A super yacht commissioned by Apple's late co-founder Steve Jobs has been impounded in Amsterdam due to a dispute over an unpaid bill to designer Philippe Starck. The 78-metre yacht with rectangular lines and a shimmering aluminium hull, was launched in October, a year after Jobs' death.
Jobs never got to use the vessel, named Venus. He commissioned the French designer to work on the vessel, which cost more than 100 million euros to build.
The boat is currently stuck in the Port of Amsterdam after Starck gained a court order,which allowed his lawyers to impound the yacht on his claim that Jobs' estate had paid him only 6 million euros of a total fee of 9 million euros. "The project has been going since 2007 and there had been a lot of detailed talk between Jobs and Starck," Roelant Klaassen, a lawyer representing Starck's company Ubik, told Reuters. "These guys trusted each other, so there wasn't a very detailed contract," he said.
Authorities at the Port of Amsterdam confirmed that the boat is not allowed to leave. "The boat is brand new but there is a 3 million euro claim on it. The parties will have to fight it out," Jeroen Ranzijn, spokesman for the Port of Amsterdam told the BBC.
The vessel is minimalist in style and is rich in design for which the Apple founder is known for. Talking to his biographer before his death, Jobs said he would continue his work on the yacht until the end. "I know that it's possible I will die and leave Laurene [his wife] with a half-built boat. But I have to keep going on it. If I don't, it's an admission that I'm about to die," he said.
