Reported to be on its way to new California home

Venus, the yacht designed by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and French designer Philip Starck, has docked in Florida waters after a cruise of the Caribbean, a local gossip column reports. The 260-foot vessel has docked at the Rybovich Marina in West Palm Beach after sailing into the Intercoastal Waterway that criss-crosses the southern portion of the state. The ship is now owned and used by Jobs' family, but it is unknown if they are staying in the area. The ship is said to be eventually heading to a new home in California.

The Venus spent part of January near Tenerife in the Canary Islands off the northwest coast of Africa, and crossed the Atlantic to spend time in the Caribbean since then. The yacht, shortly after completion, was briefly impounded in the Netherlands in a dispute over design fees that was quickly resolved. The $138.5 million vessel was conceived by Jobs as a gift to his family after they had returned from a Mediterranean cruise, and became something of a therapeutic project for the suffering Jobs as the cancer that would eventually claim his life began to worsen.

The craft was still under construction when Jobs died in October 2011, and Laurene Powell-Jobs met with Starck and oversaw the completion of the project. Like many Apple products, the ship uses lightweight but aircraft-grade aluminum and glass as primary design elements, and is controlled primarily by 27-inch iMacs. It features 10-foot-high, 40-foot long panes of glass and sparse furnishings in the main cabin area, with a curved rectangular roof on the main topside section and a deck made of teak wood.

by MacNN Staff