AALSMEER, Netherlands (AFP) ― Steve Jobs’ superyacht “Venus” has emerged from a shipbuilder’s yard in the Netherlands just over a year after the Apple founder’s death.
The approximately 70-meter long yacht is being built by Royal De Vries shipbuilder’s in Aalsmeer, just south of Amsterdam.
According to a posting Sunday on the Dutch tech blog onemorething.nl, the ship will be presented to Jobs’ family, including his widow Laurene Powell Jobs and their three children Reed, Erin and Eve.
It will then be packed up and shipped by cargo to the United States. Those who worked on the ship each received an iPod nano from the family, the blog said.
 |
The yacht ordered by Apple’s late founder Steve Jobs. (AFP-Yonhap News) |
The bridge features a control panel made up of an array of seven iMac computers. Another Mac can be seen through a porthole above the anchor.
Sources told the blog that the ship took six years to design and build.
Apple’s top designer, Jonathan Ive, was involved with the design.
French designer Philippe Starck said last year that he was working on the yacht, which was mentioned in Walter Isaacson’s biography of Jobs, who died on Oct. 5, 2011. He said it was “sleek and minimalist,” with teak decks.
Yacht designer Henry Bateson of Britain’s Iceni yachts described the boat’s peculiar blunt bow design as “usually found on sports vessels.”
The hull design “should provide an easier ride in a chop without giving up too much room for accommodation or stability at anchor,” said Bateson, noting the light-weight aluminium hull.
Bateson said the amount of glass in the hull is significantly greater than other yachts of a similar size.
“I understand there was a considerable design effort in appropriate sizing of this glass. It will be interesting to see the loadings once she’s at sea.”
