The Billionaire and the Mechanic
His America's Cup campaign; the only book covering the later Ellison.
Summary
Guthrie, a San Francisco journalist, tells the story of how the Golden Gate Yacht Club, a small and nearly bankrupt club, partnered with Larry Ellison to win the America's Cup, focusing on the relationship between Ellison and Norbert Bajurin, a radiator repair shop owner who was the club's commodore.
The narrative covers Ellison's earlier failed attempts through the larger St Francis Yacht Club, the arrangement with Golden Gate, the litigation against the Swiss defender Alinghi over the terms of the challenge, the 2010 victory in Valencia with a trimaran, and the 2013 defence in San Francisco in which the American team recovered from an eight to one deficit to win.
The business content is incidental but present: the America's Cup is a contest in which the defender writes the rules, which makes legal and organisational manoeuvring as consequential as sailing; the technology spending required is enormous and the returns are entirely reputational; and the arrangement between a wealthy individual and a small institution gave each something they could not obtain otherwise, which is a structure that recurs in sponsorship and in philanthropy.
The reference has not verified the specific claims in this account. The book is a sports narrative with a human-interest frame, written with the participants' cooperation, and it is not a business book. Its interest for the reader of this reference is the account of how competitive rules are contested by whoever controls them, and the unusual partnership structure.
Key takeaways 7
- The America's Cup defender writes the rules for the next contest, which makes legal and organisational manoeuvring as consequential as sailing performance.
- Litigation over the terms of a challenge determined the format and the boats used, before any racing occurred.
- A wealthy individual and a small institution each supplied something the other could not obtain, which is the structure of most sponsorship arrangements.
- Technology spending in the competition is enormous and the returns are entirely reputational, which means the participants are buying something other than a financial outcome.
- Controlling the rules of a contest is worth more than superiority within them, which applies wherever an incumbent sets the terms.
- The 2013 defence involved a recovery from an eight to one deficit, which turned on in-competition technical and tactical changes.
- The reference has not verified the specific claims in this account.
Who should read it
Readers wanting a sports narrative with incidental lessons about who controls competitive rules, rather than a business book.
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