The Billionaire and the Mechanic: How Larry Ellison and a Car Mechanic Teamed up to Win Sailing's Greatest Race, the Americas Cup, Twice Paperback – Bargain Price, April 1, 2014

Overall, very good but not great. I found it more interesting in the early part of the book, but then it began to get boring. It goes into the politics and behind the scenes maneuvering about several episodes of the Americas Cup which Ellison was very involved in, and it's very good about how he came to be associated with this small, impoverished yacht club in San Francisco. It's extremely good about describing the tactics during several races. Ellison's life is described, but unfortunately he never becomes a full-color character, nor particularly sympathetic. He remains this highly capable, highly intelligent, highly athletic, megalomaniac who has become unimaginably rich and can afford to pour a hundred million dollars of his own money into pursuing the Americas Cup, and after not winning, do it again a few years later. The book also suffers from insufficient description of what makes one yacht faster than another, although this impression may be influenced by my engineering background.

Well worth the read. If only for how the final challenging club was chosen. And it is truly remarkable what now goes into prep for the America' s Cup. It starts years earlier. 10 hour days. Many more than that - for everybody. 100 people minimum. At a minimum. Not $3 million like in Ted Turner's time, but over $100 million today. World class people only. And that is not just in the boat crews.You don't have to be a boat person to be awed and entertained by what this well researched book says.

OK, disclosure: I am a member of the St Francis Yacht Club.Then the book: well written, entertaining. I learned more from the book than from my club...Larry is mesmerizing figure, maybe not the nicest man on earth, some will say an as...leBut the man is a powerful, hard charging entrepreneur. And don't believe it is easy, it is very hard, he could have failed hundreds of times. But he did not and never gave up.We raced against him when he had Sayonara. I have a lot of respect for Larry.

It's a complicated story about interesting people and their complicated wants. I didn't retain the technical stuff, but. I surely did enjoy the yarns. The book is hard to put down (this time I mean it.)

Although I had difficulty with a third party Amazon called me with an alternative which was right on time. The book is great. I've seen the Cup which arrives in a Louis Viton case with armed escorts. You can get very close then any closer and it gets physical.

I don't like the billionaire but it's a great story and he comes out well. I recommend everyone should read this.

I really enjoyed the description of what goes on behind the scenes, alterations not only to sailing technique but also to the boat itself. The exciting descriptions of each race really included the reader as part of the actual audience.

I bought this book after watching some America's Cup in SF 2013. The story is great, and like other reviews, I would have liked to have known more about Norbert, and the politicking between the San Francisco yacht clubs. Reading the story however, you'll notice that the author seems biased. As an example, in Chapter 18, this book's account of the 2007 Valencia race between USA-87 and ITA-86 suggested that USA-87 purposefully collided with Luna Rossa, which is not in keeping with race jury's findings of the event. Despite this, the book was a good, interesting read.

The depiction of events up to AC32 were interesting and largely unfamiliar to me. Thereafter (AC33 and AC34) it's a bit of a hagiography of Ellison. The depiction of Norbert Bajurin as a car mechanic is more than a little contrived, he was the co-owner and manager of a significantly-sized repair business. The fact that Ellison's team was found to be intentionally cheating in the lead-up ACWS series is barely touched on and its description entirely partisan . There is practically no coverage of the other teams. But it's a well written and mostly compelling read, provided you don't expect any kind of balanced coverage.

This is a good and enjoyable book that describes how Larry Ellison (the "billionaire" head of Oracle) campaigned to win the Americas Cup, with failures in 2003 and 2007 culminating with a win in 2010. The "mechanic" is Norbert Bajurin who, as commodore of the Golden Gate Yacht Club, provided the club required to mount a challenge.The book is clearly based on extensive interviews with the various protagonists, strung together chronologically to describe how the challenges were put together and also how the races themselves were fought. It gives some interesting insights into the life of Larry Ellison, and also reveals just how tricky it is to assemble and hold together the world-class team required to win this sort of challenge.I found it a little disappointing that the book is mostly about personalities, with the boats themselves - the most extraordinary racing machines ever created - getting only minor mentions. I confess to being biased since I am an engineer, and thus interested in the technicalities, but nevertheless I think the book would have been better had it contained more about the design and construction of the boats, and also about how the crews learned to sail them.To give just two examples:  The Dam Busters: (Pan Military Classics Series) , or  Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journeys , both manage to combine the technical with human interest while explaining extraordinary endeavours, and are truly outstanding books as a consequence.Don't let me put you off buying it, this is a good book, but it could have been better.Incidentally at the time of writing (Sept 23rd 2013) the cup is currently being fought over once more with the defenders, team Oracle for America, 3-8 down in a "best of 9 races" match against New Zealand. I wonder how it will turn out? The Dam Busters: (Pan Military Classics Series)Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journeys

Disclosure - I work for Oracle (I bought the book though)Great story about the America's Cup and the twists and turns of putting a team together and competing.You also get some insights in Mr Ellison's life and thought processes along the way but it's really about putting teams together, racing boats and turning a boat race into worldwide spectacle and the differences between financing and helming/crewing on a boat.I used to sail & race dinghies & yachts but you don't need to race boats to get this book (though it would help if you know the sharp end from the blunt end as there are some race descriptions which really come to life if you have sailed yourself).Many favorite parts of this book but I don't wish to spoil it.I would buy this book again / recommend it.

For anyone with a love of sailing, particularly sail racing, this is simply the best book I have encountered. I have watched this incredible series a number of times and the book lends a great deal of understanding to what I was seeing, particularly how BMW Oracle becAmerican so much faster up wind after being down 6 to 1. The trials, tribulations and most of the personal relationships are dealt with in detail and, I suspect, accurately. The one exception is the removal of Koster kind and replacement by Sir Ben, which was a great move. The book didn't deal with the impact on Kostecki, however.It is by no means too technical for a non-sailor. I wish the author had spend more time on the 19 races. I would have loved to read the commentary as I watched replays on YouTube. During the live events I noticed some bias by Ken Read, although not as much as bothered the author.What an incredible insight into the organization required for these races -- 150 staff! And to the financing (actually lower than I expected).I have read about solo round the world races, the Fastnet, the Sydney-Hobarth, previous AC's. This book stands out as the best of them all.

I really enjoyed the combination of learning about Larry E. and at the same time all about the Sailing of the Americas Cup.Great book if you are up for it.