Murray would take the helm for the race itself. Gilmour would then move over to mainsheet trimmer. The Kookaburra boats were designed by John Swarbrick and Iain Murray. Eastern Australian Defence Syndicate (Australia I and Steak 'n Kidney) The eastern states team headed by Syd Fischer purchased Australia I (KA 5) as a trial boat while a new boat designed by Peter Cole was built. Steak 'n Kidney (KA-14, named after steak and kidney pie, popular in Australia and to the rhyming slang for the City of Sydney) was launched relatively late in the campaign at a ceremony at the Sydney Opera House in April 1986. The design was selected by Cole after testing 22 hull shapes and 11 winged keel variations at the Netherlands Ship Model Basin during 1985. The Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron was the syndicate's sponsoring club, and Gary Sheard, an Olympian in Solings was skipper. Steven Kemp was the tactician and Robin Doussen the navigator, Joe English was later recruited during the semi finals after South Australia was knocked out in series 3 . The Series The defender series races were sailed on the America's Cup course with the top four boats of Series A, B and C going to the Series D semi-finals. The top two boats entered the finals and