Philippe Starck reveals the real story behind Steve Jobs' yacht

Philippe Starck reveals the real story behind Steve Jobs yacht

A blunder by a phone operator might have prevented the miracle from taking place and no one would have ever known about it. Philippe Starck still laughs at the thought. It was seven years ago, at the headquarters of his Parisian offices near the Place de la République. The employee had informed the famous French decorator that a Mr. Jobs had called. The young woman did not see who that might be—despite the fact that she probably had a Mac running in front of her and had been downloading music on her iPod for some time. Perhaps she had even seen Toy Story , the film that revolutionized animated features. Still, she had not made the connection with the founder of Apple, former owner of Pixar , the man who transformed technology into an object of desire and commerce. She had written down his name but had refused to disturb her boss. The caller, who had spoken English, hung up without leaving a number. “Can you imagine the aura of Jobs in 2007” chuckles Starck today. “He was basically God! And she doesn't put him through because she didn't know who he is! We were off to a good start.”

It was a miracle that the Californian divinity was not discouraged. “For anyone who knew Steve,” Starck adds, “he almost certainly wouldn't call back after such a humiliation.” A few weeks after this, "God" was on line again. This time, the Parisian designer was just leaving for Milan, to the annual furniture trade show, a ritual meeting place for the experts of planet design. A half-dozen motorcycle taxis awaited him, as well as members of his team, with their engines running. He barely had enough time to make the flight to Italy where a multitude of press conferences had been scheduled—being late was not an option. “I already had my helmet on when the operator caught me, breathless,” he says. “Monsieur Starck! Monsieur Starck! You know that person, that Mr. Jobs? He wants to talk to you!” I took off my helmet and heard his voice: “Would you like to make me a boat?” “Well… sure,” I replied. The two men only exchanged but a few words: “Fifteen seconds” of conversation, confirms Philippe Starck. To the American billionaire's direct question: “Will you know how?” he says he proudly replied, before blazing on to the airport, “Of course! I have palms in between my fingers and scales on my back. I am amphibian.”

The son of an engineer who designed airplanes, Starck spent a great part of his childhood admiring ships. At 15, he taught survival in the case of shipwreck at a sailing school in the bay of Morlaix, he and his brother also raced boats on the Seine. “I always had boats, whatever the size,” he told the quaterly Mer & Bateaux in 2012 . I always have one in the concept stage or the building stage. My wife and I have lived in places where we could have a boat moored in front of our house. We live on the water and for the water.” Famous for his hotel and restaurant designs all over the world —the Café Costes, the Mama Shelter hotel, the Meurice and the Royal Monceau in Paris, the Royalton in New York, the Mondrian in Los Angeles and the Fasano in Rio—Starck did not necessarily want to design yachts for anyone beside himself. In Starck Explications , a manifesto published in 2003 for the exhibition dedicated to his work at the Pompidou Center, he tells the story of a prank pulled on a client who wanted to commission him a yacht : he had advised him to first go for a swim to see whether he truly needed a boat! Later, a “gorgeous woman,” whose name he does not mention, made him a new offer (it was Hala Fares, the spouse of the businessman and Lebanese vice-premier minister Issam Fares) that he declined because he found the very idea of a yacht “structurally vulgar.” The lady, cunningly, defied him to build one that avoided vulgarity, and for her he designed Wedge Too . Six years later, in 2008, Starck conceived the A for Andrey Menichenko, the Russian oligarch. 119 meters long and weighing 6000 tons, it’s one of the greatest motor yachts ever made, and its cost was an estimated $300 million. Its aggressive form was the object of very lively criticism: in an article on January 23, 2008, the Wall Street Journal even wondered whether it wasn’t “the world’s ugliest boat.”

Moreover, Starck prides himself on helping save the Bénéteau ship yard in Vendée from bankruptcy by designing a line of sailboats for it, then conceiving a revolutionary single-rudder racer, Virtuelle , designed in 1997, for a very wealthy Italian (even though the plans are officially signed by a transalpine naval architect). According to Starck, ten years later, it was this sailboat, with its minimal lines, that Steve Jobs cited as an example to persuade him to work for him—“ Virtuelle is the most beautiful boat I’ve seen in my life,” is what he told him ( Mer & Bateaux , December 2012). Starck, who is not averse to tributes, and is prompt to quote this Rousseau sentence : “I would rather be a man of paradoxes than a man of prejudices,” took the compliment as a challenge. Jobs too had his contradictions. In 1995, after Pixar ’s successful skylight public offering, he had said he “was not planning on buying a yacht.” But Venus was not going to be just any yacht.

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THE ASCETIC AND THE BON VIVANT

On April 28, 2007, Philippe Starck and his companion, Jasmine —he would marry her the following December—turned up in front of Steve Jobs residence in Palo Alto, California, in north Silicon Valley. The area seemed ordinary, the entrance gate did not look like much. A driver had taken them there after a twelve-hour flight between Paris and Los Angeles. Noting the modesty of the place, the French designer felt obliged to add : “We’re going to Steve Jobs’, you know, the head of Apple.” But the chauffeur did not turned around, it was the right address. “We got out. The gate in old ironwork was about a meter tall and there was a detail that struck me and pleased me, it closed with a plumbing jointure. I said to myself, “Wait, it might actually be here after all.” Starck opened it, crossed a “small yard,” knocked on the glass of what looked like a kitchen door. “It vibrated the way old tiles do. No one came but everything was open. Suddenly, a ghostly silhouette appeared, dressed in black. “Hi Philippe!” It was him, he kissed us. He was, straight away, extremely warm.”

It was there, in that “very humble little home in a chic and classic American suburb,” and which Philippe Starck deems was no bigger than 200 sq. meters, “that looked like 150,” that the two men came to know each other. Over the next four years, in the course of regular work sessions, a discreet and stimulating friendship united the two ingenious creative spirits, both endowed with equally oversized egos.

“He was the god of fastidiousness and I, I was the emperor of fastidiousness,” proclaims Philippe Starck quite simply. I am meeting with the designer in Paris, at one of his offices with a view on Place du Trocadéro. I had obtained the interview by dint of persistence and persuasion—after all, Jobs himself had had to call more than once. Starck is always in between two planes and ten homes (he owns properties—among other places—in Paris, Venice, Cap-Ferret.). He wants to be everywhere and nowhere, omnipresent but elusive. After all, he has called his company Ubik, borrowed from Phillip K. Dick’s masterpiece in which characters evolve in parallel universes.

Today, his company's offices and his main home are on the third floor of a majestic 1930s building with a panoramic view of the Eiffel tower and white spaces. Philippe Starck is wearing his usual outfit: jeans, sneakers and a hoodie. Jasmine is near him. A tall brunette, she too is wearing an informal uniform—black jeans and sneakers. A former publicist for the LVMH Group, she never leaves the side of her 65-year-old genius (she is 23 years younger), she monitors and records his words, intervenes, if necessary, to insert a recollection, corroborate a date, clarify a circumstance. A group of assistants finishes sweeping the room we are meeting in. “Cleaning,” in the true sense of the word, as in the figurative sense, is one of his obsessions. One day, he tells me, as he still couldn’t get over having been received by Steve Jobs in a house so wanting in luxury (in 2008, Forbes estimated the latter’s fortune to be $5.7 billion, the equivalent of more than 4 billion euros), he was emboldened to ask, “Steve, do you really live here?” “ Yes, why?” he answered. “It’s just that… everything is so clean, orderly, so tidy…" The Apple boss replied , “Oh, you want to see a mess?” and led him to his office. “There were a few newspapers scattered on the floor and two pairs of sneakers. This, for him, was the height of disorder.

As he recalls it, Steve Jobs lived in the middle of emptiness. “Not chic minimalism,” he states. “Rustic, rather. There was just nothing. A couch, three armchairs, a coffee table in the living room… Nothing.” In the biography that he devoted to the Californian inventor ( Steve Jobs , JC Lattes, 2011), Walter Isaacson also describes a man who was “so demanding with furniture” that his homes were empty. Before the one that Philippe Starck visited, he did nonetheless own a fourteen-room hacienda . For the house in Palo Alto, bought after his marriage to Laurene Powell in 1997, Jobs had to force himself to set up a minimum level of comfort—beds for a start—basic requirements for a family with three children (Reed, Erin and Eve). His character, sustained by Oriental philosophy was marked by austerity and bareness. On this point, the two men were in sync. “I’ve tried to be inspired by the Asian idea that emptiness is more important than fullness.” he wrote in Starck explications . Hence, the famous transparent chair he designed in 1998, and named The Marie, that is introduced as an “almost perfect object.” Just as the work that culminated in the birth of Venus tried to reach the “elegance of the minimal” according to Philippe Starck

Between April 2007 and the fall of 2011 (Steve Jobs died on October 5th, 2011), the Starcks travelled to Palo Alto one Sunday a month, usually with Thierry Gaugain—“my right arm, an exceptional character,” states the designer. Each session lasted twelve almost uninterrupted hours. The work was done on a coffee table, their backs bent, their noses only three feet above the floor. That is how it was. A torment for the bon vivant Philippe Starck, the usual posture for the ascetic Steve Jobs, invariably dressed in the black turtlenecks designed for him by Issey Miyake. It never occurred to the billionaire to even offer them a drink. “A large window hung above the space where we used to work,” recalls Starck. “We were literally cooking. From time to time Laurene would look in, “Have you offered them something to drink?” He would then return with a glass of water. There was never any food in his kitchen. Other than once when we ate together.” Starck remembers their host barely touched the dishes. Apart from his strict and hardcore vegan nutritional fads and phobias, Jobs was already gravely ill, cancer had been eating away at him since 2003. The Starcks say that each time they hugged him, they had the feeling that they would soon be holding nothing but a sheet of paper in their arms. “It still makes me tear up,” the decorator says—and while he easily draws the picture of an “poser," or "a show off", his eyes do, in fact, fill with tears at the memory.

A POT OF HONEY EVERY YEAR

In his conversations with Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs told the story of his yacht’s creation stating that Philippe Starck simply “helped” him design its interior design. It would be an understatement to say the latter did not appreciate this delegation. He considers himself the true parent of this floating unidentified object made of aluminum and glass, with its perfectly flat teak bridges and a beveled prow. If he is speaking—“for the first and the last time,” he emphasizes,—about his work on this project, and his relationship with Jobs, it is not only to provide “ a more nuanced analysis” of the strange client who commissioned it, but also, in great part, to set the record straight.

For him, there are two important facts that must be remembered. The first is that he, Philippe Starck, was chosen out of everyone else by the great man to bring his nautical dream into material existence. He recalls an anecdote told by Steve Jobs : “Every year we go on vacation on my friend Larry Ellison’s boat [the other Silicon Valley genius, founder of Oracle, according to Forbes in 2013 the world’s fifth richest man, is a sailing fanatic]. And every year, I say to myself, I too should have a boat built. But I don’t do it. Two years ago, I decided I was going to go for it. I looked at everything, asked everyone, and came to the conclusion that only one person can do it: you.” Even with an ego inflated with helium, how can one not keel over at such praise? “It was more than an honor,” Starck says, “a sacrament.” No doubt he means a consecration. Liturgical words are omnipresent in the mouth of this claimed atheist. During our conversation, he later invoked the “philosophical communion” of two souls in love with perfection.

So, Super Starck left their first meeting entranced. Galvanized by the confidence the most demanding of clients has placed in him. “He was giving me carte blanche, in some way.” The following night, in Los Angeles, he says he was struck by inspiration. Here, the second important fact, “I designed it all—all, all, all, in one and a half hours. The whole thing was wrapped up. I work extremely quickly.” Under what circumstances? “I was in bed. My wife was sleeping next to me. Los Angeles reminded me of Steve, Steve sailing… I said to myself, “Hang on, I’m going to draw it.” Jobs had given him very simples rules to work with. The length of the hull : 82 meters exactly. The number of passengers: “Family and crew. A total of six rooms, all of them identical.” And above all, one requirement: silence. “Steve wanted to be sure that the teenagers could be set up in the front of the boat when he was at the back and vice-versa. He was obsessed with silence. In his home, children did not make noise, nor the dog, nor his wife… no one made any noise, ever.”

Even on July 11th, 2008, the day the world discovered the iPhone 3G, the little house remained preternaturally calm. Starck remembers being the bewitched witness of this moment . “The entire world was in an uproar, people were standing in line for hours, in front of stores. It was the greatest launch of all time [barely three days later, Apple announced it had sold over a million units], the greatest investment and he barely seemed to register it. Not a single phone call made or received. Wow! That's true aristocracy in organization and mastery of self.”

At the next meeting, initially planned as the second contact between them, Starck arrived “with all the drawings.” He was carrying a large suitcase—“1.2 meters, 1.3 meters,” he deems—that contained the mock up of the future yacht. After a moment of perplexity, Jobs was wonderstruck and supposedly exclaimed: “It’s more than I could never [sic] imagine.” Starck’s freeform translation: “The world’s most powerful man, known as being the most intransigent, incapable of saying thank you or bravo, was telling us, “This is beyond all my dreams.””

Incredible indeed. Jobs’ biography, that was published after his death, underscores the genius’ versatility, his disingenuousness, his propensity to humiliate, to be obnoxious with his most faithful friends and collaborators—in short, to burn everything he adored. Steve Wozniak, Apple’s co-founder, or John Sculley, the historical CEO of the Apple company, paid the price. “He could be charming with those he detested, just as he could be detestable with those he loved.” writes Isaacson. Had their collaboration lasted longer, perhaps Philippe Starck too would have had to suffer Steve Jobs’ moods. When I suggested this hypothesis, he frowned. “I’m not sure about that,” he answered me, “He liked us. Through this boat, we came to be among the three or four friends that really mattered to him.” As proof of this, he offers the fact that every year, the California billionaire would send a pot of honey from his own hives. And that he sometimes expressed a touching preoccupation for to the young couple he and Jasmine formed. On the fated day, when in religious silence, the plans drawn by the decorator were “scanned and rescanned,” examined from every angle by Jobs in the course of a few minutes, he says he only heard him utter four “very pleasing” sentences. The first was, “Are you going to get married?” Answer: “Maybe.” The second: “Are you planning to have children?” An even more elliptical answer, “Euh…” “I knew it, I was telling Laurene,” he had smilingly answered. And the last: “Very well, carry on like this. See you next month.” For Starck, this too is a point of pride: “I don’t believe he’d ever experienced it in his life. We’re used to it: in general, people don’t talk, they find whatever is being presented to them to be very fine. But coming from him—especially when we learned in the book, after his death, the way he treated others—it was stunning.”

Philippe Starck admits, nevertheless, to having first-hand experienced the down side of this 'detail freak'(dixit his autobiography).The four years that followed the initial approval consisted of a millimeter by millimeter examination of the plans. “In order to achieve the height of intelligence in everything,” explains the designer rather cryptically. According to him, nothing was modified of his initial drawings, but everything was revisited. “With Thierry Gaugain, we reinvented marine technology, no less,” he says. “Nothing like it had been undertaken, not since the dawn of time. Still, the client argued about every detail, and for Starck it sometimes went “beyond the annoying.” “I don't want to sound pretentious,” he says, “but we are professionals. We have designed rockets [for Virgin Galactic], motorcycles [for Aprilia], electric cars, boats… When we present a solution, we know it’s the right one. With Thierry Gaugain, we would float him flurries of ideas at each meeting, and for his part, he’d answer, “No, no, no.” Until the moment when, because he had in mind the shipyard's schedule, he would pick an idea and say, “I’ve got it, this is what we’ll do.” And, to our shattered stupefaction, we would realize it was the solution we had presented him with the previous month or two years prior. “But Steve…” It was to no avail, he had appropriated it.”

It seems this was Steve Jobs' way. Those close to him had resigned themselves to referring to his “distortion of reality” syndrome. The most enormous distortion in Starck’s eyes was the one forming the basis of the “lie” perpetrated about him in Jobs' talks with Isaacson that served primarily as material for his hagiography (before devoting himself to the founder of Apple, this ex-head of CNN and Time had written biographies of two monumental figures in science: Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin). On page 595 of the book, he writes, “To outfit the interior, he hired Philippe Starck, the French designer, who would come regularly to Palo Alto to work on the plans.” Starck is still indignant. “He must have said that two months before he died,” he snaps, ”How could he still want to lie to serve his own glory? So powerful was his ego, such was the distortion of reality within him that he was incapable of recognizing the work of another person.” In the version of the story according to Starck, that he presents as the only acceptable one, beginning with the second meeting, “not a single wall, not the smallest detail of the hull” underwent any changes from what he had imagined in his bed in Los Angeles. “We looked at everything during the course of four years, but nothing shifted by even a tenth of a millimeter.” Seated next to him, Jasmine too sighs at the ingratitude of “Steve.” “And yet he displayed such great confidence in us.”

A PHILOSOPHICAL OBJECT

On a Sunday in 2009, the year of his liver transplant, Jobs told them, “I’m going to disappear for three months, I will call you on such and such a day at 10 o’clock.” On the said day and hour, he asked them to come back to Palo Alto. A reunion. “We were very moved,” recalls Starck. “He hated personal questions, but at the time, after such a resurrection, I was compelled to ask him, “Have you thought about your life? Are there things you would like to change?” He answered, “Nothing. I would not want a different one. I have had a great deal of time to reflect, I have thought about the boat. There are, today, three things that matter to me: my family, my company and you guys.” He was talking about Jasmine and I! He added, “My only problem is that you don’t live on my street.” Moved, the Starcks set to work, bending over the coffee table. Five years later, in his immaculate office, Starck proclaims this with a bit of exaltation, “There will never again be a boat of that quality again. Because never again will two madmen come together to accomplish such a task. There'll never again be so much creativity, rigor, and above all philosophy, applied to a material creation. It was not a yacht that Steve and I were constructing, we were embarked on a philosophical action, implemented according to a quasi-religious process. We formed a single brain with four lobes.”

One might wonder what exactly an 82-meter philosophical object, capable of crossing all the world’s seas, looks like. “When we talked, it was not to decide whether it was better to use aluminum or steel. The questions that arose were of an ethical order. As for the details, try to imagine the height of minimalism.” Where specifics are concerned, that is not a lot to go with. At most, the designer proffers that the cockpit was “a piece of curved glass, 23 meters long, 6 centimeters thick,”—a prowess whose materialization was entrusted to the chief engineer of the Apple Stores. He even refuses to confirm the description of the control panel equipped with seven 27” iMac screens, released in 2012 at the time of the ship’s launch, upon its completion by the Royal de Vries ship yard in the south-west of Amsterdam (this is also true of a few other particularities, like the presence of a large terrace with an integrated Jacuzzi, and avant-gardist processes for aeration, and completely silent electronically controlled blinds.) “There are just commands, but there is no complex home automation. Each person would have their own portable controls with them.” he explained in Mers & Bateaux . Photographs of this floating building were taken at its launch from the Dutch shipyard, but no views of the interior have ever been communicated. “The philosophy was the same as for the exterior: the least of everything,” confides Starck. With a reproachful pout, he adds, “In Steve’s lifetime, I had formulated recommendations for the furnishings, but Laurene put in the furniture she wanted. I’m not there to interfere in these people’s taste.”

Starck also refused to confirm the cost of this prodigious vessel of the seas. The press has mentioned 100 million euros. He neither says yes nor no and dodges the question with this circumlocution: “Its price is totally normal relative to the work undertaken and to its religious quality.” We’ll have to wait for Laurene Jobs or her children to sell the yacht to hope to learn its worth—and even then, there’s nothing to say the transaction figures would be divulged. As for the rest, it seems unlikely that the inheritors should choose one day to get rid of what was the last dream of the founder of Apple. “I know it’s possible that I may die and leave Laurene with a half-finished boat,” he confided to Isaacson a few months before his passing, “but I must continue. Otherwise, it would be admitting that I am going to die.”

The Venus sailed, granted. Yet its launch was not without turmoil. When he heard the men at the Royal de Vries shipyard usurp the boat’s paternity in front of Jobs’ family, collaborators and friends, Philippe Starck flew into a rage. “It was a good shipyard, but with people whose moral fiber was particularly elastic and who had the staggering nerve to say that they had designed this extraordinary boat, the most inventive in the world,” he says indignantly. “I haver never experienced in my entire life such violence through a lie.” Jasmine interrupts him to elaborate on the scene, “You said, “You've got to be kidding!” and we took off.” No doubt, his heart was still raging when on the following December 21st, the French decorator ordered the yacht seized in the port of Aaalsmeer.” He invoked a lawsuit brought for two unpaid invoices. Indeed, Steve Jobs’ inheritors refused to pay the 3 million euros that are owed to Starck on a total fee of 9 million euros—they consider the $6 million already paid match the percentage agreed upon in advance.

“Some lawyer probably wanted to look clever,” the decorator murmurs today. At the time, he was forced to admit no written document formalized the financial aspect of his agreement with Jobs. His representative in Holland explained that the two men were “very close during the period of the creation of the design,” and during the construction, adding that it was “in part why no formal work agreement had been drawn up.” Three days later, a compromise was reached between the two parties’ lawyers and the seizure order was lifted. The Venus embarked a cargo ship not long thereafter, headed for the United States. No image of Steve Jobs aboard it or overseeing its construction has ever been shown—no one even knows if he was able to see the boat with his own eyes. Philippe Starck, for his part, has never seen it sail.

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did steve jobs own a yacht

Late Steve Job’s Super Yacht Venus

As inspiring and revolutionary Steve Jobs’ engineering concept is, equally brilliant is the late innovator’s mega yacht named Venus. Having commissioned the vessel even before the diagnosis of his terminal illness, Jobs intended the vessel to be his swan-song , after his terminal health problem was brought to light. According to the reports, the mega yacht was put into operation in 2012, a year after Jobs’ untimely demise.

The designing concept of the vessel was carried out mainly by reputed French marine architect Philippe Starck with several noteworthy inputs provided by Jobs himself. However for a brief period, the designing of the vessel was almost stalled by the American tycoon on account of the state of his health, though he later resumed it as a way of ensuring that his legacy and presence was carried forth even in his absence.

Super Yacht Venus

Feadship is known world-wide as a specialist in building one-of-a-kind super yachts.

With regard to Venus, it has provided the following technical uniqueness:

  • A stream-lined aluminium hull that replicates the visual effect of the Apple gadgetries
  • State-of-the-art technological inclusions like incorporation of iMac systems to allow for superior manoeuvring on water
  • Ultra-modern accommodation amenities

Steve Job's Super Yacht

Controversy about Payment

Almost immediately after the mega yacht was launched, there was a slight controversy surrounding the Venus. Principle designer Philippe Starck alleged that the legal inheritors of the yacht had failed to pay the balance of his dues, amounting to around US$ four million. Following the allegation, the yacht was seized at the Rotterdam harbor before the defaulted dues were paid and settled by the late entrepreneur’s legal team on behalf of the inheritors.

Steve Job's Yacht

The mega yacht was named for the Greco-Roman Goddess of romance, Venus and it was with great love that Steve Jobs envisioned its completion. Although unfortunately he was unable to see his vision brought to life, yacht Venus holds one lasting memory of Jobs to his loved and cherished ones.

Video of Superyacht Venus

You may also like to read:- The Awe-Inspiring Adastra Superyacht

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Here’s the First Look Inside Steve Jobs’ Crazy Last Project

S teve Jobs’ luxury yacht, Venus, was photographed recently, providing a glimpse of the interior for the first time.

Photos of 100 million euro yacht were taken by people at Woods Hole Inn in Cape Cod, Mass., Gizmodo reported Monday. The French-designed yacht debuted in 2012, one year after Jobs died, but until now there have been photos of only the exterior.

Have a look:

View this post on Instagram A post shared by woodsholeinn (@woodsholeinn)

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NETHERLANDS-US-APPLE-YACHT-STEVE-JOBS

[ Gizmodo ]

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Steve Jobs’s Superyacht in Florida

  • By Yachting Staff
  • Updated: February 7, 2013

Where is Venus today? Track her by AIS:

Click here to see more yachts from Feadship . Click here to read about more celebrity yachts.

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Your Insider’s Look at Steve Jobs’ Yacht Venus

Ian Fortey

The Venus Yacht was built for Steve Jobs, or it almost was. Though Jobs commissioned the yacht, it was launched in 2012, a year after Jobs passed away. He never got to see the finished product. It’s been said that he actually spent the last several years before his death helping to custom design the Venus as his intent was to use it to sail the world with his family.

Venus was designed by a company called Ubik, owned by designer Phillipe Starck. Starck  handled both the interior design and the exterior design. The build was undertaken by renowned shipyard Feadship out of the Netherlands.

The yacht is a little lighter than some of her size thanks to the fact she doesn’t have a steel hull like many superyachts do. Instead, she features both an aluminum hull and an aluminum superstructure. She also features teak decks.

The exterior design features many straight lines and right angles. The stern is squared and it features an axe bow. There’s also very little to see on deck even from above. Unlike most yachts , there is no visible radar arch or satellite equipment because it’s obscured within a box structure to maintain that simple design look. 

Who Owns the Venus Yacht?

did steve jobs own a yacht

As a result of the death of Steve Jobs the yacht became part of his estate which belongs to his widow Laurene Powell Jobs. She has maintained ownership of the yacht since it was finished in 2012. There was a brief time when the yacht was impounded after its construction. This was caused by a dispute over payment. Phillipe Starck claimed that the fee for his work was never paid in full. He was said to have designed the yacht for about $9 million and $3 million was still owing. After 10 days, Jobs’ estate settled the account and the yacht was delivered.

How Big is the Yacht Venus?

did steve jobs own a yacht

The Venus measures in at a respectable 257 feet in length. So clearly she qualifies as a superyacht, even if she doesn’t quite measure up to Jeff Bezos’ 417-foot megayacht Koru . The Venus also has a beam of about 38 feet and her volume comes in at 1,876 GT which is actually a little on the light side for such a large yacht, in part due to the aluminum construction.

How Much Did the Venus Yacht Cost?

Steve Jobs commissioned the yacht for an impressive $120 million. Yachts like the Eclipse are alleged to be upwards of $1.5 billion and even the massive Azzam has been confirmed at around $600 million so obviously the Venus is not the most expensive vessel, but it’s nothing to sniff at, either.

We know from what we mentioned above that $9 million of that alone went to the designer of the yacht. Like many yachts of this size there is also a considerable cost related to the yearly operations of the vessel. Things like crew salaries, taxes and fuel costs are considerable. In light of that, it’s been estimated that it costs between $10 million and $20 million just to keep the boat on the water for a year. That may seem steep but it’s definitely normal for most yachts.

Is the Venus Yacht Available for Charter?

did steve jobs own a yacht

Jobs was a notoriously private man in many ways and his family remains the same, at least insofar as this yacht is concerned. It’s never been made available for charter and, in fact, very little is known about it.

How Fast is the Venus Yacht and What Engines Does It Use?

The Venus makes use of a pair of twin diesel MTU (16V 4000 M73) 16-cylinder engines. Together they produce  3,433 horsepower. This allows her to cruise at speeds of 16 knots. She can also reach a maximum speed of 22 knots which is fairly substantial for a yacht of her size.

What’s the Interior of the Venus Yacht Like?

did steve jobs own a yacht

As you can tell from the unique hull design, there is a minimalist aesthetic to the yacht. It does resemble some Apple products from the time period in its way. Towards the after of the vessel on the starboard side there’s a launch bay for tenders that can be deployed by crane and apparently the design included a wheelhouse powered by seven 27″ iMacs.

The aft of the vessel opens to a large beach club for guests to enjoy the ocean and the sun, features a swim platform and lounge area.

The yacht has the capacity to accommodate 12 guests across 6 cabins. There is also room for a crew of 22 to maintain the vessel. The design is simple and clean all over. Glass, silver and white with everything polished is what you see all over the vessel.

Features and Amenities

The features of the Venus are actually totally unknown to this day. Jobs has never invited photographers on board to get a glimpse of what the cabins or living spaces may look like so there’s no word on how it all came together. Likewise, the designer has not shared any of the blueprints or ideas that went into making the yacht. This is common among designers of superyachts, however, and many have to sign non-disclosure agreements so they couldn’t share details even if they wanted to. 

Until such time as Laurene Jobs opts to either open the yacht to the public or sell it, the interior details are going to remain a mystery beyond what observers are able to glimpse from afar.

The Bottom Line

The Venus was a yacht partially designed and commissioned by Steve Jobs before his death in 2011. The yacht was finished in 2012 so he never got to see the final product on the water. Jobs once admitted he knew he might die before the yacht was finished but didn’t want to stop his work because he felt like it was an admission that he was going to die and didn’t want to quit like that.

The yacht is very uniquely designed in a minimalist style which reminds many of how Apple products in general are designed. The yacht cost Jobs about $120 million. It measures in at 257 feet in length.

Laurene Jobs is the current owner of the yacht and she has maintained her privacy with the vessel. As such, not only is it not available for charter but no one has seen images of the inside either.

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Superyacht Owned By Steve Jobs Crashes Into Another Multi-Million-Dollar Ship

The $130 million venus superyacht was ordered by steve jobs before his death and now it's been spotted hitting another anchored vessel in high winds, in this story.

Apple founder Steve Jobs may be turning in his grave this week after the $130 million superyacht he commissioned came crashing into another multi-million-dollar yacht. The Venus ship was reportedly at anchor when strong winds blew it into another nine-figure ship.

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Jobs commissioned the Venus superyacht prior to his death, however it wasn’t finished before he died in 2011 and was delivered to his widow a year later. The $130 million yacht remains in Laurene Powell Jobs’ possession and was recently spotted at anchor off the coast of Italy.

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However, it wasn’t a simple spotting of the ship floating at anchor off the coast of Naples, Italy. Instead, the 255-foot vessel was seen plowing bow-first into another multi-million-dollar ship anchored in the Mediterranean, reports Boat International :

A source close to the matter has confirmed that a sudden change of wind led to the collision between the 78.2-meter Feadship superyacht Venus and the 104.6-meter [344-foot] Lady Moura off the coast of Naples, Italy. The statement read: “On 22 July while at anchor, Venus came into contact with Lady Moura, which was also anchored. No family was on board, only crew. The wind changed very suddenly, picking up from a breeze to 55 knots over the course of a few minutes.” It continued: “Neither boat dragged anchor, though the other boat was on a chain double the length expected in the depth of water they were in. Both captains were in discussion immediately following the incident about minor repairs needed.”

Footage of the crash shared across social media shows the bow of Venus heading straight for Lady Moura . People onboard Lady Moura can be heard shouting to the other vessel to stop before it crashes into the ship.

There’s a sinister grating sound as the pointed front of Venus scrapes along the side of Lady Moura, and the video’s poster has reportedly claimed that a “big scratch” was left by the crash that will cost “a lot to fix.”

The captains of both vessels have reportedly now met to discuss the damages sustained by the crash and essential repairs that must be made.

At least the only damaged caused to the two ships was as a result of the crash. After all, they were skirting danger in the Mediterranean Sea , which has been the scene of several killer whale attacks on ships in the past year.

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Follow in the wake of Venus: 9 destinations visited by Steve Jobs' yacht

The late Steve Jobs’ superyacht Venus has been making her way around Turkey and the Greek islands over the past two weeks. The 78 metre Feadship Venus is now owned by Steve Jobs’ widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, and is not available for charter . Luxury yacht Venus was commissioned by the late founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, in 2008 and continues to turn heads wherever she docks.

Here are nine of the destinations Venus has visited while cruising along Turkey’s Turquoise Coast and the Greek Islands.

After cruising across from Majorca, the late Steve Job’s luxury yacht Venus ’ first stop in Turkey was at Fethiye, a common starting point for a private vacation or luxury yacht charters in Turkey .

Fethiye is located on the site of the ancient city of Telmessos and in 1958 an earthquake destroyed almost all of the town. More than 50 years later the city has now recovered and it a bustling centre of the Western Mediterranean.

The huge bay offers good protection from prevailing winds if you want to anchor out. Alternatively, Ece Marina can accommodate yachts up to 60 metres.

From Fethyiye Venus then cruised the 11 nautical miles to Göcek. The heart of yacht tourism in the area Göcek is starting to regularly attract some of the world’s largest yachts .

The area boasts plenty of coves and beaches, which are great for watersports. There are also a host of ancient cities within an hour’s drive of Göcek.

Göcek has three marinas that can accommodate yachts up to 70 metres. If you are looking for high-end luxury D-Marin Göcek can now accommodate yachts up to 75 metres. It has a white sand beach and is situated next to luxury resort hotel D-Resort. For a central location Skopea marina is within walking distance of the town’s facilities and also has a semi-Olympic sized swimming pool. Alternatively for a quieter setting, Club Marina is only a five-minute walk away from Göcek and offers beautiful natural scenery.

Picture courtesy of Lukash Dmitry/Shutterstock.com

Bozburun peninsula

Venus went on to spend three days exploring Marmaris and the Bozburun peninsula. Marmaris is a tourist hotspot with a waterfront offering host of restaurants. Heading down the coast from Marmaris you are treated to a taste of real turkey. Even during the peak summer period the area remains relatively quiet and offers you the chance to step back in time.

There are no superyacht marinas on the peninsula but, as Venus did, there are plenty of secluded places in which to anchor overnight.

PIcture courtesy of Nejdet Duzen/Shutterstock.com

From the Bozburun peninsula Venus cruised across into Greek waters. Despite the current economical issues and a VAT increase on luxury yacht charters brokers are keen to impress that is still “business as usual” in the country.

Venus visited Milos, the southwestern most island in the Cyclades, which offers more than 75 beaches with crystal blue waters. Because Milos is volcanic is has spectacular rock formations as well as hot springs and stunning cliffs.

You are best to anchor off the island and then tender in to explore further. Milos can also be used as a stop off destination when returning to Athens after exploring the Cyclades Islands on a superyacht .

Picture courtesy of Leoks/Shutterstock.com

From Milos Venus next went on to anchor off Paros. Located at the heart of the Cyclades islands Paros is a popular tourist destination and has traditional whitewashed villages and stunning cliff paths to hike along. Naoussa on the northeaster side of the island has a fishing harbour and also has a small selection of clubs if you fancy letting your hair down.

There are a variety of different secluded anchorages to choose from around the island.

Picture courtesy of Haris Vythoulkas/Shutterstock.com

Superyacht Venus then travelled on to the Greek Island of Samos, which is famous for its vineyards that produce samiotiko wine. The island was home to ancient philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras, the astronomer Aristarchus and the philosopher Epicurus. When Venus anchored off the coast of Samos she attracted attention from a host of locals and tourist.

If you are looking for a marina on the Southeast side of the island Samos Marina can berth yachts up to 50 metres.

Picture courtesy of  Evantravels/Shutterstock.com

From the Greek islands Venus then cruised back across to Kuşadası on the Turkish coast. The town has Turkey’s busiest cruised port and is the coastal gateway to Ephesus.

Kuşadasi Marina can accommodate yachts up to 70 metres in length and offers top quality facilities. Venus only had a short in Kuşadası before heading up the coast.

Picture courtesy of Worradirek/Shutterstock.com

Superyacht Venus then headed up to the seaside town of Ayvalık. The town has interesting architecture with a host of churches and monasteries. The busiest area of the town is the harbour where fishing boats and sightseeing trips are regularly anchored. Ayvalik Marina has 200 berths and can host superyachts up to 40 metres. The marina also offers extensive repair and maintenance services.

Picture courtesy of  Yulia GursoyShutterstock.com

Venus then made her way up to the cultural melting point of Istanbul. Sitting astride the Bosphorus the city straddles Europe and Asia and is a popular start or finish destination for private cruises or luxury yacht charters in Turkey . The iconic city is home to numerous interesting buildings and tourist attractions and is also one of many James Bond locations to visit on a superyacht .

Kalamis and Fenerbahçe marinas are situated next to each five miles east of the city centre and are a good location from which to explore the city. They can both accommodate yachts up to 60 metres and have restaurants, shops and a swimming pool.

Picture courtesy of  Sj Travel Photo And Video/Shutterstock.com

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Steve Jobs’s stunning $120 million Venus superyacht is stealing the spotlight on Australia’s Gold Coast. Owned by the Apple founder’s billionaire widow, Laurene Powell, this futuristic 255-foot-long vessel features 6 bedrooms and 27 Mac computers for entertainment.

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did steve jobs own a yacht

$120million Venus superyacht owned by Steve Job's billionaire widow Laurene Powell docks in Cairns, Australia as workers stock the 255ft vessel with supplies

  • The $120million Venus superyacht boasts six bedrooms and is 255ft long
  • It docked in Cairns, Queensland on Friday
  •  The vessel is owned by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' widow Laurene Powell Jobs

By J. Peterson For Daily Mail Australia and Rachael Bunyan For Mailonline

Published: 11:16 EDT, 26 August 2023 | Updated: 11:44 EDT, 26 August 2023

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The Venus superyacht is one of the most expensive and luxurious boats in the world.

And on Friday, the $120million vessel owned by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' widow Laurene Powell Jobs docked in Cairns, Australia. 

It's unclear if Laurene, 59, was on the scene, but various staffers were pictured loading Venus with supplies.

The superyacht looked like the picture of perfection as it sat in the crystal green and blue waters of Queensland .

At 255ft long, it dwarfed several smaller yachts that were docked nearby.

The $120million vessel owned by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' widow Laurene Powell Jobs docked in Cairns, Australia on Friday

The $120million vessel owned by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' widow Laurene Powell Jobs docked in Cairns, Australia on Friday

The late tech CEO (left) and his wife Laurene Powell are pictured together in Hollywood in 2010

The late tech CEO (left) and his wife Laurene Powell are pictured together in Hollywood in 2010

The superyacht looked like the picture of perfection as it sat in the crystal green and blue waters of Queensland

The superyacht looked like the picture of perfection as it sat in the crystal green and blue waters of Queensland

The mammoth size of Venus can be seen in comparison to some nearby cars that are parked on the dock

The mammoth size of Venus can be seen in comparison to some nearby cars that are parked on the dock

The spectacular sea vessel was last spotted in November, 2022, when Laurene enjoyed a holiday in Barbados. 

The glamorous socialite had spent the afternoon swanning around the luxury 5-star hotel Sandy Lane's restaurants, shops and spas. 

Powell was left widowed after Jobs passed away, age 56, from complications from pancreatic cancer in October 2011. They had three children together and Powell is also step-mother to Jobs' daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs.

A number of people were pictured on board and seemed to be inspecting something down below

A number of people were pictured on board and seemed to be inspecting something down below

At 255ft long, it dwarfed several smaller yachts that were docked nearby

At 255ft long, it dwarfed several smaller yachts that were docked nearby

The modern and sleek design of the superyacht is much different the more old fashioned style seen on many other yachts

The modern and sleek design of the superyacht is much different the more old fashioned style seen on many other yachts

Powell (pictured in 2019) was left widowed after Jobs passed away, age 56, from complications from pancreatic cancer in October 2011

Powell (pictured in 2019) was left widowed after Jobs passed away, age 56, from complications from pancreatic cancer in October 2011

When Jobs died, most of his assets passed on to his wife, making her one of the 50 richest people in the world.

Powell married Jobs in 1991 - ten years before the release of the first iPod - and now manages a fortune estimated to be worth $12.3 billion according to Forbes.

In addition to the Venus, she owns two private jets, four large real estate properties and a large stake in the Walt Disney Company.

The Venus was Steve Jobs' final masterpiece, after he commissioned it in 2008 and worked painstakingly on the design with superstar French product designer Philippe Starck.

He did not survive to see the ship completed and launched, dying of pancreatic cancer a year before work was finished in 2012.

It's unclear if Laurene, 59, was on the scene, but various staffers were pictured loading Venus with supplies

It's unclear if Laurene, 59, was on the scene, but various staffers were pictured loading Venus with supplies

Boxes were being unpacked from several vehicles and were then brought on board the superyacht

Boxes were being unpacked from several vehicles and were then brought on board the superyacht

The superyacht looked far more impressive than the vessels featured on reality shows such as Below Deck

The superyacht looked far more impressive than the vessels featured on reality shows such as Below Deck

In his final years, Steve Jobs told his biographer Walter Isaacson: 'I know that it's possible I will die and leave Laurene with a half-built boat. But I have to keep going on it. If I don't, it's an admission that I'm about to die.'

Starck helped design the sleek 256-foot long vessel, and Jobs enlisted the chief engineer of the Apple Stores to design reinforced glass for its walls, according to his biographer Walter Isaacson.

Starck spoke about Venus in an interview with French Vanity Fair, explaining the yacht houses six bedrooms along with communication systems between the kids' rooms in the front and the adult quarters in the rear.

The Venus was Steve Jobs' final masterpiece, after he commissioned it in 2008 and worked painstakingly on the design with superstar French product designer Philippe Starck

The Venus was Steve Jobs' final masterpiece, after he commissioned it in 2008 and worked painstakingly on the design with superstar French product designer Philippe Starck

In his final years, Steve Jobs told his biographer Walter Isaacson: 'I know that it's possible I will die and leave Laurene with a half-built boat. But I have to keep going on it. If I don't, it's an admission that I'm about to die'

In his final years, Steve Jobs told his biographer Walter Isaacson: 'I know that it's possible I will die and leave Laurene with a half-built boat. But I have to keep going on it. If I don't, it's an admission that I'm about to die'

Designer Starck spoke about Venus in an interview with French Vanity Fair, explaining the yacht houses six bedrooms along with communication systems between the kids' rooms in the front and the adult quarters in the rear

Designer Starck spoke about Venus in an interview with French Vanity Fair, explaining the yacht houses six bedrooms along with communication systems between the kids' rooms in the front and the adult quarters in the rear

It's unbelievable size seemed to stretch out for eons as it remained docked and floated on the Australian seas

It's unbelievable size seemed to stretch out for eons as it remained docked and floated on the Australian seas

The 255ft yacht is made of light-weight aluminium and Jobs employed the chief engineer of his Apple stores to help design special glass that allowed the ship to be installed with ten-foot-high windows across the hull

The 255ft yacht is made of light-weight aluminium and Jobs employed the chief engineer of his Apple stores to help design special glass that allowed the ship to be installed with ten-foot-high windows across the hull

'Steve wanted to be sure that the teenagers could be set up in the front of the boat when he was at the back and vice-versa. He was obsessed with silence,' Starck said.

'In his home, children did not make noise, nor the dog, nor his wife … no one made any noise, ever.'

The 255ft yacht is made of light-weight aluminium and Jobs employed the chief engineer of his Apple stores to help design special glass that allowed the ship to be installed with ten-foot-high windows across the hull.

It's unclear why the Venus was docked in Cairns and where it will be headed to on its next voyage

It's unclear why the Venus was docked in Cairns and where it will be headed to on its next voyage

The interior also features 27-Mac computer screens, with large cabin windows along the yacht

The interior also features 27-Mac computer screens, with large cabin windows along the yacht

The yacht can fit 12 guests on board in six suites as well as 22 crewmembers.

The interior also features 27-Mac computer screens, with large cabin windows along the yacht. 

Looking like a floating Apple store, the yacht bears all the hallmarks of a new Jobs-inspired creation — crisp white lines, polished metal, glass.

The superyacht has a long white hull with a row of circular portholes just above the water line and two glass-walled cabins on the top deck, one on top of the other.

Laurene Powell Jobs' $120million luxury yacht Venus

The $120 million luxury yacht Venus was designed by Steve Jobs and French product designer Philippe Starck.

Jobs commissioned the yacht in 2008, but he did not survive to see the ship completed and launched, dying of pancreatic cancer before work was finished in 2012.

The yacht can fit 12 guests on board in six suites as well as 22 crewmembers. 

Starck spoke about Venus in an interview with French Vanity Fair, explaining the yacht houses six bedrooms along with communication systems between the kids' rooms in the front and the adult quarters in the rear. 

Looking like a floating Apple store, the yacht bears all the hallmarks of a new Jobs-inspired creation — crisp white lines, polished metal, glass. 

The superyacht has a long white hull with a row of circular portholes just above the water line and two glass-walled cabins on the top deck, one on top of the other. 

Share or comment on this article: $120million Venus superyacht owned by Steve Job's billionaire widow Laurene Powell docks in Cairns, Australia as workers stock the 255ft vessel with supplies

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Sail Away: The Oral History of ‘Yacht Rock’

This story was originally published on June 26, 2015

I n the late 1970s and early 1980s, musical artists like Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, Steely Dan, Toto, Hall and Oates, and dozens of others regularly popped up on each other’s records, creating a golden era of smooth-music collaboration.

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And on June 26th, 2005, an internet phenomenon was born. In 12 short but memorable episodes — first via the the short-film series Channel 101 and then online — JD Ryznar, Hunter Stair, Dave Lyons, Lane Farnham and their friends redefined an era and coined a term for the sultry croonings of McDonald, Fagen, et al.: “yacht rock.”

As “Hollywood” Steve might say, these guys docked a fleet of remarkable hits. This is the story of Yacht Rock, told from stem to stern — a reimagining of a bygone soft-rock renaissance, courtesy of hipsters with fake mustaches, impeccable record collections and a love of smoothness. Long may it sail.

The Michigan Connection JD Ryznar (Director, “Michael McDonald”): I moved from Ann Arbor to L.A., and ended up making friends with all these other guys from Michigan, like “Hollywood” Steve Huey, Hunter Stair, and David Lyons. Pretty much every weekend I’d have “Chinese Thanksgiving” at my apartment — we’d eat BBQ chicken and burgers, drink beer and listen to records of what I called “yacht rock.” You know, like Michael McDonald is singing background vocals and like there’s guys on boats on the covers; it feels like you’re on a yacht listening to it. And the guys were like, oh, we know this music.

Dave Lyons (“Koko”): You know how, in the Seventies, these big bands started playing arena rock? We liked the idea of these smooth bands playing “Marina Rock.” I thought it was a better name.

“Hollywood” Steve Huey (“Hollywood Steve”): What I mostly remember is JD playing Journey records all the time. He was so into Journey that he had photocopied a photo of Steve Perry and pasted it onto his liquid soap dispenser. He wrote “Steve Perry Soap: Clean as all fuck” on it.

Lane Farnham (editor, “Jimmy Messina”): JD and I had talked about Journey for a year before we did Yacht Rock. In the third episode, that whole “you need to fly like a pilot” bit? Those are direct lines from Steve Perry in this crazy documentary we found. He’s coked to the gills, in the Eighties, just blabbering about who knows what. We got a kick out of that stuff.

Ryznar: My musical tastes are not that interesting, and they never were.

Huey: I turned 30 right before we started doing the series, and I thought, well, this is a nice round number. What do 30-year-olds do? I feel like it’s time I get into Steely Dan. I bought most of the catalogue and was like, This is my new identity. I’m gonna unwind, start listening to Steely Dan, and leave parties early.

Channel 101 Hunter Stair (“Kenny Loggins”):  At the time, JD had helped me get a job at a production company, and he asked if I wanted to shoot this thing they were doing for something called Channel 101. I didn’t know anything about it, but I saw that it was started by Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab — who I knew because I had a copy of Heat Vision and Jack [the failed 1999 pilot they wrote that became a huge underground hit, directed by Ben Stiller and starring Jack Black ]. So I was super pumped.

Ryznar : It was a cool scene at the time: Justin Roiland had [Channel 101 series] House of Cosbys, Dan Harmon had Laser Fart. Our friends Drew Hancock and Wade Randolph, who would go on to play Hall and Oates, they had a show about a regular guy who got angry, and turned into a smaller, shirtless weaker guy who didn’t turn green or anything.

Drew Hancock (“Oates”): That was called “Man to Man: Metamorphosis Ultra.” It was the lowest stakes Incredible Hulk show you could possibly have.

Justin Roiland (co-creator of Rick & Morty and House of Cosbys, “Christopher Cross”): Every single month you’re making something, and then you’re testing it in front of a live audience. You see what works, what doesn’t work.

Ryznar : It was a January 2005 screening where we started the school of Channel 101, where you’re showing the stuff you made in front of 200, maybe 300 people. And then they put it on the “internet,” which was very hard to do back then. There was no “YouTube.” Listen to Old Man Ryznar here.

Farnham: JD and I would go down to the beach and play something called “smash ball” — there’s no rules to the game, so we’d just make them up. And he said, this is fucking hilarious, we should make a short film about this. So we got Hunter to direct SmashBoys — and it was funny.

Lyons: Two paddles and a ball that you hit back and forth on the beach. We turned it into a soap opera .

Stair : We started playing Kenny Loggins’ “Playing With the Boys” [from Top Gun ] on repeat as we drove a convertible around Playa del Rey. Just to get in the mood.

Ryznar : There were some Phil Collins music cues, I think. A lot of sports music from Eighties movies — “You’re the Best Around” and whatnot. We used a great Kenny Loggins song for the climax. It’s from Caddyshack II . . .

Stair : “Nobody’s Fool”! It ended up winning the Best Failed Pilot of that year; we lost by eight votes to the Lonely Island guys, who did “The ‘Bu.” They just stuck their middle fingers up at everybody and said, we didn’t make a show but we made a hilarious music video. That was the night I had the idea for Y acht Rock.

Christening the Ship Ryznar : Hunter and Dave Lyons came up with an idea for a show about a couple of jewel thieves who lived on a yacht and listened to that music.

Stair : That was actually called Steal Away.

Lyons: I believe Hunter and I were talking about a private eye detective team called Loggins & Loggins that lived on a houseboat and solved mysteries — like Simon & Simon.

Ryznar : I said: How about we play Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald as they co-write “What a Fool Believes” together? We had Stevie Nicks in there originally, for some reason. And then Drew Hancock and Wade Randolph said, we want to be Hall and Oates. I had gotten into the H&O song “Portable Radio” pretty hard. I needed to introduce it to the world. That was very important to me.

Stair : The seed of Koko the manager is . . . there’s a Doobie Brothers album that has a sweet looking manager dude on it. I remember sitting there with JD and being like, look how awesome this guy is.

Ryznar : Dave Lyons invented the Koko character while out drinking with Hunter one night. He just put on a bunch of garbage Seventies clothes he had around the house, and had a little stupid whistle around his neck. All these little touches — that’s what Dave is so great at.

Lyons: No, [Dan Harmon] wasn’t an immediate fan. That’s because he doesn’t get music. Just listen to the theme song for  Community — it’s terrible. Dan looks at things differently than most people, and I don’t think he loves music the way we do. But he came around. He came to really enjoy it. [Harmon would eventually play record producer Ted Templeman in two episodes.]

Ryznar : We thought maybe people would get it, maybe they won’t. But we submitted it. At the prime time panel, everybody but Dan Harmon like it. I think that because he’d never heard of the guys, he didn’t realize how much that music had meant to other people. People knew who everybody was. That’s why we put Hollywood Steve in there to say, hey, this is the deal. Hollywood Steve was a friend and an actual music critic. If you look up a lot of Nineties rap albums on All Music Guide, chances are Hollywood Steve wrote the review.

Huey: I was a published music writer, and that lent me a voice of authority that I might not have otherwise had amongst a hardcore group of music nerds. “Oh this guy’s viewpoint has to be legitimate! He’s published.”

Steve Agee (“Steve Porcaro”): Channel 101 at that point in time was really known for people making videos kind of purposely shitty. So we couldn’t tell if it was made to look bad on purpose.

Hancock: When Wade and I saw the first episode, we were like, eh, this isn’t very good. We didn’t like it. I didn’t understand it. So when it had this meteoric response, I was very surprised.

Ryznar : So Yacht Rock got screened, we were very nervous, and it went over like gangbusters. Just bona fide love from beginning to end from the audience. And we got voted number one on our first try, which hadn’t been done too often on Channel 101.

Stair : It got the biggest laugh of the night. As soon as it was over, we knew we were in. We weren’t totally sure it was going to be number one, but we knew we’d be up there.

Ryznar : A lot of people wanted parts. People had ideas. So we got to work with people we wanted to work with. Before we even knew we were picked up for a second episode, Hunter came up to me and said, “Uh, just talking to Doug Benson. I told him he could play Peter Cetera in the next episode.”

Lyons: The thing about the Channel 101 screenings, they’re always at a place that serves lots of alcohol. And after we saw how well it went over, we’re all drinking at the bar; Dan Harmon is doing a show with Sarah Silverman [ The Sarah Silverman Program ] at the time, and Doug was there with her. Yes, Hunter promised him the role of Peter Cetera. Which is great casting.

Episode Two: The Songwriting Contest In the second episode, Hall and Oates challenge Loggins and Messina to songwriting contest. It ends with the creation of some of the greatest smooth music ever.

Ryznar : I mean, imagine if you saw Hall and Oates where Oates, with all that hair and the mustache, was the top, and Hall was the bottom? They were sort of the opposite of the smooth California scene. So they sort of made the perfect antagonists.

Huey: The only reason they were picked as antagonists is because they’re from Philadelphia, which is a mean place.

Hancock: The wigs we got from our friend Willy, who just happened to have two of the most perfect wigs ever.

Wade Randolph (“Daryl Hall”): The Hall wig is named the De Carlo. I don’t know why.

Hancock: I remember for the mustache, I think I tried a regular handlebar mustache but it just wasn’t thick enough. So I just ended up taking a lock of the wig and fashioning a mustache out of that.

Stair : And Justin Roiland coming in, doing “Sailing.” The way the whole thing flowed, it’s so fast and perfect. I think that was Yacht Rock ‘s the finest hour.

Roiland: JD asked me, would you play Christopher Cross? I’d never heard “Sailing” before, believe it or not. I remember the first few listens going I don’t get the appeal of this fucking song. It’s an acquired taste.

Huey: We didn’t quite know what we had at that point, and so you kind of had to establish the value system. Smoothness is the main value in this world. The second episode, when that screened for the live audience, I’ve never seen a Channel 101 audience go that apeshit for anything. I remember walking out of the screening going, we’re rock stars! Granted, it’s only this one room, with like 300 people in it, but in that one room of 300 people, I think we might be rock stars.

Koko Makes His Final Voyage Lyons: As soon as we got in for the first one, JD called me and said here’s the idea for the second one: I’m gonna kill off Koko. Well, thanks a pantload, JD. He’s like, no it’ll be great. You’ll come back later as a ghost or something.

Stair : So JD wanted this guy Koko to have this totem at this fight; I suggested a trident, since it’s more nautical. But Anchorman had come out, and they had the fight scene with the trident. We still needed something, so we settled on a harpoon.

Lyons: In the second one, I’m supposed to get run through with my own harpoon. And Hunter showed up with a child’s little trident, taped to the handle of a barbecue fork. I was like Hunter, we can do better than this. So my roommates had a woodshop in the backyard; I went out there and drilled some holes, made some dowel rods, and wrapped the handle in rope. When I showed up with it, everyone said holy shit — you made a fucking harpoon, dude! It also split in the middle, so you could run it through someone. And that episode elevated Koko to this mythic level that nobody expected, least of all me.

Stair : You can’t kill Loggins. You can’t kill McDonald. These are real people. Koko had to die.

Lyons: My thought is that Koko fell on his own harpoon and martyred himself. I like to think that Koko was the Jesus Christ of Yacht Rock. [ Pause ] That’s going to sound arrogant. How about: Koko died to deliver smooth music to the rest of the musicians.

Huey: I don’t think it was ever decided who killed Koko until the very end. The important thing is, like Jesus, he died for a cause. Which, in this case, was smooth music. But you know what’s gonna happen if you’re in the middle of a melée with a bunch of guys from the mean streets of Philadelphia. You’re going to die of a harpoon injury. That’s why they call it the city of harpoon murders.

Randolph: I always assumed it was Oates.

Wyatt Cenac (“James Ingram”): Who killed Koko? You know, very good question. If I had to go with anybody… I’d say maybe Loggins and McDonald together. That’s the secret twist. I think they’d been slowly poisoning him for years, and the harpoon was just to throw people of their scent.

Ryznar : I don’t know. Is Tony Soprano dead? Hollywood Steve took the “Koko” answer to his grave.

Stair : I would never name names. Only Hollywood Steve knows for sure, and someone would have to give him big Hollywood dollars to spill.

Any Port in a Storm After 10 stellar installments, including a guest appearance by “Cleveland” Drew Carey ,  a case for Jethro Tull (the 18th century farmer, not the band) to be considered smooth and a primer on how Michael McDonald influenced Nineties G-Funk , Yacht Rock was canceled by Channel 101 after “FM” — about a gang war between the Eagles and Steely Dan. But help was on the horizon.

Ryznar : The record at the time was 12. We really wanted to beat it — but we didn’t. There might have been Yacht Rock fatigue in the audience.

Lyons: It’s not one of my favorites. I’m not a fan of the Eagles, and not a lot of people get Steely Dan.

Huey: Some people come back to Channel 101 month after month after month. But you always get some new people in there who don’t know what’s going on. You cross your fingers that general audience goodwill is enough to get you by this month. Unfortunately, in this case, it wasn’t.

Ryznar : It was heartbreaking, man. Because the great thing about Channel 101 is, you can feel when the audience isn’t into it. And the audience was not into this. I knew the 101 days were over as soon as the screening was done.

Stair : Nowadays, things have two- or three-year runs at Channel 101. Back then, 10 episodes was a lot.

Ryznar : Not even two weeks after we were canceled, I got an email from someone who booked a bar in Chicago — The Empty Bottle — and wanted to screen all the Yacht Rocks. I forget if they flew us out or if we just happened to be there, but we screened all the episodes back to back. There was a line down the block; the place was filled to capacity. People were quoting lines.

Huey: The show had started to go viral. Working lower level jobs in reality television, and then walking into a bar and being the most famous person in that room didn’t match up with my everyday experience at all.

Cast Off . . . Again After successfully touring the country, JD & co. starting making new episodes, beginning with Footloose. Featuring the likes of Jason Lee and Wyatt Cenac, it tells the story of how Loggins being kidnapped by Jimmy Buffett led to one of the Eighties’ most rockin’ soundtracks.

Huey: Yeah I was really excited to get back into it, because I didn’t really have too much else going on at that point. Let’s do that thing that made me semi-famous again!

Ryznar : We did the Footloose episode. And it turned out even better than I could have imagined. It was nice, since we weren’t limited to five minutes, even though we tried to keep it close: one of the keys to Yacht Rock is jamming everything into five minutes. I had done some work with Jason Lee, who would quote lines every time I saw him. So I asked if he’d play Kevin Bacon, and he was throwing chairs around.

Lyons: We kept talking about the stories that we never got to tell, one of them being Footloose. And I hate Jimmy Buffett ‘s music; I think it’s a soundtrack to date rape. I think it’s garbage music for people who have no interest in listening to anything good.

Ryznar : We portrayed parrotheads being brainwashed idiots. You kind of have to be if you’re into Jimmy Buffett. Or just want to be so tuned out of life, that like hey, whatever — kick back with flip flops, drink some margs, listen to some sweet Jimmy Buffett music and let him paint a rosy picture of a reality that does not exist.

Lyons: I always like that artists like Bertie Higgins, Rupert Holmes and Andy Kim have an authentic longing in their music. Buffett is a rich dude getting richer off of the lack of taste of the poor and stupid. He represents the lowest common denominator in music, even worse than country singers profiting off of 9/11. To summarize: I’m not really a fan.

Ryznar : You might be able to argue that Jimmy Buffett music is about escaping from a dark place, but there’s no soul in there. So we just wanted to make him an absolute idiot. Our good friend Vatche Panos, who is super funny, really hit a home run with that one.

Cenac: I remember when we were shooting that, I had no idea there was a song called “Cheeseburgers in Paradise.” Much less that people actually listened to it and liked it.

Ryznar : I hope he doesn’t mind me telling this story, but Wyatt Cenac had just auditioned for The Daily Show , and he was flat broke.

Cenac: Yeah, I was definitely very broke. That isn’t why I did it. I did enjoy it. But there was also a part of being broke where you’ll do anything.

Ryznar : And then a month later, he becomes Wyatt Cenac, the international sensation.

Cenac: Do I want to say that Yacht Rock was the thing that changed my life? Someone can say it. You can find someone to connect the dots and make that leap on the Internet.

Huey : We did one more, and I didn’t feel like the last episode came together as well as it could have for whatever reason. I think Footloose was a more cohesive episode. Also the original idea for the finale was Gene Balboa was going to kidnap all these people from the “We Are the World” session , take them to an island, and force them to write soundtrack hits for him. Anyone who tried to escape would get hunted down like in The Most Dangerous Game.

Ryznar : That was a hard one to write — the space battle, Hall and Oates shooting lasers, Loggins starting his soundtrack phase. I’m proud of killing off Hollywood Steve and making it a pain drug-induced hallucination. I think that let us go nuts with it. The “We Are the World” part was a fun shoot. You just look around and go, wow, I know so many talented people that are bringing so much to this thing.

Stair : The Hollywood Steve “character” was on morphine, not Huey. Well, he might have been on morphine, I don’t know. That’d be an awesome salacious story about Yacht Rock. Just write that, it’s even better.

Huey : When I was using, it did get increasingly harder to tell where the character stopped and I began. Once you’ve been on VH1’s “100 Greatest Songs of the Nineties,” the public expects you to maintain a certain image, and I guess I got caught up in a myth. [ Pause ] I’m kidding. But I did murder a homeless woman. Just to see what it felt like.

Farnham: One of my favorite moments of all of Yacht Rock is when Giorgio Moroder is whispering into Kenny Loggins’ ear about “the Danger Zone.” I love that. It’s such a good moment.

Ryznar : Loggins going soundtrack is kind of like the end of Yacht Rock. If “Sailing” is one of the greatest yacht-rock songs ever, and that’s in Episode Two, it’s all death from then on. “Danger Zone” — there’s just nothing smooth about that song at all. By 1985, Michael McDonald had released his last great album. The Doobie Brothers were done. Toto didn’t have any more good songs in them. Steely Dan was broken up. It was over.

How did the actual musical artists react to their portrayal in the show? John Oates (speaking to the Seattle Weekly in 2007): “I think Yacht Rock was the beginning of this whole Hall & Oates resurrection. They were the first ones to start to parody us and put us out there again, and a lot of things have happened because of Yacht Rock. “

Ryznar : People actually contacted me and wanted to see if I wanted tickets to [their] shows at the Hollywood Bowl. We went backstage and met Hall and Oates. There’s a picture out there somewhere of Drew Hancock and Wade Randolph with Hall and Oates — and it’s awesome.

Randolph: I don’t know who contacted who, but Oates had seen the show and was apparently a fan of it. Hall didn’t give a fuck about us at all. He was just like whatever.

Hancock: Oates actually understood what we were doing. First of all, he’s the shortest dude on the planet. I’m 5’8, and he looked at me and said, man you’re way too tall to play me. I think he’s 5’4 and had thick heels on too.

Cenac: Oates is the unsung hero in that group. The moment he decides to turn the jets on, watch out.

Lyons: The only negative thing I’ve ever heard from any of the actual people we’ve portrayed was that Kenny Loggins wasn’t a huge fan. My wife met him once, and said my husband played Koko in Yacht Rock. He just got all, huh. Not mean, not nasty. Just: Huh.

Stair : I’m not sure Loggins liked it, [but] I know his son did. A lot of the kids of the guys in the show like. You know, some serious artists. Michael McDonald, I’m pretty sure he liked it.

“I met Steve Porcaro at a book-release party, and he asked, ‘Do you guys hate us?’ We’re writing a love letter to this music and we meant no ill will toward anybody. Except for Jimmy Buffett.”

Michael McDonald (speaking to Time Out New York in 2008): “I thought Yacht Rock was hilarious. And uncannily, you know, those things always have a little bit of truth to them. It’s kind of like when you get a letter from a stalker who’s never met you. They somehow hit on something, and you have to admit they’re pretty intuitive.”

Lyons: Did JD tell you the story of when we went to see Steely Dan? We got contacted by somebody in their camp, I don’t remember who, but they gave us four or five tickets to see them in Irvine. We were in the third or fourth row, and Michael McDonald was the opening act. Those guys got recognized at the concert. Later, when Michael McDonald came out to perform with Steely Dan, they were all wearing captain’s hats. They were singing the song “Showbiz Kids”: “Showbiz kids, showbiz kids making movies themselves/Showbiz kids, don’t give a fuck about anybody else.” And during that line they threw their hats on the ground and stomped on them. We just looked at each other and went, oh my god, they know who we are.

Agee: About a year ago, I was at Largo, and one of the guys that works there is married to Steve Porcaro’s daughter. He was like, yeah, Steve is actually here tonight; he loves Yacht Rock, and said he wanted to meet me. I cut out early because I was honestly too nervous.

Stair : I met Steve Porcaro at a book-release party, and he kind of pulled me aside and asked, “Do you guys hate us?” And I was like, oh no, I hope that’s not the impression we gave anybody. We’re writing a love letter to this music and we meant no ill will toward anybody. Except for Jimmy Buffett.

Farnham: I actually worked with an editor who was good friends with the Toto folks, and they said it’s uncanny how close some of these stories are. Apparently there’s a lot more truth than we know.

Agee: So I can see how bands would be like, oh, they’re making fun of us. But I’ve known JD for awhile now, and I know for a fact that he loves that music. I don’t think someone who hated what’s now called yacht rock . . they wouldn’t spend so much time making videos about it.

Stair : The way I always looked at Yacht Rock was that we kind of did what the Blues Brothers did. We took the music that we really loved that we weren’t really part of, and reintroduced it to our own generation a little bit. The one thing that I hope we got across is that the music is really good, and that we were huge fans of it. The whole reason we did the show is because we loved it.

Lyons: I felt we always treated the music lovingly. It was always treated with respect; what we were trying to make fun of was all these guys hanging out and the ridiculous things they were into. I heard a story that Kenny Loggins got married in the nude. I don’t know if it’s true or not. But that’s the kind of late Seventies/early Eighties Southern California horse shit that is so delightful about Yacht Rock. Like wanting to find out what your root chakra is. That’s what’s funny about it. [ Pause ] I mean of course Kenny Loggins and Steve Perry are going to be into karate!

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  1. Steve Jobs' Yacht 'Venus'

    Nearly $140 million dollars was arguably a small sum for Steve Jobs—who had an estimated $10.2 billion net worth before his death—to invest on a yacht meeting the Apple visionary's high standards, but even more fascinating than Venus' estimated worth is the story behind this sleek, modern vessel.. Named after the Roman goddess of love, sex, beauty, and fertility, the 260-foot long ...

  2. Venus (yacht)

    Beam. 11.80 m (38.7 ft) Draught. 3.00 m (9.84 ft) Notes. Data from builder [1] Venus is a super yacht designed by Philippe Starck 's design company Ubik and built by Feadship for the entrepreneur Steve Jobs at a cost of €105 million. Jobs died in October 2011, a year before the yacht was unveiled.

  3. Six things you didn't know about Steve Jobs' superyacht Venus

    2. Steve Jobs never stepped foot on board. Steve Jobs pictured with Laurene Powell Jobs (left) Jeff Vespa/WireImage via Getty Images. Sadly, Jobs never had the chance to see Venus completed before his untimely death in 2011. The yacht remains in the family, now owned by his widow Laurene Powell Jobs. Jobs was widely reported saying the ...

  4. Steve Jobs' Yacht Venus: Everything You Need To Know

    Superyacht Venus is a 256-foot-long vessel launched in 2012 for the late Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple. The Feadship-built superyacht is a design collaboration between Jobs and French designer Philippe Starck. It all started with a simple phone call ". "Would you like to make a boat?".

  5. Inside the story of Steve Jobs's Feadship ...

    Venus is a fully custom creation, built for the late Apple founder Steve Jobs, who Feadship says (as seen on its website) had a hand in her completely unique design. Sadly, Jobs never had the chance to set foot on board before his untimely death in 2011, the year before Venus was launched. The yacht remains in the family, now owned by his widow Laurene Powell Jobs.

  6. VENUS Yacht • Steve Jobs' $120M Superyacht

    The luxury yacht Venus was built at Feadship for Apple founder Steve Jobs.When the superyacht was delivered in 2012, it was rumored to have cost more than EUR 100 million. The yacht was designed by Jobs himself, together with famous designer Philippe Starck.. On delivery of the yacht, there was a legal dispute about payment, which brought to light the fact that Starck earned a $9 million fee ...

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  8. The story behind Steve Jobs' $120 million Venus superyacht

    The Venus superyacht is a fully custom creation, built for the late Apple founder Steve Jobs. READ MORE! The annual running costs of owning a superyacht are enough to buy a mansion. Sadly, Jobs never had the chance to set foot on board before his untimely death in 2011, the year before the superyacht launched.

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    For Steve Jobs worshipers, Venus is no longer the name of the Roman goddess of love. ... he did nonetheless own a fourteen-room ... Steve Jobs told the story of his yacht's creation stating that ...

  10. Late Steve Job's Super Yacht Venus

    As inspiring and revolutionary Steve Jobs' engineering concept is, equally brilliant is the late innovator's mega yacht named Venus. Having commissioned the vessel even before the diagnosis of his terminal illness, Jobs intended the vessel to be his swan-song, after his terminal health problem was brought to light.According to the reports, the mega yacht was put into operation in 2012, a ...

  11. Steve Jobs' yacht revealed, christened 'Venus'

    Steve Jobs' yacht was unveiled in a Dutch shipyard on Sunday, where the unusual boat designed by Jobs and famed minimalist designer Philippe Starck was christened "Venus," after the Roman ...

  12. Photos of Late Apple CEO Steve Jobs' Luxury Yacht Venus

    Steve Jobs The Apple CEO's super yacht Venus was designed by Philippe Starck's design company Ubik. Jobs spent approximately $131 million on it but passed away in 2011 before it was completed. Ed ...

  13. Steve Jobs' Superyacht in Florida

    Venus, the 256-foot Feadship reportedly commissioned by the late Steve Jobs and designed by Phillipe Starck, arrived at the Rybovich yard in West Palm Beach over the weekend. Check out this video of the yacht, and track her by AIS.

  14. Your Insider's Look at Steve Jobs' Yacht Venus

    Steve Jobs commissioned the yacht for an impressive $120 million. Yachts like the Eclipse are alleged to be upwards of $1.5 billion and even the massive Azzam has been confirmed at around $600 million so obviously the Venus is not the most expensive vessel, but it's nothing to sniff at, either. We know from what we mentioned above that $9 ...

  15. See the first photos of Steve Jobs' superyacht Venus post-refit

    The new photos show Venus emerging from her refit with a gleaming hull, and close-up pictures give an look at intriguing details of the yacht.The bridge on Venus, for instance, is packed with Apple computers, fitting for a yacht designed for Steve Jobs.The photo above shows that there are seven Mac screens sitting in superyacht Venus' glass-enclosed bridge, a hint at the technology packed ...

  16. Steve Jobs' visionary superyacht collided with a Mexican billionaire's boat

    Steve Jobs' $130 million former yacht, Venus, was accidentally involved in a billionaire boat collision off the coast of Italy. The Apple cofounder, a legendary tech inventor and CEO, passed ...

  17. Once impounded for lack of payments, Steve Jobs' $140 million luxury

    Venus motoryacht was completed in 2012; a year after Steve Jobs' passing, entailing the genius never got a chance to set sights on his massive 256-feet boat. While Philippe Starck created the design of his one-of-a-kind sailing paradise, the chief designer of the Apple Stores made structural glass for the yacht.

  18. Superyacht Owned By Steve Jobs Crashes Into Another Multi-Million

    The $130 million Venus superyacht was ordered by Steve Jobs before his death and now it's been spotted hitting another anchored vessel in high winds. You can't park there mate. Apple founder ...

  19. Steve Jobs' Venus superyacht docked in Cairns, Australia after

    Via Instagram / @starck The custom yacht, with a high-tech interior featuring Apple Products, journeyed from Papeete to Cairns. Billionairess Laurene Powell, worth $14.2 billion, acquired the yacht after Steve Jobs died in 2011 and used the fabulous pleasure craft to cruise around famous destinations. It was like a Jobs family tradition to vacation aboard luxurious yachts every summer.

  20. Steve Jobs' Mysterious $120 Million Venus Superyacht Makes a Rare

    Venus is the superyacht that Apple founder Steve Jobs commissioned Feadship in the mid-2000s, and which he customized personally by working closely with visionary designer Philippe Starck. Like ...

  21. Follow in the wake of Venus: 9 destinations visited by Steve Jobs' yacht

    The late Steve Jobs' superyacht Venus has been making her way around Turkey and the Greek islands over the past two weeks. The 78 metre Feadship Venus is now owned by Steve Jobs' widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, and is not available for charter.Luxury yacht Venus was commissioned by the late founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, in 2008 and continues to turn heads wherever she docks.

  22. Steve Jobs's stunning $120 million Venus superyacht is stealing the

    There's no ignoring a stunner, which is why Apple founder Steve Jobs's superyacht, Venus, is accustomed to turning heads wherever it goes. The yacht, owned by the late tycoon's wife, Laurene Powell Jobs, worth $13.8 billion, was recently spotted in the beautiful Gold Coast, Australia.This idyllic city is famed for its long sandy beaches, surfing spots, and gastronomic paradise, making it ...

  23. Superyacht owned by Steve Job's widow Laurene docks in Cairns

    The $120 million luxury yacht Venus was designed by Steve Jobs and French product designer Philippe Starck. Jobs commissioned the yacht in 2008, but he did not survive to see the ship completed ...

  24. Sail Away: The Oral History of 'Yacht Rock'

    Steve Agee ("Steve Porcaro"): Channel 101 at that point in time was really known for people making videos kind of purposely shitty. So we couldn't tell if it was made to look bad on purpose.