It sounds like science fiction: among the many products that Steve Jobs co-designed throughout his life, such as the iPod, iPhone, iPad and Mac, there is one that stands out from the others. As for the design, we know that he also participated in that of Apple Park and, much less known, in a small personal project called Venus. Yes, the same one that crashed into another yacht owned by a Mexican millionaire.
Venus is the name of the superyacht that Steve Jobs designed in collaboration with Philippe Starck, the famous Parisian designer. A yacht about which very little is known, but since its launch in 2012 and its design in 2007, we are learning the details of a most surprising story. The one who leaves us before one of the most iconic ships we can see in any port. “Indefinite object of aluminum and glass”, they came to define it.
Venus, Roman deity of love
It was around the time of the launch of the original iPhone that Steve Jobs decided it was time to get his own yacht. I had been thinking about this idea for years.
As Starck himself comments in an interview with VanityFair, the secretary who received the call from Steve Jobs simply took note of the message. He didn’t see the need to bother his boss about a call from someone named Jobs.. Whether he wrote the message on a Mac we don’t know, but the irony would be interesting. In any case, Steve Jobs hung up without leaving a contact number.
Looking back, Starck comments “Can you imagine the aura of Steve Jobs in 2007? He was practically God. and she [la secretaria] He didn’t call me because he didn’t know who he was. “We’re off to a good start.” This rudeness could have prompted Steve Jobs to look for another designer for his project, Stark adds that “for anyone who knows Steve, he probably wouldn’t have called back after such humiliation”, but the designer’s phone rang again after a few weeks .
He was barely able to receive the call, as he was preparing to leave for Milan and was already with one foot in one of the six vehicles that made up his entourage and that of his team. I was arriving very close to the flight and being late was not an option. But on this occasion, the one who answered the call, He ran out of the office shouting, “Mr. Starck! Do you know anyone named Mr. Jobs? He wants to talk to you.”
The call was short, yes. Steve Jobs directly said: “Will you build me a boat?” To which Starck replied “Well… yes.” After 15 seconds of conversation, Steve Jobs asked “Will you know how to do it?”. And Starck replied:
“Of course. I have webbed fingers and scales on my back. I’m an amphibian.”
Obviously it was hyperbole to get people to like it. And from their second meeting, Starck arrived with all the sketches, in a suitcase measuring more than a square meter. After showing them to the Apple boss, there was a pause which Jobs broke by saying “It’s more than I would have imagined.”
From there, the development of the boat took shape until it became this “undefined object made of aluminum and glass”, materials very common at Apple. With an extremely elegant industrial design, a roof for the main room very similar to the roof of the main Apple Store in Chicago and few distinctive features beyond its own aesthetic, the one named Venus was launched on October 28, 2012.
Named after the Roman deity of love, the boat of the man who drove his Mercedes without a license remains a mystery inside. No photos of her interior have been released, although, like those that appear in this article, we have seen her on several occasions both docked and sailing. With Nearly 80 meters long, this super yacht is a floating icon.
What is Steve Jobs’ yacht?
Unfortunately, and as we already know, Steve Jobs never published it. But this yacht, 80 meters long and capacity for 12 passengers and 10 crew membersremains operational. It now belongs to Laurene Powell, Jobs’ widow, and she uses it quite frequently during her sailings in the Mediterranean. We saw him quite frequently in Majorca.
An icon which, like the ones we have in our hands or the one from which I am writing to you, was possible thanks to the vision of Steve Jobs. What a rude phone call did not put an end to and which remains, to this day, a most interesting mystery.
An older version of this article was originally published on 11/17/2023.
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