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 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.
6. 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.
  
  --
  ---
7. 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
8. 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.
9. 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
10. 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
11. 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.
12. 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.'"
13. 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.
14. 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
15. 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".
16. 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)
Strange by Nerdfest · 2012-12-23 19:28 · Score: 4, Insightful

Someone trusted Steve Jobs? Obviously they didn't know him that well.
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.
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.