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About Venus

Venus , a 78.20m (256’6”) all-aluminium full custom motoryacht, was launched in October 2012.

Design by owner and Philippe Starck.

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Steve Jobs' yacht gives insights into his design process

Jobs and noted designer Philippe Starck spent five years working out the details of the super yacht Venus.

• Finalist for the Nesta Tipping Point prize and a degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Last month, we stumbled upon videos of Steve Jobs' yacht , the Venus, which was reportedly unveiled a year after Jobs' death. The sleek, clean design has a certain Apple Store look to it, complete with a row of 27-inch iMacs on board, but there's no evidence the crew will don those blue Genius bar shirts.

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Then recently SuperYacht Times interviewed French designer Philippe Starck , who Jobs collaborated with to design Venus. (You might remember erroneous reports earlier this year that alleged Starck was involved in designing a new Apple product -- turns out the project in question was actually Jobs' yacht.)

What Starck reveals about co-creating with Jobs sheds some light on the late icon's iDesign process.

Starck says that in the beginning, in a move that would seem uncharacteristic, Jobs gave him "carte blanche."

[Jobs] just gave me the length and the number of guests he wanted to accommodate, and that was it. In our very first meeting we had little time to speak, so I told him, I will design it, as if it is for myself.

But that was just the beginning of the design process with Jobs. Starck goes on to say that he and Jobs would spend one day every six weeks, from 2007 until his death in 2011, going over refinements "Millimetre by millimetre. Detail by detail."

Here's where the notorious control freak in Jobs apparently kicks in. Starck had nothing but praise for his client in the interview, but he describes a process of constantly simplifying and refining the design for Venus.

We came back on the same details until they were perfect. We had many calls about parameters, the result is the perfect application of our joined philosophy.

Perhaps not ironically, that philosophy was a page pulled from Apple's playbook -- striving for simplicity with purpose. The result is something more "stark" (sorry) than the ostentatious character of other super yachts. Starck claims there is not a single "useless pillow" or other object inside Venus.

I haven't heard of any plans for an Apple iYacht, but I wouldn't be surprised if some developer out there somewhere is busy at work for the Jobs family on some apps designed specifically for Venus' future voyages.

• Superyachts

The story behind Steve Jobs’ $120 million Venus superyacht

Published on Jul 11, 2023 at 12:16PM (UTC+4)

• by Adam Gray

Last updated on Jul 11, 2023 at 5:14PM (UTC+4)

One of the most striking superyachts ever built has been shrouded in secrecy since her inception.

But with a famous name attached to the project, she was bound to garner attention.

The Venus superyacht is a fully custom creation, built for the late Apple founder Steve Jobs.

READ MORE! The annual running costs of owning a superyacht are enough to buy a mansion

Sadly, Jobs never had the chance to set foot on board before his untimely death in 2011, the year before the superyacht launched.

Venus remains in the family, now owned by his widow Laurene Powell Jobs.

This yacht isn’t only interesting because of its owner, Venus’s exterior profile is also incredibly unique.

Measuring 256 feet (78.2 meters), the exterior is dominated by a striking silver paint job, gleaming stainless-steel details, and a line of rectangular windows.

Built by Feadship and designed by Philippe Starck, she is long and lean, with an 11.8 meter beam and a low-slung superstructure made entirely of glass.

Starck designed Venus’ exterior with straight lines and 90-degree angles.

She has an axe bow, and an unusal flat, squared stern, which opens to reveal a tender garage.

The long forward deck, planked in teak, is completely free of clutter.

Notably, she has no visible radar arch or satellite equipment; all of this is hidden within a box to keep Venus’s exterior extremely clean.

Venus’s minimalist style, reminiscent of Apple products, extends to the interior, where multiple Mac computer screens line the bridge windows.

Other than glimpses into the bridge, the Venus superyacht’s interior has never been seen publicly.

It was never offered for charter or presented at trade shows, but Feadship did reveal that it has six suites offering accommodation for 12 guests, and separate quarters for 22 crew.

According to Styarck himself, the rooms are completely sound-proof and isolated from one another, so that no noise ever goes through.

Instead, guests rely on a high-tech internal communication system to communicate.

“Think Different” has been Apple’s longtime slogan, and it’s clear Jobs wanted to create something amazingly different with his iconic Venus superyacht.

• Tags - Apple , superyachts

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Here’s the First Look Inside Steve Jobs’ Crazy Last Project

S teve Jobs’ luxury yacht, Venus, was photographed recently, providing a glimpse of the interior for the first time.

Photos of 100 million euro yacht were taken by people at Woods Hole Inn in Cape Cod, Mass., Gizmodo reported Monday. The French-designed yacht debuted in 2012, one year after Jobs died, but until now there have been photos of only the exterior.

Have a look:

View this post on Instagram A post shared by woodsholeinn (@woodsholeinn)

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[ Gizmodo ]

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VENUS Yacht – Captivating $120M Superyacht

The VENUS yacht was delivered in 2012 by Feadship, a Dutch shipbuilding company.

Phillippe Stark designed the VENUS, and Jobs was an integral part of the yacht’s design. The 78m yacht has garnered a lot of attention thanks to the famous name who commissioned it, but there are not many details about the boat’s interior available.

VENUS yacht interior

The interior design of the VENUS yacht was largely designed by Steve Jobs, in combination with Philippe Starck .

The yacht’s interior has never been published, and the details available are in short supply. There is a lot of intrigue as to what the yacht’s interior looks like, thanks to the famous name who commissioned it.

One can only imagine that the interior reflects Apple’s slogan “Think Different,” with an eye-catching and minimalist interior to reflect the design of the yacht’s exterior.

It is known that the bridge is lined with 27-inch Mac computer screens, with large cabin windows that are almost floor to ceiling, with a main living area. There is accommodation for 12 guests in 6 suites and 22 crew.

The VENUS yacht has a unique exterior, reflecting the sleekness and eye-catching nature of Apple’s products, and was designed by Philippe Starck.

Feadship was commissioned to execute the build. Everything about the exterior is eye-catching and unique, from the silver paint job to the stainless steel details to the line of rectangular windows that run from the bow.

The structure of VENUS features 90-degree angles, an axe bow for piercing waves, and a flat and somewhat unusually squared stern that opens to reveal a tender garage.

There is no visible radar arch or satellite equipment, as all the equipment is hidden within a box that keeps the VENUS exterior appearance clean and sleek.

Specifications

The 78m VENUS yacht has an 11.8m beam and a 3.1m draft that makes the boat appear low-slung in the water.

The 2 MTU engines give VENUS a top speed of 20.5kn and a cruising speed of 18kn. She displaces 1,876 GT and can cover 5500 nautical miles.

She has an annual running cost of $10-$15 million and was rumored to cost $100 million to build. VENUS was refitted in 2015 at Monaco Marine.

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The 78 metre superyacht Venus emerged from the Feadship yard in Aalsmeer in 2012, showcasing immaculate design, extensive use of glass and an unforgettable profile in a pedigree collaboration between Philippe Starck, De Voogt Naval Architects and her visionary commissioner, who is speculated to be the design and technology icon Steve Jobs.

Immediately recognisable, opinion splitting and a genuine triumph of design, this superyacht has since been seen cruising the world and turning heads in every port. Holding expert design characteristics of the Apple empire, with specially created elements on board to enhance both use and performance.

With a layered profile and superstructure reflecting a clean, minimalist style, Venus holds a beam of 11.8 metres (38’9”) and a draught of 3 metres (9’11”) to create spacious internal volumes to take anywhere in the world. This highly secretive yacht is both part of the Top 100 and widely considered to be one of the finest yachts on the water.

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Your Insider’s Look at Steve Jobs’ Yacht Venus

The Venus Yacht was built for Steve Jobs, or it almost was. Though Jobs commissioned the yacht, it was launched in 2012, a year after Jobs passed away. He never got to see the finished product. It’s been said that he actually spent the last several years before his death helping to custom design the Venus as his intent was to use it to sail the world with his family.

Venus was designed by a company called Ubik, owned by designer Phillipe Starck. Starck  handled both the interior design and the exterior design. The build was undertaken by renowned shipyard Feadship out of the Netherlands.

The yacht is a little lighter than some of her size thanks to the fact she doesn’t have a steel hull like many superyachts do. Instead, she features both an aluminum hull and an aluminum superstructure. She also features teak decks.

The exterior design features many straight lines and right angles. The stern is squared and it features an axe bow. There’s also very little to see on deck even from above. Unlike most yachts , there is no visible radar arch or satellite equipment because it’s obscured within a box structure to maintain that simple design look. 

Who Owns the Venus Yacht?

As a result of the death of Steve Jobs the yacht became part of his estate which belongs to his widow Laurene Powell Jobs. She has maintained ownership of the yacht since it was finished in 2012. There was a brief time when the yacht was impounded after its construction. This was caused by a dispute over payment. Phillipe Starck claimed that the fee for his work was never paid in full. He was said to have designed the yacht for about $9 million and $3 million was still owing. After 10 days, Jobs’ estate settled the account and the yacht was delivered.

How Big is the Yacht Venus?

The Venus measures in at a respectable 257 feet in length. So clearly she qualifies as a superyacht, even if she doesn’t quite measure up to Jeff Bezos’ 417-foot megayacht Koru . The Venus also has a beam of about 38 feet and her volume comes in at 1,876 GT which is actually a little on the light side for such a large yacht, in part due to the aluminum construction.

How Much Did the Venus Yacht Cost?

Steve Jobs commissioned the yacht for an impressive $120 million. Yachts like the Eclipse are alleged to be upwards of $1.5 billion and even the massive Azzam has been confirmed at around $600 million so obviously the Venus is not the most expensive vessel, but it’s nothing to sniff at, either.

We know from what we mentioned above that $9 million of that alone went to the designer of the yacht. Like many yachts of this size there is also a considerable cost related to the yearly operations of the vessel. Things like crew salaries, taxes and fuel costs are considerable. In light of that, it’s been estimated that it costs between $10 million and $20 million just to keep the boat on the water for a year. That may seem steep but it’s definitely normal for most yachts.

Is the Venus Yacht Available for Charter?

Jobs was a notoriously private man in many ways and his family remains the same, at least insofar as this yacht is concerned. It’s never been made available for charter and, in fact, very little is known about it.

How Fast is the Venus Yacht and What Engines Does It Use?

The Venus makes use of a pair of twin diesel MTU (16V 4000 M73) 16-cylinder engines. Together they produce  3,433 horsepower. This allows her to cruise at speeds of 16 knots. She can also reach a maximum speed of 22 knots which is fairly substantial for a yacht of her size.

What’s the Interior of the Venus Yacht Like?

As you can tell from the unique hull design, there is a minimalist aesthetic to the yacht. It does resemble some Apple products from the time period in its way. Towards the after of the vessel on the starboard side there’s a launch bay for tenders that can be deployed by crane and apparently the design included a wheelhouse powered by seven 27″ iMacs.

The aft of the vessel opens to a large beach club for guests to enjoy the ocean and the sun, features a swim platform and lounge area.

The yacht has the capacity to accommodate 12 guests across 6 cabins. There is also room for a crew of 22 to maintain the vessel. The design is simple and clean all over. Glass, silver and white with everything polished is what you see all over the vessel.

Features and Amenities

The features of the Venus are actually totally unknown to this day. Jobs has never invited photographers on board to get a glimpse of what the cabins or living spaces may look like so there’s no word on how it all came together. Likewise, the designer has not shared any of the blueprints or ideas that went into making the yacht. This is common among designers of superyachts, however, and many have to sign non-disclosure agreements so they couldn’t share details even if they wanted to. 

Until such time as Laurene Jobs opts to either open the yacht to the public or sell it, the interior details are going to remain a mystery beyond what observers are able to glimpse from afar.

The Bottom Line

The Venus was a yacht partially designed and commissioned by Steve Jobs before his death in 2011. The yacht was finished in 2012 so he never got to see the final product on the water. Jobs once admitted he knew he might die before the yacht was finished but didn’t want to stop his work because he felt like it was an admission that he was going to die and didn’t want to quit like that.

The yacht is very uniquely designed in a minimalist style which reminds many of how Apple products in general are designed. The yacht cost Jobs about $120 million. It measures in at 257 feet in length.

Laurene Jobs is the current owner of the yacht and she has maintained her privacy with the vessel. As such, not only is it not available for charter but no one has seen images of the inside either.

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Steve Jobs’ $250 million superyacht, Venus, finally sets sail

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Venus is 80 meters long — over 250 feet — and has living quarters to accommodate 12 people. Its equipment and living space, according to SWNS.com, can be controlled from seven 27-inch iMacs. The ship has a very unusual design, with a very straight bow and gently sloping stern, and a profile dominated by the horizontal lines of its waterline, windows, deck, and cabin roof.

Above: Steve Jobs’ yacht at sea off Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Philippe Starck created the yacht with complete carte blanche  from the founder and CEO of Apple, as he recently told Super Yacht Times . That was extremely unusual for Jobs, who was notoriously detail-oriented, but this demonstrates the respect he had for the legendary European designer.

Of course, that was simply for the major, exterior design. For the interior, Jobs had more to say. As SYT recounts, Starck and Jobs spent considerable time over those details:

“We spent just one day every six weeks, for five years, on refinements. Millimeter by millimeter. Detail by detail.”

As the photos show, the result of the collaboration between Starck and Jobs is extreme simplicity.

Starck said that “there is not a single useless item inside. … Not a single useless pillow, or a useless object. In that sense, it is the opposite of other boats. Other boats try to show off more and more. Venus is revolutionary. It is the extreme opposite.”

The sad reality, of course, is that Jobs never got to sail in the boat that he built.

Top image credit: Super Yacht Times

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VENUS yacht NOT for charter*

78m  /  255'11 | feadship | 2012.

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Special Features:

• Lloyds Register classification
• Up to 22 crew
• Sleeps 12 overnight

The 78m/255'11" motor yacht 'Venus' was built by Feadship in the Netherlands at their Aalsmeer shipyard. Her interior is styled by design house Philippe Starck and she was delivered to her owner in December 2012. This luxury vessel's exterior design is the work of Philippe Starck.

Guest Accommodation

Venus has been designed to comfortably accommodate up to 12 guests in 6 suites. She is also capable of carrying up to 22 crew onboard to ensure a relaxed luxury yacht experience.

Range & Performance

Venus is built with a aluminium hull and aluminium superstructure, with teak decks. Powered by twin diesel MTU (16V 4000 M73) 16-cylinder 3,433hp engines, she comfortably cruises at 16 knots, reaches a maximum speed of 22 knots. She was built to Lloyds Register classification society rules.

*Charter Venus Motor Yacht

Motor yacht Venus is currently not believed to be available for private Charter. To view similar yachts for charter , or contact your Yacht Charter Broker for information about renting a luxury charter yacht.

Venus Yacht Owner, Captain or marketing company

'Yacht Charter Fleet' is a free information service, if your yacht is available for charter please contact us with details and photos and we will update our records.

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Steve Jobs’ Venus superyacht docked in Cairns, Australia after completing an 11-day, 4,200-mile journey across the Pacific. The $120 million vessel instantly became the center of attention as it dwarfed every other boat in the harbor.

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Rivers of Lava on Venus Reveal a More Volcanically Active Planet

New software let scientists re-examine old radar images, providing some of the strongest evidence yet that volcanoes continue to reshape the hellish planet.

By Robin George Andrews

Witnessing the blood-red fires of a volcanic eruption on Earth is memorable. But to see molten rock bleed out of a volcano on a different planet would be extraordinary. That is close to what scientists have spotted on Venus: two vast, sinuous lava flows oozing from two different corners of Earth’s planetary neighbor.

“After you see something like this, the first reaction is ‘wow,’” said Davide Sulcanese , a doctoral student at the Università d’Annunzio in Pescara, Italy, and an author of a study reporting the discovery in the journal Nature Astronomy , published on Monday.

Earth and Venus were forged at the same time. Both are made of the same primeval matter, and both are the same age and size. So why is Earth a paradise overflowing with water and life, while Venus is a scorched hellscape with acidic skies?

Volcanic eruptions tinker with planetary atmospheres. One theory holds that, eons ago, several apocalyptic eruptions set off a runaway greenhouse effect on Venus, turning it from a temperate, waterlogged world into an arid desert of burned glass.

To better understand its volcanism, scientists hoped to catch a Venusian eruption in the act. But although the planet is known to be smothered in volcanoes, an opaque atmosphere has prevented anyone from seeing an eruption the way spacecraft have spotted them on Io, the hypervolcanic moon of Jupiter .

In the 1990s, NASA’s spacecraft Magellan used cloud-penetrating radar to survey most of the planet. But back then, the relatively low-resolution images made spotting fresh molten rock a troublesome task.

By using modern software to peruse Magellan’s data, scientists have now found two unambiguous lava flows: one tripping down the flank of Sif Mons, a broad shield volcano, and another winding its way across a western part of Niobe Planitia, a flat plain pockmarked with numerous volcanic mountains.

Many planetary scientists reckoned Venus was effervescing with eruptions. “But it’s one thing to strongly suspect it and quite another to know it,” said Paul Byrne , a planetary scientist at Washington University in St. Louis who was not part of the new study.

Venus lacks the plate tectonics of Earth. But its similarly rocky constitution and comparable size suggests that something must still be cooking inside the sun’s second planet — and it should be volcanically active.

There is indirect supporting evidence: Volcanic gases linger in Venus’s skies, and the way that parts of the planet glow suggests they were painted over by lava in the recent geologic past .

Direct evidence of volcanic fury finally, and surprisingly, emerged in 2023, when researchers caught sight of a volcanic vent doubling in size and possibly filling with lava in old Magellan data. Other scientists still yearned for signs of an unequivocal lava flow, an almost literal smoking gun.

Mr. Sulcanese granted their wish. He found bright, riverlike patches on Sif Mons and Niobe Planitia in later Magellan survey images that weren’t present in earlier data. After carefully ruling out other possibilities, including landslides, his team concluded that lava was the only reasonable explanation.

“Magellan is the gift that keeps on giving,” said Stephen Kane , a planetary astrophysicist at the University of California, Riverside, who was not involved with the new study.

Both lava flows are comparable in size to the output of the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii during its three-month paroxysm in 2018. And using these two eruptions, the study’s authors estimate that there is considerably more eruptive activity than previously assumed — and that it’s happening elsewhere on the planet in the present day.

“Venus is active,” said Giuseppe Mitri , an astronomer also at the Università d’Annunzio and an author of the study.

More important, volcanically speaking, Venus “is Earth-like,” said Anna Gülcher , a planetary scientist at the California Institute of Technology who was not involved with the work.

The result also complicates the tentative detection of phosphine in Venus’s atmosphere; phosphine is a substance that is usually associated on Earth with living things. But other explanations for its possible presence on Venus couldn’t be ruled out . Volcanic activity can also make phosphine, but rebuttals to that idea have suggested that Venus simply doesn’t have sufficient volcanism to make it.

“Well, apparently there is,” Dr. Kane said.

The only way to find better answers — on phosphine, Venus’s volcanic cadence, its cataclysmic transformation — is to revisit the planet. Fortunately, a fleet of new spacecraft is set to do just that in the 2030s .

While we wait, Magellan’s memories will continue to offer unexpected gifts.

“We can start to think of Venus as a living, breathing world,” Dr. Byrne said.

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Venus spacecraft loses connection with Japan, threatening planet's sole mission

Humanity's only mission in Venus is in limbo after a Japanese spacecraft went dark last month, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency confirmed.

The JAXA space agency said it lost communication with the Venus Climate Orbiter spacecraft that circled the terrestrial planet.

The probe, named Akatsuki, lost connection in late April during operations after difficulty maintaining attitude, JAXA said on its website . The spacecraft was in a control mode that failed to provide high accuracy for a long period of time.

Officials have been unable to restore service through various measures but the agency said they are "currently working on restoring communication."

Probe already exceeded designed lifespan

The probe has already surpassed the 4.5-year lifespan it was designed to have since its 2010 launch. Officials are currently deciding how they want to approach the probe's later stages of operation.

"We are currently considering our future response. We will announce our policy as soon as it has been decided," JAXA said in the update.

Japan's first space probe launched in May 21, 2010, aboard an H2-A rocket heading for Venus. It entered the planet's orbit by Dec. 7, 2015 after a previous attempt in 2010. The spacecraft's goal was to confirm lightning in thick clouds and search for signs of active volcanism.

Akatsuki is the only operational probe at Venus. The other two solar orbiters that fly by Venus, including one made by NASA and another by the European Space Agency, were not intended to examine the planet.