yachts

Steve Jobs' yacht impounded

This just happens too often.

You spend years waiting for your yacht to finally, finally be made to your specifications, and then some ridiculous member of officialdom -- usually badly dressed and with a mustache -- prevents you from taking possession.

This appears to be the case with the yacht that was the late Steve Jobs' brainadult.

One can hardly call it a brainchild. Venus -- with Philippe Starck on board as co-designer -- is a homage to everything sleek and sophisticated.

It is something that would float every Apple fanperson's boat.

And yet, as the Associated Press reports, … Read more

Steve Jobs' yacht gives insights into his design process

Last month, we stumbled upon videos of Steve Jobs' yacht, the Venus, which was reportedly unveiled a year after Jobs' death. The sleek, clean design has a certain Apple Store look to it, complete with a row of 27-inch iMacs on board, but there's no evidence the crew will don those blue Genius bar shirts.

Then recently SuperYacht Times interviewed French designer Philippe Starck, who Jobs collaborated with to design Venus. (You might remember erroneous reports earlier this year that alleged Starck was involved in designing a new Apple product -- turns out the project in question was actually … Read more

The sleek lines of Steve Jobs' yacht

It's hard to imagine Steve Jobs standing on the deck of a yacht, shouting out orders.

But not very hard.

Less hard is to imagine that this yacht would be minimalist. And this is how the finished product appears, in images noticed by the Verge on the Dutch site One More Thing.nl.

The yacht, named Venus, was mentioned in Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs.

Isaacson wrote:

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 … Read more

James Bond/Batman boat is anything but a prop

A superyacht worthy of a James Bond supervillain -- or even of Batman's Bruce Wayne -- launched for the first time recently when the $15 million Adastra took a test drive on the Pearl River in Zhuhai, China.

Commissioned by Hong Kong shipping magnate Anto Marden, who owns and cruises to a pair of islands near Indonesia, the craft is based on the design of speedy Batboat-like "power trimaran" vessels such as the Earthrace and the Cable and Wireless Adventurer. But unlike those boats, the Adastra -- as you'll see -- was meant to be a luxury yacht, which, according to design firm John Shuttleworth, called for some new thinking.

… Read more

Gadgettes 180: The Multi-tasking Clothes Episode (podcast)

OK, so we suck at bringing you a show every week. But we promise that when we do, they'll be as explosive and ridiculous as this one right here! We revisit the idea of multitasking, but this time, we focus on functional clothing. That and we insult you a whole lot. Thou wimpled plume-plucked pignut!

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 180

Ping, a social networking garment

Hoodie buddy with built-in headphones (thanks Jacob!)

Sleeper hoodie (thanks Jacob!)

Beer opener dog collar (thanks Rodney)

How one soldier can carry a whole power plant on his back… Read more

PlanetSolar thinks big with solar boat

A skipper's dream of sailing across the ocean using solar power is about to come true. More impressively, he'll be sailing on arguably the world's largest pollution-free yacht, the PlanetSolar, which was unveiled Thursday at the HDW Shipyard in Germany.

Raphael Domjan, the skipper and CEO of the PlanetSolar project, regards this event as a confirmation that "the solar-powered boat is now a reality." Since the '80s, Domjan has been dreaming of touring the world using the minimum amount of energy. He envisioned a solar-powered boat in 2004 and the PlanetSolar project has been in … Read more

Ellison's team wins long-sought sailing trophy

Fulfilling a 10-year ambition, Larry Ellison's sailing team won the America's Cup sailing race Sunday near Valencia, Spain.

The BMW Oracle Racing team used a triple-hulled craft called a trimaran sporting a giant vertical airfoil rather than a conventional sail. The airfoil works on the same principal an airplane wing, only it pushes the boat along through the water while a horizontal wing on a plane lifts the plane up.

"It's absolutely an awesome feeling," Ellison said in a statement. James Spithill, a 30-year-old from Australia, was skipper of the boat; Ellison was listed in … Read more

Concept luxe land yacht has the wind in its sails

Step aside, Greenbird. Here comes a version with all the luxe trimmings. Cooked up by industrial designer Stefan Radev, the Blue Dynamics land yacht is a concept wind-powered pleasure vehicle that steers with the help of a huge sail in the rear. Entry to the cockpit is via the elevated wind screen, while the rigid sail adjusts according to wind direction either automatically or through the on-board sail control unit.

The name Blue Dynamics is a symbolic connection of the wind and BMW's "efficient dynamics," greener-emissions program, which helped inspire the designer. BMW is not affiliated with the project, however.

Like all toys for the rich, this is one selfish contraption that'll take just one person on-board. But hey, if you've got the chump change to afford this swanky three-wheeled ride should it ever hit the deserts or beaches, you'll definitely not want to share it as you zip past envious landlubbers and green-eyed sedan drivers.

More pics after the jump. … Read more

A million-dollar RV, by land or by sea

What could possibly be better than a million-dollar RV outfitted with state-of-art technology? One that goes in the water, of course.

As insane as it may seem, the Terra Wind Amphibious RV" has all the proper accoutrements for a luxury vehicle of its class, including an 6-foot swim deck, an 8-jet whirlpool, marble floors, wood paneling, leather furnishings, and a fully equipped home theater system featuring a 42-inch plasma TV, according to Uncrate. In the cockpit you'll find the instruments needed for the aquatic half of its persona to operate the submerged motors, rudder controls, bilge pumps, rudder … Read more