Building with Royal Huisman: an owner’s perspective
One year after Ethereal's delivery in 2009, her owners Bill & Shannon Joy are now thoroughly enjoying the exceptional sailing and lifestyle qualities of their elegant ketch. The project is well known for the extent to which it pushed so many technological boundaries, necessitating a longer, more intensive design and build process. Was that an enjoyable experience for the owners? Was it all worth it? “Inhuis” asked Bill Joy for his views.
There’s no question about that – both Shannon and I greatly enjoyed spending time with the yard and the people there throughout the process. We’d heartily recommend to other owners to become as closely involved as we did: it’s stimulating and ultimately very rewarding. Few if any yards allow you to participate that actively – I think it’s unique.
The cover of Handelsblatt Weekend Journal, Germany: ”GREEN SAILOR - Exclusive: The first visit to the most environmentally friendly luxury yacht in the world. For its owner, Sun founder Bill Joy, it is a milestone.” Ethereal has been featured in many publications over the last year and Bill Joy has become quite an ambassador for the shipyard.
How often did you visit the yard?
We must have made 40 or more visits of three to five days over a period of two years. (Editor’s note: these were voluntary, not mandatory visits). That’s a big chunk of your life, I know, but it’s not an issue if you’re getting a lot out of it. We developed very good individual relationships, working closely with five design managers and the people who worked with them – a core team of about 15 people we came to know well and respect.
Did your vision for the project evolve as you came to appreciate what the team could do?
Well, I came to the project with some fairly challenging ideas from the outset but what made the difference was the team’s willingness to run with new concepts, test the practicalities and come up with solutions or alternative approaches. As you know, I pushed hard on environmental and energy-efficiency issues that cut across all departments and the quality and innovativeness of the response was everything I could ask for. If you go to the yard and don’t take advantage of this capability, well… it would be a waste… you’d be crazy not to. It also happens to be great fun to develop ideas and to build prototypes, it’s a fantastic experience.
Were you able to realise all your aspirations?
With a lot of the technology it’s an incremental process – you can get a long way down the line but you don’t really know from the outset how far it is even possible to go. Take the LED lighting. It’s been an outstanding success in terms of the wonderful ambience aboard Ethereal, but we certainly had to work at it. Too often, people are constrained by thinking they have to work with what already exists, but the yard team showed such commitment and application to detail, we had an agenda item on lighting at almost every meeting over a period of six to nine months. Five out of six of the major project challenges are pretty well resolved but there are always further refinements possible. With some of the technologies we’ve continued the development program since launch and will continue into the future. Systems tuning cannot come from past experience: it’s a new frontier and requires absolute dedication to perfection.
By contrast there comes a point with the naval architecture and interior design where you cannot micro-manage – you have to trust to the intuition and experience of people like Ron Holland and Pieter Beeldsnijder. I’m glad we did: thanks to Ron, the boat handles beautifully and Pieter has created an interior that has felt like home from the start, it’s so comfortable, peaceful and relaxed.
The Ethereal layout and interface of Royal Huisman's propriety Alarm & Monitoring system was developed in 2008: inspired by intuitive Apple-controls like a Macbook-like bottom row of icons and user-friendly switches of the iPhone (note the first-generation iPhone was launched late 2007).
It seems you were as much part of the shipyard team as you were the customer?
Yes, whenever that suited me and my own areas of expertise. The command and control system was a fantastic project where I did screen layouts. We worked with a designer in New York, commissioned third party software, graphics and even font design. It was a great team effort. Our concepts provided the basis for the bridge system on Twizzle which has moved on to another level by incorporating software not previously available. So we, in turn, will upgrade to that next year – as I said earlier, this can be a continual process of refinement if you want it to be.
With hindsight, would you have done many things differently?
Very few. You get to realise how every centimetre – no, every millimetre – really matters even on a boat of this size but there’s nothing that spoils the pleasure my family and friends are getting out of Ethereal. There was one small failure - a built-in ironing board that I designed myself but nobody else liked!
Operationally, Ethereal is amazing. She sails like a dream and, as I said earlier, she has wonderful living space, including the crew accommodation. The crew are certainly very happy.
The hybrid drive and energy management system is working up to and beyond expectations. We never need to run more than one generator and even that is occasionally under-loaded. Our fuel consumption is exceptionally low and we can easily see 20% further savings in the future.
Royal Huisman design mockups: getting it right
How has the shipyard relationship changed since delivery?
In some senses, not at all, other than that they come to us rather than us to them as and when we need them. There has been excellent team continuity, with six Royal Huisman people regularly involved in whatever support, development and continuing innovation we require.
And the best moment of the whole process?
Our first real sense of excitement was getting on board the finished yacht. Despite all the renderings, plywood mock-ups and the rest, nothing can prepare you for just how nice it feels below. And after that, you sail her, and just about everything is good.
Ethereal is the world's first hybrid superyacht. When the shipyard team announced Ethereal in May 2005, hybrid technology was still in its infancy: the first-generation Toyota Prius, the world’s first mass-produced hybrid passenger car, had only entered wider markets like North America and Europe few years before. Ethereal would carry that same pioneering spirit onto the water as the world’s first hybrid superyacht. She was launched in 2008.
Best of all, maybe, my son has already told me that I am never to sell this boat!
This article was first published in INHUIS fall / winter 2010 - 2011.
Learn more about Ethereal? yachts > delivered yachts
Over the years, the shipyard team developed many smart solutions, several of which became trendsetters in the sector. Today, recent groundbreaking work by the shipyard, is in the process of re-shaping industry practices. The team recognizes the importance of advancing the technology behind these strongpoints. Discover the following five innovation themes: sustainability, featherlight, user experience, sailing systems and tools & methods.
