Steve Jobs’ Mysterious $120 Million Venus Superyacht Makes a Rare Appearance

Venus is the superyacht that Apple founder Steve Jobs commissioned Feadship in the mid-2000s, and which he customized personally by working closely with visionary designer Philippe Starck. Like with everything else Steve Jobs did, he wanted his boat to have a certain aesthetic and very specific functionality. That meant going beyond a series production vessel, to create the only boat he could ever happily call his own.

That vessel was Venus, which was completed in 2012 but Jobs never got to set foot on, having passed away from cancer just one year before. With Jobs’ death, Venus and other properties in his portfolio passed onto his widow, Laurene Powell Jobs. Every year, she goes on vacation on Venus, which provides the rare sightings of this unique and, according to trade publications, iconic ship.

This is one of those times. The Daily Mail reports that Powell Jobs is on vacation in Barbados and that she spent last Sunday pampering herself at the luxury 5-star hotel Sandy Lane. After her extended visit there, she hopped into a dingy and was carried off to Venus, which had been moored nearby.

The British tabloid has photos of the mysterious Venus, whose price tag is a reported $120 million (though you will find it valued as high as $230 million). They don’t offer anything new in terms of views inside the ship, but at least they bring a better appreciation of a superyacht that has been deemed a work of art.

Measuring 256 feet (78.2 meters), Venus has a very striking silhouette, with an aluminum hull and a surprisingly low profile with an all-glass superstructure. Always obsessed with clean, minimalist lines, Jobs had Starck design for him a superyacht with just sharp angles and an almost boxy appearance, with an ax bow and a very flat, squared stern that hides the tender garage and beach club.

Venus is also among the industry’s best-kept secrets, in the sense that its interiors were never revealed to the public. It was never offered for charter or presented at trade shows, but Feadship did say that it has six suites offering accommodation for 12 guests, and separate quarters for 22 crew. According to Starck himself, the rooms are completely sound-proof and isolated from one another, so that no noise ever goes through. Instead, guests can rely on an internal communications system if they feel like chatting.