A squabble with a French designer that kept the late Steve Jobs‘ new yacht anchored in Amsterdam has been resolved for an undisclosed sum.
The Venus is free to set sail, although weather is reportedly keeping it in port for another few days, according to a report from the French news service Agence France-Presse.
“The Venus is no longer impounded, we have found a solution,” Jobs family lawyer Gerard Moussault reportedly told the news agency.
After a sentimental launching in October, with Jobs family members and the vessel’s French designer Phillipe Starck looking on, Starck claimed he’d been underpaid by about $4 million for his work on the yacht.
The Venus was impounded in Amsterdam while the Jobs estate and Starck’s lawyers worked things out. His claim apparently was complicated by the lack of a written agreement between him and Apple’s (AAPL) co-founder and CEO.
Starck’s lawyer in the Netherlands, Roelant Klaassen, told Agence France-Presse that the friendship between Starck and Jobs was “one of the reasons there was no formal agreement on the job.”
When the weather clears, the 256-foot vessel reportedly will head to the United States, where Jobs’ family will take possession.
The Venus is a sort of iPhone of yachts — minimalist in design, aluminum hulled, not cheap at a reported cost of about $138 million to build, and equipped with the latest in Apple technology.
Starck has designed products with baby monitors and tape dispensers for Target, worked on hotel and restaurant interiors, and designed furniture. He and Jobs apparently hit it off during the yacht’s design.
Starck has said he saw Jobs “once a month in Palo Alto” while designing the Venus. “We used to love talking about interesting things.”
But apparently not about money.
Contact Pete Carey at 408-920-5419.
