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Steve Jobs' Yacht Revealed

schwit1 writes "Venus, the incredible luxury yacht Steve Jobs had been designing up until his death a little over a year ago, seems to have made its first appearance as a finished product in the city of Aalsmeer in the Netherlands. Unsurprisingly, its design is breathtaking. Reportedly designed in a joint effort between Jobs himself and Philippe Starck, the stunning ship first showed up on the blog One More Thing, which posted some stills as well as a few other details. The ship is about 230 to 260 feet long, for instance, and made entirely of aluminum, which makes it particularly light. And if you had any doubt this is Steve Jobs' yacht, there are seven 27-inch iMacs in the wheelhouse. According to One More Thing's sources, the Jobs family will be present for the yacht's christening ceremony proper, thought it's unknown whether or not they intend to use it, or what its ultimate fate may be. Regardless of what may happen to her, she sure is a beauty. It's certainly a shame Steve Jobs never got the chance to see her finished."

28 of 438 comments (clear)

  1. iSore? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't know, it looks more like an iSore to me.

    1. Re:iSore? by tomhath · · Score: 5, Insightful

      More like a barge than a yacht. I guess he was going for the rectangle with rounded corners look.

    2. Re:iSore? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Congrats on first dickishness. Very clever.

      I don't own any Apple products, and likely never will - I have major philosophical differences with that kind of closed-source approach.

      But y'know what? Jobs was a fucking genius, and that boat is a clear expression of how his vision matured over the years. Just because I don't like the underpinnings of Jobs' genius doesn't mean I can't appreciate it for what it was.

      Oh, and y'know... he's dead. Those wars are over, asshole.

      None of what you said alters the fact that the boat is sort of ugly. When vision matures in this particular manner it's usually called cataracts.

    3. Re:iSore? by slashmydots · · Score: 5, Funny

      Don't worry, it will use Apple Maps and crash into something in Nebraska. Yeah, that far inland, lol.

    4. Re:iSore? by Grayhand · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't know, it looks more like an iSore to me.

      A two word description, sterile and boring. If you turned that in as a final design for design school I'd expect to flunk. Even the placement of the iMacs lacks imagination. I thought they'd be built in not sitting in a row blocking the window. A design fail on every level.

    5. Re:iSore? by EdIII · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Oh, and y'know... he's dead. Those wars are over, asshole.

      Nooo.... no they're not. The wars he started are really just beginning.

      Steve Jobs was truly an evil and despicable person in the world of computing. One of the first to even understand what cyberspace *was*, what it *could* become, and how to ultimately control it.

      It was once explained this way, and still is my favorite analogy:

      Steve Jobs saw computing as a wide open territory yet to be populated. He did not want to empower people with free movement, or any freedom in general, in this new "space". The way he saw computing was like trains instead of cars. He would build the trains, sell the trains, and by building and owning the tracks, "guide" people in this new "space". He would be the gatekeeper, the guide, the prophet, and all would experience his world, on his terms, and why not? He's a fucking genius right ?

      To say that man is a toxic plague upon cyberspace is a vast understatement. Where are we now with the whole concept of the walled gardens? How many other companies are rushing in with greedy fervor to make money the same way? Microsoft... I'm looking at you with Windows 8 and the app store.....

      Yes, he could see that people wanted easy to use, shiny, very shiny, devices that just worked. Why not do that and control their ability at the same time?

      If somebody brings up his anti-DRM stance, just remember that he had the foresight to see there was no winning that war, and that by controlling the walled garden and giving very cheap payment options, he would make up the money in volume and hardware sales.

      The wars, the wars against people and freedom, have only just begun. Thanks to Steve Jobs, the people have started out with a severe disadvantage and handicap.

      Although, to be fair, he is not wholly responsible for the horrific state we are in. Zuckerburg has some responsibility too.

    6. Re:iSore? by EdIII · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No rage. Just a vast sea of disappointment and concern for our future.

      I was not the one to come up with that analogy, nor did it come from a vacuum either. Jobs did not do great things for computing. Creating admittedly great devices is merely a distraction for the toxic environment he created where consumers do not own their own devices, decide what software and media is acceptable for the devices, and have freedom in general.

      It's not like I would have to try very hard to get disappointment, frustration, and yes, rage from app developers and vendors that work with Apple either.

      The app store is not a great idea, and it is a terrible execution of it for that matter. Creating a walled garden approach to computing is never a good idea. I might feel different about it if:

      1) Any developer could submit any app, without restrictions, and receive a fair price. I won't argue about Apple's cut for this, which is way too high, either.
      2) The consumer owned their own device and did not need to the endorsement of the Supreme Court to "jail break" their device to load software, and basically, enjoy what should be the basic fundamental rights of anybody in the computing "world".

      An app store as a distribution model, great idea. An app store as a tool for totalitarian suppression of a population (mostly sheep), terrible idea that is a pox on society.

      You can try to attribute hate and malice to my "rant", but how about coming up with good defenses of for the walled garden and lack of freedom?

  2. Bandwidth saver by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    For those of you who wish to save bandwidth and not seek out a picture:

    Imagine USS Seal and Merrimack having a love child.
    Imagine a hurricane depositing a pagoda on top.
    But not as pretty.

    1. Re:Bandwidth saver by _merlin · · Score: 5, Informative

      I think he was probably referring to Merrimac after her rebirth as Virginia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSS_Virginia

  3. Definitely not an Apple product! by ALeader71 · · Score: 5, Informative

    That is the ugliest seagoing thing I have ever seen. Job's design taste obviously didn't come from Jobs himself. He should've had his designers build models (for him to poop on) until he found one that was sleek and attractive.

    --
    Only the dead have seen the end of War. - Plato
  4. It's a fake. by aurashift · · Score: 5, Funny

    And if you had any doubt this is Steve Jobs' yacht, there are seven 27-inch iMacs in the wheelhouse.

    Why yes I do. I doubt any egocentric billionaire could afford one of those $1800 27-inch iMacs, much less seven of them. Good lord, such opulence!

  5. Jobs' Yacht Released by Stephen+Gilbert · · Score: 5, Funny

    No sails. Less space than an aircraft carrier. Lame.

  6. iBox by Gription · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Minimalist?

    I barely want it to float. I've seen many beautiful ships. There is nothing on that that has any grace to it.

    1. Re:iBox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Minimalist? I barely want it to float. I've seen many beautiful ships. There is nothing on that that has any grace to it.

      I know what you mean. And i wonder if the Worm-Food Formerly Known As Jobs was yelling and screaming at the shipyard workers, telling them how worthless they are etc.

      He was pretty damned abusive to the ppl who helped make him his fortune. i bet he was even worse when he is the customer.

      Sorry fanbois but i won't gloss over his emotional abuse just because his company makes good products. Abuse is still wrong. Good products don't just cancel it out. If we are gonna make some monument of the man and his life and every detail of it then let's be honest and tell the whole truth and not just be hypocritical bastards who pick and choose only the parts that support our fanbois.

    2. Re:iBox by Garridan · · Score: 5, Funny

      Worthless? Didn't you look at the pictures at the end of the article? It seems that the craftspeople who worked on the ship got an iPod shuffle each! That's a $50 value! Hardly worthless.

  7. a thing of beauty? by macbeth66 · · Score: 5, Informative

    As much as I dislike Apple, the company, they do have some smart looking gadgets. And they owe a lot of that to Steven Jobs, I'm sure. But that thing looks like the Staten Island Ferry. A nice one, but a ferry none the less.

    I just went to Google, typed in yachts and hit image. There were some truly beautiful boats; sail and powered. Steve Jobs was NO boat designer.

  8. Re:Ocean Air - Corrosive? by Almost-Retired · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Ocean air is not the only corrosion to worry about. I've no clue what they intend to use to protect the alu hull with.

    Story time folks, been told before but there may be new readers here.

    In '59, I had the pleasure of being a bench tech, at a little place on Mission Bay called Oceanographic Engineering, helping to assemble the electronics for the 2 cameras that were mounted on the Trieste when it went down onto the mohole in the Pacific a few months later. The Navy had come in and bought the first 2 we made but instead of the cases we were going to use for towing them thru sewers to inspect the sewers, they gave us specs for a bronze case, with quartz windows they supplied. Designed to withstand about 25 kpsi, its 17 or 18 kpsi in the mohole. But they wanted to play a bit before the real show and asked us to make the first one out of 7078-T6 alu. It took us about 6 weeks to get a lathe that big AND accurate setup and we made the first case out of a 6" diameter alu rod about 2 feet long. Fixed it up with all the packing glands it would need. They picked up the whole kit on a smallish cruiser, 65' for so and took it out about 50 miles to give it a dunk test. We had sent it out and had the heaviest cad plate we could get put on it. They brought it back the next day and having been scratched by rolling around on the deck deep enough to penetrate the plating, and in one days time over the side and down about a thousand feet, those scratches came back to us 1/2" wide and an inch deep, just from being in the sea water for about 12 hours.

    Needless to say, the real cases for the Trieste trip were cut from some special bronze that started out nearly 8" in diameter. The camera itself was 2.5" in diameter, so we bored a 3" hole for it in the bronze and padded it with weather stripping to hold it centered in the hole. Those 2 cameras, a rounded box with some relays in it to turn the stuff around and switch the lights, and the gondola of the Trieste were all that was pressure sealed, everything else was running at the ambient pressure which was considerable. Except for chewing thru the rubber diaphram separating the sea water from the oil in the pan & tilts for one of the cameras, that trip down with Picard and Walsh, it all worked. The P&T wasn't disabled & still worked when they came back up. With some very interesting pix I got to see a few of.

    And Steve had it made with an ALU hull? 'scuse me, but... I predict it will spend a lot of time in dry-dock, getting patched. It likely won't last much longer than I will since I have a 78 year head start on it.

    Cheers, Gene

  9. Re:iSnored? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    You mean this?...

    It was on the good ship Venus
    By Christ, ya shoulda seen us
    The figurehead was a whore in bed
    And the mast, a mammoth penis

    The Captain of this lugger
    He was a dirty bugger
    He wasn't fit to shovel shit
    From one place to another

    Friggin' in the riggin'
    Friggin' in the riggin'
    Friggin' in the riggin'
    There was fuck all else to do

    Captain's name was Morgan
    By Christ, he was a gorgon
    Ten times a day sweet tunes he'd play
    With his fuckin' organ

    The first mate's name was Cooper
    By Christ, he was a trooper
    He jerked and jerked until he worked
    Himself into a stupor

    Friggin' in the riggin'
    Friggin' in the riggin'
    Friggin' in the riggin'
    There was fuck all else to do

    The second mate was Andy
    By Christ, he had a dandy
    Till they crushed his cock on a jagged rock
    For cumming in the brandy

    The cabin boy was Flipper
    He was a fuckin' nipper
    He stuffed his ass with broken glass
    And circumcised the skipper

    Friggin' in the riggin'
    Friggin' in the riggin'
    Friggin' in the riggin'
    There was fuck all else to do

    Friggin' in the riggin'
    Friggin' in the riggin'
    Friggin' in the riggin'
    There was fuck all else to do

    The Captain's wife was Mabel
    To fuck, she wasn't able
    So the dirty shits, they nailed her tits
    Across the barroom table

    The Captain had a daughter
    Who fell in deep sea water
    And by her squeals we knew the eels
    Had found her sexual quarters

    Friggin' in the riggin'
    Friggin' in the riggin'
    Friggin' in the riggin'
    There was fuck all else to do

    Friggin' in the riggin'
    Friggin' in the riggin'
    Friggin' in the riggin'
    There was fuck all else to do

    Friggin' in the riggin'
    Friggin' in the riggin'
    Friggin' in the riggin'
    There was fuck all else to do ...

  10. Re:Seaworthy? by OhANameWhatName · · Score: 5, Funny

    What happens when one of them takes a good sized wave?

    It's important to hold the ship at the correct angle to the wave.

  11. Phillipe Starck by GrahamCox · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Starck is the very embodiment of style over substance. His products often look kinda striking or eye-catching, but they function incredibly poorly. The man is a charlatan who threw out the first rule of design: form follows function. A great artist might just about be able to get away with that, but the only person who puts Starck in that category is Starck.

    He's no genius, just an egomaniac with the ability to fool a surprising number of people at least some of the time.

    I wouldn't be surprised if this thing is sunk in the first rough seas it encounters, if its design is anything like as poor as his laughable lemon squeezer.

    1. Re:Phillipe Starck by ApplePy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This Starck character appears to be the nautical version of the famed "architect" Daniel Libeskind. Libeskind designs art museums without vertical walls upon which to hang art.

      Charlatan is the right word, sir. But perhaps a little lacking. Charlatans designed the emperor's new clothes. I think this class of people -- Libeskind, Christo, and a few handfuls of others -- have elevated the art of charlatanry to new heights. I can't help but wonder if their "designs" are tongue-in-cheek commentary on the vulgar tastes of a bourgeoisie who seem only too happy to embrace having their faces spat upon. The working stiffs know it's ugly and awful. Only the upwardly-mobile pretend to like having poo flung at them.

      --
      That I'm right, and you don't like it, doesn't mean I'm a troll.
  12. Not even close. by DerekLyons · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Regardless of what may happen to her, she sure is a beauty."

    No she isn't, she's hideous - a barge with a couple of boxes and some cardboard on top. Worse yet, with that straight bow and huge expanses of glass in the forepeak... she's not designed to keep the sea either. (And what kind of moron puts passenger spaces in the fo'c'sle anyhow? Other than a bunk slung between the mains, that's the worst part of the ship.)

    She's obviously designed for nothing more than staying in calm waters or moored to impress the impressionable - an as a sailor, I say that's a abomination.

  13. Where can it dock? by ExploHD · · Score: 5, Funny

    Too bad it needs a proprietary port

  14. Re:Grow up by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm a huge fan of art deco.

    That boat is not art deco.

    It's kind of blocky like the Victory Monument in Bolzano, northern Italy which an example of fascist art style.

    And it kind of reminds me of the wells fargo plaza which is an example of the brutalist style except it's made from aluminum instead of concrete. The wiki says that brutalist examples are typically very linear, fortresslike and blockish.

    Art deco was full of life, color, cool little design bits while also been clean and elegant.

    That monochromatic floating white iron has none of those qualities.

    --
    She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  15. Jobs' true design ability by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That ship shows Jobs' true design ability. The Apple products show the designer's ability, for which Jobs took credit.

  16. Re:I can't wait to see by lxs · · Score: 5, Informative

    I doubt that Samsung has anything left to learn about building ships. Real ships.

  17. Re:Ocean Air - Corrosive? by hairyfish · · Score: 5, Informative

    Ocean air is not the only corrosion to worry about. I've no clue what they intend to use to protect the alu hull with....

    Wow, for someone with such experience you seem to not know much about boats. Aluminium is quite a common material to make boats with, just google "aluminium boat" if you need more info.

  18. Indeed, WinTel was a blessing not a curse by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It ain't just Steve Jobs/Apple, had the PC become owned by IBM, Atari, Commodore and god knows who else (japan had its own eco-structure and it becomes more and more obvious as the world gets smaller that back then every country had their own home computer brand), IT would have looked very different. ALL those companies were about owning the entire market, from the computers themselves (go buy a Commodore from Compaq) to the storage media, the joysticks EVERYTHING.

    It is thanks to Compaq, MS and Intel (and the "failures" of the rest) that we got this accidentally remarkably open platform. Apple sold expensive PC's, thanks to Compaq creation of the IBM-compatible, we got cheap PC's and thanks to those who cloned Compaq's we got EVEN cheaper PC's. Some might point out the Apple Mini but Apple would NEVER have produced that IF they didn't have to because of cheap PC's. Proof? Apple didn't produce them when there weren't any cheap PC's. That is why Apple almost went bust the first time around.

    Thanks to MS we got an OS that would work ACROSS cpu's... yes i know AMD and Intel both made X86 but if you think that makes them automatically fully compatible in all but their most base modes, you are a silly person. And this gave buyers, a CHOICE. Apple/Atari/IBM never gave you a choice. You buy what they choose to sell you. Intel thought 33mhz was enough for the 386(if I remember correctly) and AMD made a 40mhz version and people could choose. Could choose NOT to buy IBM or Dell or Compaq and roll their own.

    It all happened by accident and thank god for it, wintel was/isn;t perfect but we narrowly avoided situations that would have been far far worse.

    But that doesn't mean we are saved. The openess and freedom of the PC and internet might have come around by accident but that doesn't mean it can change.

    Bootcamp, was that introduced because Apple wanted you to be able to use the OS of your choice or because they knew that if people couldn't run Windows on a Mac, they would sell fewer Mac's? I seen an amazing amount of Macbooks with the Aero design on the desktop.

    Closed architectures are not just limited to niche attempts like Linux. If a mono-culture exists, control becomes easy. The US is rather famous for NOT having state censorship for TV such as England has. Instead, the TV broadcasters "choose" to censor themselves and no politician has to stand up and say"I want to limit free speech" but can "think of the children" thanks to self-censorship.

    There have been countless stories of mega-stores in the US censoring products. Walmart censoring music CD's, App store refusing to carry apps. This doesn't matter, as long as a free alternative exist, the internet in general. But as AOL has shown and MS network and countless other attempts, there is a constant push to create walled gardens. And a walled garden isn't that bad, as long as you can get out with relative ease but nobody builds a walled garden with the idea that people should be able to get out easily.

    When mega-stores are the only places to shop, their control becomes extremely risky to a free society. And with the app-store, Apple and Steve Jobs have given everyone who values real freedom a frightening look at how IT could have turned out if Jobs had sold cheaper PC's.

    Jobs has the most depressing eulogy you could think off: "Thank god the man was a failure at the most critical time". And we can only pray that it remains true because if the app-store walled garden approach succeeds in W8 new app-store, the PC environment as we know it, is doomed.

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.