One of the last design projects Steve Jobs ever worked on was his super-yacht Venus, which he co-designed with famed designer Phillipe Starck. Unfortunately, though Venus was completed, it looked a little dicey for a while that it would actually hit the high seas, as a dispute between Starck and Jobs’s estate over payment lead to Venus being impounded. Now, that dispute is apparently at an end.
According to Mr. Starck’s attorney, Gérard Moussault, who spoke to Le Monde, “A solution has been found and a security has been lodged on a bank account for the boat to be free to leave.”
What was the issue? Apparently, since Jobs and Starck were friends, the contract between the two was mostly verbal and very loose. Starck apparently agreed to a fee based upon 6% of the yacht’s total construction costs, but Jobs’s estate and Starck disagreed upon what those costs actually were, leading Starck to claim he had been cheated out of $3 million.
Venus took six years to build, and Jobs’s widow, Laurene Powell, along with their three children, attended its launch in North Holland back in October. The ship measures between 70 and 80 meters in length, and features a luxurious sun terrace, a large Jacuzzi, and a control room powered by iMacs. Like many of Apple’s products, the yacht’s hull is made entirely out of aluminum.
Source: Le Monde
