Boat International US Edition – May 2019

BACK TO NATURE

Shannon greets a

visitor alongside

Ethereal. She

makes documentary

films about the

natural world and

videographers and

scientists often

accompany the

Joys on Ethereal

amount of red tide and blue-green algae. People ask
‘what happened?’ and it probably wasn’t very much, but
there was a tipping point. The systems have lost their
resilience. Along comes a stressor and they have
nothing left to give,” he says.
He won’t be drawn into politics, stating plainly:
“Biology and chemistry have no politics. We have
assumed we could stay coloring within the margins by
putting little restrictions on things but the cumulative
overpressure is quite large. It offends a few people a lot
if you try to stop it and it offends a lot of people a little
if you don’t, until it becomes a catastrophe, at which
point your choices may be limited.”
Today sees Joy still engaged in the investment sector,
acting as principal and chief scientist of Water Street

Capital, based in Jacksonville, Florida, in between

stints on board Ethereal, on which he spends around

three months a year. The firm’s investment model is

less quick-hit and more agent of change.

Not surprisingly, Joy is focused on batteries and

reformulating the energy grid. He has led financing for

Ionic Materials, developer of a solid polymer to replace

the liquid electrolyte in rechargeable batteries. “A lot

of the materials you would like to use in a battery

because they have good voltage potential and are light

and cheap tend to not be materials that work well with

a liquid [electrolyte],” he explains.

“For example, sulfur is something you would love to

use in a battery. It’s light and almost free but when you

put it with a liquid you get reactions creating all sorts

of impurities that cause it to fail. If you use

apolymerelectrolyte, then you don’t have

thesereactionsand you aren’t restricted on

materials...weopen up the whole periodic

table.Itcouldmake radically better

batteries.Youdon’t have to mine the deep

oceanortheCongo for materials like

cobaltandnickel.Youcouldcompletely

eliminatetoxicleadacidbatteries.”

AfternearlytwohoursinEthereal’s

beautifulsalon,we’vecoveredtopicsas

diverseasfuelcells,decarbonizingenergy,

whyhe’sstilldubiousaboutartificial

intelligenceandameatreplacementmade

mostlyoutofpeas.Wehaven’tquitesolved

alltheworld’sproblems,butIwalkoffthe

passerelleknowingthereisagoodman

onthecase. B

SPEED OR STYLE?
Style,asindesign

CHEFORCHAUFFEUR?
Healthycreativecookingis
oneoflife’sgreatpleasures

FAVORITEWATCH?
IhaveanAppleWatch,
thenewone

FIRSTBOATINGMEMORY?
Inarowingboatonmy
uncle’slakeinMichigan

FAVORITEBEACH?
Themostbeautifulwas
inTulum,untilitbecame
overrunwithseaweed

QUICKFIRE

BILL JOY

FAVORITE CAR?

IdriveaPorsche911,butif

I’mgoinggroceryshopping

I’lltakeanUber

FIRSTTHINGYOUPACK?

Usuallyit’sspare

partsoraccessories

relatedtocameras

WHATISYOURIDEA

OFLUXURY?

Beinganchoredatsome

beautifulplace,havinga

nicedinner,enjoyingthe

sunsetafteragreatdive

andhavingaconversation

withpeoplewhocare

abouttheworld

BILLJOYWON’TBE

DRAWNONPOLITICS,

STATINGPLAINLY:

“BIOLOGYAND

CHEMISTRYHAVE

NOPOLITICS”

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