Perfection entered the life of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs as a child and, over time, became a kind of obsession that he applied to many areas of his life. A few years ago, journalist and biographer Walter Isaacson told a remarkable anecdote about the technology entrepreneur.
One day, like any other, a young Jobs helped his father, Paul Jobs, build a fence around the family home in Mountain View. As they worked, the father shared some advice with his son: “You’ve got to make the back of the fence, that nobody will see, just as good looking as the front of the fence.”
Jobs’ Obsession Reached One of His Dream Projects: His Yacht
The future Apple co-founder had just received a lesson he would never forget. Growing up, and especially during his years at the company, Jobs became obsessed with design. He wanted Macintosh computers to be beautiful, inside and out. He didn’t settle easily. Jobs liked to push things to the limit.
Jobs’ pursuit of perfection extended to his personal life. Buying a simple piece of furniture was an odyssey. He lived a minimalist lifestyle for a long time, with his house practically empty. When building his yacht, he didn’t hesitate to demand something less than unique and unparalleled.
According to yachting lifestyle news site Boat International, when French industrial designer Philippe Starck presented the initial design, Jobs replied, “I think you should make it all out of glass.” No one had built anything like this before, and not everyone would've agreed to proceed with the project. Still, the construction of Venus began in 2009.
Jobs, who died in 2011, was unable to enjoy the ship. Venus was unveiled in October 2012 after being built at the Feadship shipyard. Its design, however, didn’t go unnoticed. The boat stands out with its white hull, silver paint segments, and stainless steel details, as we can see on the bow.
It also features rectangular windows running from the bow to the middle. In a nod to Jobs’ obsession with perfection, the designers added a false upper deck that hides the communication and TV receivers, which passengers can open when necessary.
The yacht measures 256.6 feet in length and 38.7 feet in beam and has a low superstructure made entirely of glass. Starck, who reportedly charged $9 million for his work, designed the exterior of Venus with straight lines and 90-degree angles. The boat has an axe bow and an unusually flat, square stern.
Indeed, the Venus design shares some of Apple’s product design philosophy. It’s striking but also sleek and minimalist. We don’t know much about its interior, given that no photos reveal what’s behind its structure. Still, some images show a bridge integrated by several iMacs in a row.
Jobs’ family kept the yacht after his death and his widow Laurene Powell Jobs inherited it. She has used it on several occasions. Recently, however, the yacht was involved in an incident. Venus rammed the 354.3-foot yacht Lady Moura, owned by Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas, at low speed. Fortunately, the incident wasn’t serious.
This article was written by Javier Marquez and originally published in Spanish on Xataka.
Images | Jimmy Baikovicius (CC BY-SA 2.0) | fdecomite (CC BY 2.0) | Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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