The Billionaire and the Mechanic

A Forbes Best Book of the Year: "Must reading for any yacht-racing aficionado." —Frank Deford

The America's Cup, first awarded in 1851, is the oldest trophy in international sports, and one of the most hotly contested. In 2000, Larry Ellison, cofounder and billionaire CEO of Oracle Corporation, decided to run for the coveted prize and found an unlikely partner in Norbert Bajurin, a car radiator mechanic who had recently been named Commodore of the blue collar Golden Gate Yacht Club.

The Billionaire and the Mechanic tells the incredible story of the partnership between Larry and Norbert, their unsuccessful runs for the Cup in 2003 and 2007, and their victory in 2010. With unparalleled access to Ellison and his team, the New York Times–bestselling author of How to Make a Spaceship takes readers inside the design and building process of these astonishing boats, and the management of the passionate athletes who race them. She traces the bitter rivalries between Oracle and its competitors, including Swiss billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli's Team Alinghi—and throws readers into exhilarating races from Australia and New Zealand to Valencia, Spain.

"The Billionaire and the Mechanic opens with a thrilling scene as old as Homer's 'Odyssey' and as iconic as ones from Conrad, Melville, Hemingway and Sebastian Junger: a man battling a dangerously stormy sea. That the sailor, Larry Ellison, is one of our contemporary captains of industry, the swashbuckling billionaire of the title . . . only heightens the drama." —San Francisco Chronicle