Five years after she departed The Netherlands, Venus ventures back.
As you’ll see in this footage from Dutch Yachting, the social-media site dedicated to launches and deliveries in its native country, Venus pulled in to Icon Yachts’ facility in Harlingen. She’s still there as of this writing. However, Feadship’s refit and service team is doing the work. While Feadship does a number of refits at its own site in Makkum, it also sends specialists to other locations throughout Europe. On a related side note, this practice is becoming increasingly common for yacht builders that have added refit services to their offerings.
Feaship states that Venus is getting her five-year Lloyd’s survey, along with some overall improvements. It hasn’t, however, specified what those improvements are.
The 256-foot (78-meter) Venus turned nearly as many heads on her arrival into Harlingen as she did when she first launched. In fact, Venus continues to cause a stir wherever she goes. Feadship never disclosed who her owner was. However, other parties revealed that Steve Jobs commissioned her. The megayacht’s designer, Philippe Starck, revealed the relationship in subsequent interviews. So, too, did Walter Isaacson, who wrote Jobs’ official biography. In fact, Isaacson writes that Jobs described her as being “sleek and minimalist.” Furthermore:
The teak decks were perfectly flat and unblemished by any accoutrements. As at an Apple store, the cabin windows were large panes, almost floor to ceiling, and the main living area was designed to have walls of glass that were forty feet long and ten feet high. He had gotten the chief engineer of the Apple stores to design a special glass that was able to provide structural support.
Sadly, Jobs’ health was declining while Venus was in build. He confessed to Isaacson that he might even pass away before completion, leaving his wife “with a half-built boat.” Isaacson further quotes him as saying, “‘But I have to keep going on it. If I don’t, it’s an admission that I’m about to die.’”
He never did get to see Venus completed. But his family has kept the yacht for their own private use since delivery.
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