Bajurin Norbert - The billionaire and the mechanic: how Larry Ellison and a car mechanic teamed up to win sailings greatest race, the Americas Cup, twice

Praise for The Billionaire and the Mechanic

Splendid... Guthrie crisply sketches the complex process that was required for Ellison to establish his own position in the top ranks of yachting and organize the winning team in 2010. A thriller of a tale.

Kirkus Reviews

From the opening scene in this bookand scene is the appropriate word for its cinematic beginningthe reader is swept along on heart-thumping rides on swift, dueling sailboats, past an assemblage of characters worthy of Dreiser, past the shoals of deceit worthy of Dickens, and coming to rest on the formidable character of billionaire Larry Ellison, who has the will-to-win of his best friend, Steve Jobs, and of a mechanic, who made winning possible. Julian Guthrie writes as if with a magic wand, holding the reader spellbound.

Ken Auletta

Surely the most comprehensive book ever written about an Americas Cup challenge, The Billionaire and the Mechanic will surely be must reading for any yacht-racing aficionado.

Frank Deford

Energetically written... sure to spark interest among racing fans.

Booklist

This is one helluva great read. Larry and Norbertbeautiful dreamers both, men with faith in their ability to convert them to reality. This book is fascinating; it informs, educates and entertains about the longest continuously contested trophy in all of sports.

Bob Fisher, author of An Absorbing Interest: The Americas CupA History 1851-2003

Larry Ellisons Americas Cup victory was as improbable as it was inevitable. The same is true of his alliance with radiator repairman Norbert Bajurin. In this absorbing page-turner, Julian Guthrie tells us how they came together to make history.

G. Bruce Knecht, author of The Proving Ground: The Inside Story of the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Race

The Billionaire and the Mechanic is pumping with adrenaline and yet full of subtle, surprising details about both sailing and one of the most mysterious, controversial characters on earth. This book is tirelessly reported and Guthrie has a rare writing gift to tie it all together into a work of literary journalism that reads like a thriller.

Jaimal Yogis, author of The Fear Project

If youre interested in the Americas Cup competition, or in sailboat racing generally, youll love this book. Julian Guthries taut and fascinating behind-the-scenes account of the colorful personalities, the risky development of astonishing new boats, and the hair-raising racing tactics of Larry Ellisons long campaign to win the trophy is necessary background reading.

Derek Lundy, author of Godforsaken Sea: A True Story of Racing the Worlds Most Dangerous Waters

Julian Guthries riveting book takes readers deep into uncharted realms, from the extremes of the ocean to the sublime connection between two singular men. The Billionaire and the Mechanic is a wondrously detailed story, beautifully told, by a writer who understands both the intricacies of human nature and the immensity of the natural world.

Susan Casey, author of The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean

Entertaining.

Soundings

A gripping tale of world-class competition and strategic gamesmanship.... It will have enduring value as a great story in its own right. Sail World

THE BILLIONAIRE
AND
THE MECHANIC

Also by Julian Guthrie

The Grace of Everyday Saints:
How a Band of Believers Lost Their Church
and Found Their Faith

THE BILLIONAIRE
AND
THE MECHANIC

How Larry Ellison and
a Car Mechanic Teamed Up
to Win Sailings Greatest Race,
the Americas Cup, Twice

Julian Guthrie

Grove Press

New York

Copyright 2013, 2014 by Julian Guthrie

Cover design by Charles Rue Woods

Cover photofraph ACEA/Photo Abner Kingman

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in
any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including
information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in
writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief
passages in a review. Scanning, uploading, and electronic distribution
of this book or the facilitation of such without the permission of
the publisher is prohibited. Please purchase only authorized electronic
editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic
piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the authors
rights is appreciated. Any members of educational institutions
wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use,
or anthology, should send inquiries to
Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 154 West 14th Street, New York, NY 10011
or .

Published simultaneously in Canada

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN: 978-0-8021-2136-3

eISBN: 978-0-8021-9331-5

Grove Press

an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

154 West 14th Street

New York, NY 10011

Distributed by Publishers Group West

www.groveatlantic.com

Dedicated to Larry and Norbert

Contents

The 35th Americas Cup

The Americas Cup Races

PART I

All men dream, but not equally.

T. E. Lawrence

The Southern Ocean

Between Australia and Tasmania

December 1998

S leek, white, and beautiful , Sayonara sailed toward the Southern Ocean, a stretch of sea that circles Antarctica and is home to the worlds most treacherous waves. Larry Ellison, at the wheel of his eighty-two-foot, twenty-five-ton maxi yacht, was doing over twenty knots downwind. Feeling the dense air on his face and watching the humidity press against Sayonara s massive mainsail and spinnaker, Larry marveled, Even Sayonara isnt supposed to go this fast. His boat began to plane, her bow lifting and the stern skimming the water, an angle the carbon fiber rocket was not designed for and had never done. Something was wrong.

In his red foul-weather gear and gray Sayonara cap, Larry looked at Brad Butterworth, a New Zealander with a gentle smile, thick hair, and a cache of major trophies. Sayonara doesnt plane, Larry said incredulously. Its great to go so fast, but this is surreal. They were twelve hours into one of the worlds most competitive sailboat races and were sailing so fast they were already ahead of where the race record holder had been in twenty-four hours.

Larry and his team of twenty-two mena whos who of professional sailors and a smattering of notables, including Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert Murdochs sonhad left Sydney harbor on the afternoon of Saturday, December 26, in the running of the fifty-fourth annual Sydney-to-Hobart race. It was the height of summer in Australia and the sun shone brilliantly on the hundreds of thousands of people who lined the shore to watch the start. Sayonara , with her pristine white spinnaker with the red Japanese sun stamped in the middleLarrys designtook an early lead in the 628-nautical-mile race due south to the island of Tasmania along the Tasman Sea.

Larry, the fifty-four-year-old cofounder and CEO of Oracle Corporation and a billionaire thirty times over, won the race in 1995 and had driven Sayonara to three consecutive maxi yacht world championships since. He wanted to see just how much better a sailor he had become. It will be an interesting test, he told himself of his second Sydney-to-Hobart. There was a clarity to be found in sports that couldnt be had in business. At Oracle he still wanted to beat the rivals IBM and Microsoft, but business was a marathon without end; there was always another quarter. In sports, the buzzer sounds and time runs out. Quarterback Joe Montana, with fifty-eight seconds left on the clock, throws a high pass to the back of the end zone and Dwight Clark makes a leaping grab with his fingertips, winning the NFC Championship against the Dallas Cowboys. Muhammad Ali endures seven rounds of pummeling by a younger and stronger George Foreman before knocking Foreman out in the eighth round, regaining the Heavyweight Championship of the World title. Michael Jordan nails his buzzer-beating jump shot against the Utah Jazz to win his sixth championship. Game over. Winner declared.