Steve Jobs' Yacht Impounded In Amsterdam

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Steve Jobs' Yacht Impounded In Amsterdam

Posted by timothy on Sunday December 23, 2012 @07:21PM from the that-sounds-spicy dept.

SchrodingerZ writes "The Venus, Steve Jobs' custom-made mega yacht, (valued at 137.5 million dollars), has been impounded in Amsterdam. Philippe Starck, the boat's main designer, had The Venus impounded by debt collectors, after supposedly Starck and his company, Ubik, were paid only 6 million of the 9-million-euro commission. Roelant Klaassen, a lawyer for Ubik, released in a statement that 'These guys [Jobs and Starck] trusted each other, so there wasn't a very detailed contract.' 'The Venus is a floating ode to both Jobs and Starck's minimalist aesthetic. Made entirely out of aluminum, with 40-foot-long floor-to-ceiling windows lining the passenger compartment and seven 27-inch iMacs making up the command center.' The ship was unofficially unveiled in late October, a year after Jobs' death. It now sits dormant in the Port of Amsterdam, until the payment dispute is resolved."

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"Valued"? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-23 19:28 · Score: 5, Insightful

"Valued at 137.5 M$"?
Ahem...
I gather that's what Jobs paid for it, but if his heirs were to put that ugly-ass, unseaworthy monstrosity up for sale, something tells me it would fetch a lot less.
1. Re:"Valued"? by fustakrakich · 2012-12-23 19:37 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  ...something tells me it would fetch a lot less.
  How much does a pound of aluminum get you at the recycling center these days?
  
  --
  “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
2. Re:"Valued"? by bkmoore · 2012-12-23 19:49 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  "Valued at 137.5 M$"?....something tells me it would fetch a lot less.
  Yes, but it was machined from a single block of Aluminum.
3. Re:"Valued"? by gfody · 2012-12-23 19:52 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Look at this: http://www.onemorething.nl/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Schermafbeelding-2012-10-27-om-13.57.16.png Jobs would've dropped dead at the site of the imac cables coming out of those ikea cabinets and duct taped to the floor.
  
  --
  
  bite my glorious golden ass.
4. Re:"Valued"? by Runaway1956 · 2012-12-23 20:27 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  It's all the windows, for me. That yacht is incapable of weathering a real storm. Twenty foot seas will cave those ridiculous windows in, flood, then capsize the stupid thing.
  You sail on it - I don't even want to take a tour while tied to a pier.
  
  --
  "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
5. Re:"Valued"? by Runaway1956 · 2012-12-23 20:42 · Score: 2
  
  Funny - but, do you realize how frigging BIG a tooling facility would have to be, to machine a block of aluminum that size?
  Here is one of the biggest presses in the world, and it's not big enough by a long shot:
  http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2012/02/alcoas_50000-ton_ready_to_go_b.html
  
  --
  "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
6. Re:"Valued"? by Plunky · 2012-12-23 21:24 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  A ship? Fek - unless they run the damned thing aground first, it WILL have to weather a storm someday.
  You speak of storms, sir, yet you also speak of destroyers.. note that the military ships you speak of will be standing on station, or going places that are a bit out of the way for various reasons (training perhaps, to ensure that the crew can take the worst of the weather when they need to)
  But perhaps you don't have a grasp of the leisure aspect especially of the superyacht set? Those boats, like warships, can also travel at 40kts and have access to satellite images, wave height data and very good weather forecasting. They don't need to be anywhere near bad weather and indeed they usually run away when a violent storm approaches. They don't need to demonstrate how tough they are, and the people who own them really just like to lounge around in calm conditions in the sun. They can cross oceans in the calmest conditions, dodging around the worst weather and they usually do. The focus of design of such a yacht is not to endure terrible weather while carrying goods halfway around the world, nor to blockade a port in all weathers. The focus is that the owner is noticed, and envied for their wealth. That this boat is ugly is neither here nor there, it was custom built for 137 MILLION dollars and everybody knows it. The point was that people would look and say Oooh, that belongs to Steve Jobs, I can only dream I could be rich like him.
7. Re:"Valued"? by DeBaas · 2012-12-23 23:01 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I'm sure in a storm Steve would reroute all power to the reality distortion field and it would be all Sunny and a flat sea for them.
  
  --
  ---
8. Re:"Valued"? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-23 23:15 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Someone yelled what you're yelling, and now people are repeating this over the internets.
  Runaway, you are a copy-pasting idiot, not a ship builder, yet you are pretending to make an intelligent comment by a ship builder.
  Guess what, karma begging moron, one can build a seaworthy yacht with those windows:
  http://www.liveyachting.com/motor-yacht-netanya-8
  Guess what, skyscrapers catch even more wind, and they have vertical windows.
  Guess what, you can design a window to cope with such minor forces, you can even design them to go into fucking space, and back.
  Really, everybody with the "Oooh the windows will cave in and it will SINK" comments, and everyone who upmodded that to "5 Insightful" really needs a complete brain transplant. In any case you should be demoted from slashdot, go back to digg.
9. Re:"Valued"? by MrNemesis · 2012-12-23 23:32 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  What makes you think those windows aren't made of inch-thick transparent aluminium? People inside will have a whale of a time, even in a storm.
  
  --
  Moderation Total: -1 Troll, +3 Goat
10. Re:"Valued"? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-23 23:54 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  you must be a mac user, they're always saying windows will be your downfall.
11. Re:"Valued"? by Runaway1956 · 2012-12-24 00:19 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  You ASSume that because you've read the same or similar objections elsewhere, that I copy pasted my post? First, re-read my post, and point out where I mentioned wind, at all, please.
  Maybe you would care to take a closer look at the Adams class destroyers I served aboard. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_F._Adams_class_destroyer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USS_Charles_F_Adams_(DDG-2)_underway_c1973.jpg
  Look at the photo, top right side of the page. Just aft of mount 51 (the big gun) and below the flying bridge. solidly welded to the main weather deck, you can see what we call a "break". It's purpose is to break the waves coming over the bow, so that they don't sweep men off the weather decks further aft. That structure is a solid piece of aluminum. Quite solidly welded at the bottom, and all the way up the side. As I recall, that structure was 3/4 inch thick.
  You mention windows withstanding wind stronger than a ship has to withstand at sea. Your ignorance is two fold. Winds at sea are every bit as strong as they are anywhere above land. But - the wind is not the big deal. IT'S THE WATER!!!
  When tens of thousands of tons of water tower over top of you, then come slamming down on your ship, then you begin to understand the power of the sea.
  Look at that break again. We had ours, on the port side, ripped off one night in the North Atlantic. It was late at night, we heard one tremendous "BOOM" when we were hit by an especially large wave, then a hellacious "SCREEEECH" as the metal tore away. Luckily, the superstructure was not breached, or we would have had flooded spaces to deal with quickly, or we would have died.
  Now, go look at your skyscrapers again. Tell me how often the Empire State building has crashed into more tons of water than you can possibly measure.
  Maybe you'd like to revisit some of the tsunami damage done in the Pacific ocean a couple of years ago. How many skyscrapers withstood a 40 foot wall of water crashing into it at 30 knots or more?
  Minor forces, you say? You are a complete and utter fool, who had better never go to sea. A minor force is what you are working with, mentally.
  
  --
  "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
12. Re:"Valued"? by Runaway1956 · 2012-12-24 00:31 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  AFTER I posted, I actually looked at the link you posted - so I'm not done with your foolishness.
  The Netanya is more seaworthy than Job's boat by at least an order of magnitude. Netanya has more windows than I am comfortable with, but they are a small fraction the size of Job's windows. Each pane appears to be solidly anchored, top, bottom, and both sides. As I say, I'm not completely comfortable with them, but they are sensibly sized, and sensibly located.
  Next, look at the bow. A flared bow parts the waves, riding up over the bulk of the wave. You get far fewer of those thousands of tons of water crashing down on you with a flared bow. Look at the overhanging ledges of steel, helping to protect those windows. If/when a few tons of water come down on the windows, those ledges will catch much of the force.
  The Netanya is streamlined in a fashion that enhances the flared bow. The weather deck, and most of the windows are protected by the flaring, as well as the breaks, which extend to the waist.
  I don't *like* those forward facing windows on the first deck, but I'd be willing to sail on the Netanya.
  You can't pay me to sail on Job's boat.
  
  --
  "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
13. Re:"Valued"? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-24 01:02 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  A ship? Fek - unless they run the damned thing aground first, it WILL have to weather a storm someday.
  You speak of storms, sir, yet you also speak of destroyers.. note that the military ships you speak of will be standing on station, or going places that are a bit out of the way for various reasons (training perhaps, to ensure that the crew can take the worst of the weather when they need to)
  But perhaps you don't have a grasp of the leisure aspect especially of the superyacht set? Those boats, like warships, can also travel at 40kts and have access to satellite images, wave height data and very good weather forecasting. They don't need to be anywhere near bad weather and indeed they usually run away when a violent storm approaches. They don't need to demonstrate how tough they are, and the people who own them really just like to lounge around in calm conditions in the sun. They can cross oceans in the calmest conditions, dodging around the worst weather and they usually do. The focus of design of such a yacht is not to endure terrible weather while carrying goods halfway around the world, nor to blockade a port in all weathers. The focus is that the owner is noticed, and envied for their wealth. That this boat is ugly is neither here nor there, it was custom built for 137 MILLION dollars and everybody knows it. The point was that people would look and say Oooh, that belongs to Steve Jobs, I can only dream I could be rich like him.
  Ships go to sea.
  They will get hit by waves. Big ones.
  Shit happens out at see, and out there you're literally hundreds if not thousands of miles away from help.
  Think about this, bright boy: you're two days out (i.e., it's gonna take you to days to make ANY port) and a squall blows up that drops a waterspout over your toy and wipes out all your antennae.
  OOoops.
  What you going to do now, Einstein? Have spare antennae helicoptered out to you? Your too damn far out.
  Oh, you'll just go 40 knots? First, that little pissant toy doesn't carry enough fuel to go 40 knots for any length of time. Two, with those ridiculous windows going 40 knots is downright dangerous - catch a 10 foot swell wrong and buh-bye windows and half your hull is now open to the sea. Three, that toy can't do 40 knots anyway:
  
  Those boats, like warships, can also travel at 40kts
  BWWWAAA HAAA HAAA
  I was a Surface Warfare Officer (Nuclear) in the US Navy. You're FULL OF SHIT.
  Cruise ships and container vessels are usually about the fastest things crossing the seas at 25 knots or a bit faster. Warships can go balls-to-the-wall and get up over 30, but that burns a LOT of fuel, and they usually just poke about at 15 knots or so. Aircraft carriers because of their length can get up over 35 knots, but they'd just outrun their escorts.
14. Re:"Valued"? by drinkypoo · 2012-12-24 01:18 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Look at the photo, top right side of the page. Just aft of mount 51 (the big gun) and below the flying bridge
  Now I know how people feel when I tell them to look at the component next to the capacitor next to the socket.
  
  --
  "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
15. Re:"Valued"? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-24 01:26 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  blah blah blah RADAR blah blah blah RADAR blah blah blah
  The USS Spruance once ran into Andros Island. She hit so hard she broke off her main mast.
  In the middle of the day. They had, get this, RADAR. They even had EYEBALLS.
  The best crews. The best training. No pressure to be somewhere quickly. Yet shit still JUST HAPPENS.
  You are clueless. You really are FUCKING CLUELESS.
  The Bounty could go 25 knots? No it fucking couldn't. Maybe 16 or 17. With a tailwind. In good seas. In any swells at all that thing would be lucky to do 12 knots.
  Ever been on a 1,000-foot long, 100,000-ton vessel that gets smacked by a wave so damn hard the whole ship rings like a bell and the hull plates on the port quarter get stove in?
  Shit happens out there. And when it does, all it takes is one mistake and lots of people can die.
  And all the electronics available "in these modern times" (I'm LOL at that - literally) won't matter one bit. Cuz the ocean don't fucking care how "modern" you are when it swallows your toy boat with all its pretty windows whole. (OK, they're BUTT UGLY windows, but the point still stands)
  That yacht - no matter its intended "lifestyle" - is an OCEANGOING VESSEL, but it's built in such a way that it simply can not withstand the rigors of what WILL happen out in the ocean. And all the talismans available "in these modern times" can't protect it.
  Might as well put a bone in your nose.
  Cuz the ocean don't fucking care.
  Damn sheltered idiots, thinking just because modern conveniences have made their life easy that there aren't places on this planet that just don't fucking care about that and will KILL them.
  "Oh, we'll just avoid that."
  Not out in the middle of the ocean you fucking won't.
16. Re:"Valued"? by sribe · 2012-12-24 02:32 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  You mention windows withstanding wind stronger than a ship has to withstand at sea. Your ignorance is two fold. Winds at sea are every bit as strong as they are anywhere above land. But - the wind is not the big deal. IT'S THE WATER!!!
  1) Windows can be built to withstand bomb blasts, but that kind of glass is extraordinarily expensive. Aluminum is orders of magnitude cheaper.
  2) You went where your mission required, even if it meant sailing straight through a typhoon. Private yachts avoid large storms.
17. Re:"Valued"? by sam_paris · 2012-12-24 02:45 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Someone mod this guy down, he doesn't know what he's talking about. You think some of the top yacht builders in the world, working for the most exacting clients for millions of dollars have somehow made a huge and epic mistake and made a yacht which actually can't sail at sea at all? Are you crazy? You think you're the only guy in the world who suddenly has identified this fatal floor in the boat? And not the small army of engineers who were working on it for months?
  
  I've sailed on 50 ft yachts with windows on the side and been fine. These windows aren't standard glass like your bathroom mirror, these are custom engineered for the job they do, and they can easily handle some waves hitting them.
18. Re:"Valued"? by TheFakeMcCoy · 2012-12-24 02:45 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  I just find it funny in a thread about Steve Jobs that "Windows" is mentioned so much
19. Re:"Valued"? by Jawnn · 2012-12-24 02:46 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  For anyone who's been on water tall enough to make one forever know his place in Nature's scale of things, you could have summed it up in one derisive word... "lubbers".
20. Re:"Valued"? by bill_mcgonigle · 2012-12-24 06:43 · Score: 3
  
  That yacht is incapable of weathering a real storm.
  The yacht is meant to be seen and to torture the aesthetic sense of mundane passers-by - a giant floating ego. Any time the ship is at sea, it's purpose is being diminished.
  The only thing it could be used for at this point is a giant floating Steve Jobs museum - dock it at Monterey and charge $100 to walk through it. Make sure there's nothing inside but one photo of Steve. If people complain, just shake your head and say they're not ready to understand it.
  
  --
  My God, it's Full of Source!
  OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
21. Re:"Valued"? by thoughtlover · 2012-12-24 07:31 · Score: 2
  
  Yup. And Windows was their downfall.
  ...a crew member entered a zero into a database field causing a divide by zero error in the ship's Remote Data Base Manager which brought down all the machines on the network, causing the ship's propulsion system to fail.[5]
  I laughed at the 'divide by zero' error that brought the mighty warship down, if not for the practical programming error, but because of my sig. I knew about this incident, but not the reason why. Now that's funny! Divide by zero...
  
  --
  No sig for you! Come back one year!
22. Re:"Valued"? by tftp · 2012-12-24 08:11 · Score: 2
  
  You think some of the top yacht builders in the world, working for the most exacting clients for millions of dollars have somehow made a huge and epic mistake and made a yacht which actually can't sail at sea at all?
  It wouldn't be unheard of. Someone had the Titanic built, after all. The science of survivability of ships existed by that time and was pretty well developed for decades. It's just nobody cared to perform the fault analysis.
  Also, you are saying "working for the most exacting clients for millions of dollars" - here is your answer. When your client pays you big bucks to jump, you simply ask "how high?" I'm sure there always are all kinds of safety objections to any luxury feature. The safest boat would be a submarine. But for some reason rich clients want a bit more - windows, decks, furniture that is not welded to the floor, and so on. Probably the shipbuilder prints waivers by the ton, and the ship owner signs them all. Rich people can be demanding sometimes, if not arrogant. Nothing bad can happen to them.
23. Re:"Valued"? by SomePgmr · 2012-12-24 09:27 · Score: 2
  
  Now you wait just a goddamned minute...
  Cheetos come in a box now?!
Strange by Nerdfest · 2012-12-23 19:28 · Score: 4, Insightful

Someone trusted Steve Jobs? Obviously they didn't know him that well.
token joke post by Sigvatr · 2012-12-23 19:30 · Score: 2

Well, it's not like he will be needing it any time soon.
Hehe, trust Steve Jobs by SmallFurryCreature · 2012-12-23 19:41 · Score: 4, Insightful

Those that don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Steve Jobs was a nasty mean spirited jerk who always cheated everyone whenever he could. Even close friends. In fact, he has no close friends, just victims who like battered wives thought that THIS time he would change. It is quite sad really that the guy himself that he could never get over his past. Shows you that money doesn't really make people happy.
You got to wonder what made him this way, so obsessed about money and power that he would screw supposed friends over and not even see it as wrong. And continue to do that when any new money would just be a number on a bank account. Compared to Jobs, people like Gates, Branson and Buffet seem a lot happier. Not nicer perhaps in their past but at least with age they learned not to be total assholes all the time. It is not like Jobs did not do any charity but more people will remember him as a prick then as a benefactor. Despite the fact that those friends he did screw over ultimately didn't exactly walk away empty handed.
My epitaph will probably read something like "who?" but it is better then "well, he did give us the iPod but he was such a dick". It not even as if he will be remembered as all that evil. It is just the paranoid always looking out for number 1 that people finally were able to vent after he died.
The guy who made an American company actually produce cool gadgets is more remembered for even in death trying to cheat "friends" and all that over a boat whose ugliness shows that whatever Steve Jobs had for talent, an eye for design was not one of them.
And now for the final insult: This post written on a Samsung Android Phone.
Cry havoc and release the Apple fans!

--

MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
1. Re:Hehe, trust Steve Jobs by Tablizer · 2012-12-23 20:18 · Score: 2
  
  By some accounts, Edison was semi-mellow, but investors pressured him to be ruthless after alternating current started hurting their business.
  
  --
  Table-ized A.I.
Wake up to Ubik and be wild! by Ol+Biscuitbarrel · 2012-12-23 19:54 · Score: 2, Funny

We wanted to give you a shave like no other you ever had. We said, It's about time a man's face got a little loving. We said, With Ubik's self-winding Swiss chromium never-ending blade, the days of scrape-scrape are over. So try Ubik. And be loved. Warning: use only as directed. And with caution.
----------------------
AMAZING OPPORTUNITY FOR ADVANCEMENT
TO ALL WHO CAN QUALIFY!
Mr. Glen Runciter of the Beloved Brethren Moratorium of Zürich, Switzerland, doubled his income within a week of receiving our free shoe kit with detailed information as to how you also can sell our authentic simulated-leather loafers to friends, relatives, business associates.
That is the ugliest by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-23 20:19 · Score: 2, Funny

That is the ugliest piece of shit I have ever seen. Its not a boat, its an accident at the aluminum smelter. Not to worry though: you can put it out of its misery by melting it down and turning it into about 500 million Android phones (you could sell the lot for the cost of about 20 iPhones(tm)), and Android would go from 75% market share to 95% market share. Just think about how many iPhones you would have to sell to buy one of these: about 20 iPad owners collectively could have bought it though.
Obligatory joke post by WWJohnBrowningDo · 2012-12-23 20:41 · Score: 5, Funny

It now sits dormant in the Port of Amsterdam
And here I thought it would require a proprietary port.
Steve doesn't miss it at all... by AliasMarlowe · 2012-12-23 20:51 · Score: 4, Insightful

Expect this dispute to drag out for a while. Steve is dead, and the market for mega-yachts is never brisk. If the contract had a high content of handshakes and winks instead of numbers with signatures, the dispute could get uglier than the yacht, and that's saying something.

--
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
1. Re:Steve doesn't miss it at all... by hairyfeet · 2012-12-24 02:14 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  I doubt it since I seriously doubt they'd even get what is supposed owed for the thing, as you pointed out mega-yachts is a seriously niche market to start with. Every one of those things I've seen its a giant monument to the rich guy's ego, they want it to reflect THEIR tastes, so I imagine the used market for these things is pretty close to nil. I wouldn't be surprised if the family puts out a few feelers to see if they can get more for it than what is owed and if nobody wants it then it'll end up with this "artist" who'll get the fun of trying to move this fugly thing.
  
  --
  ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
2. Re:Steve doesn't miss it at all... by Gorath99 · 2012-12-24 02:56 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Expect this dispute to drag out for a while. Steve is dead, and the market for mega-yachts is never brisk. If the contract had a high content of handshakes and winks instead of numbers with signatures, the dispute could get uglier than the yacht, and that's saying something.
  Nope. It's already been resolved with the family promising to pay the extra 3 million.
  Source (Dutch; google translate doesn't handle it well): http://www.nu.nl/internet/2990610/familie-steve-jobs-lost-geschil-rond-boot.html
Re:News for nerds? Stuff that matters? by drkim · 2012-12-23 21:07 · Score: 5, Funny

Its inner hull is made of titanium and it can dive to 3000 feet.
Any ship can dive to 3000 feet.
It's not drowning everyone and coming back to the surface that's the hard part...
And Wozniak will be rememberd as a nice guy by SmallFurryCreature · 2012-12-23 21:09 · Score: 4, Interesting

Nice guy, clever and rich... a bit dim perhaps in choosing his friends or at least in doing business with friends (although staying friends even if friends are not perfect is what good guys do). But nice, clever and rich foremost. Neither Jobs or Wozniak ever needed to worry about where their next meal would come from for a long time. So... who would you want to be? The super rich billionaire Jobs or the quite comfortable millionaire Wozniak?

--

MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
That's one ugly yacht by DrXym · 2012-12-23 22:06 · Score: 3, Insightful

I'm sure it's decked out with all sorts of cool innovations but god does it look ugly. I can't put my finger on the wrongness except to say the boat looks like the bastard offspring of some 7 year old's first experiments designing a boat with only straight lines and a 1970's prefab building.
The Legacy Lives On! by VortexCortex · 2012-12-23 22:06 · Score: 5, Funny

paid only 6 million of the 9-million
Clearly, they were holding it wrong.
Immoral to The Very End by StormReaver · 2012-12-24 06:17 · Score: 2

In Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs, the late Apple CEO is quoted as saying that, "I know that it's possible I will die and leave Laurene with a half-built boat, but I have to keep going on. If I don't, it's an admission that I'm about to die."
Translation: I know I'll never pay this guy for all his work, as I'm about to die. If I can't royally screw someone over one last time, I just won't be able to live with myself.
I don't know which is sadder: that Steve Jobs was this shallow, hollow person who valued money more than people, or that it says volumes about our country that so many people worshipped him.