Stefan Mileschin

It seems that even in death Steve Jobs can't stay out of court.

Before he died he commissioned a superyacht which was supposed to be the future of "messing around in boats." When the yacht was launched, the tame Apple Press published reviews which praised its design, and claimed it was worthy of Apple.

However, given the fact that everything that Jobs seems to have done is the subject of a court action, it turns out the the iSuperyacht is going to be no different.

Dubbed the Venus, probably because it was supposed to rise from sea and foam, the yacht has been impounded in the Netherlands.

According to AFP, Jobs' estate and the boat's designer Philippe Starck are having a reckoning over an unpaid bill.

Starck's brief Roelant Klaassen said that two invoices which were issued by Ubik last summer after Mr Jobs died and the estate had not paid them.

It is ironic that someone was late with a payment to the Dutch as it is usually the other way around.

Amsterdam court bailiffs seized the 70-metre (230-foot) long yacht following a request from Starck's lawyer.

The Venus cost $126 million to build and was only unveiled in October, a year after Jobs croaked.

Jobs's estate claims that Starck should be paid a percentage of the overall cost of the project, which took over five years to complete. Starck wants nine million euro to go away while the estate is offering six million euros.

Klaassen said Jobs and Starck were very close in the period that the design was made and the building proceeded. This is one of the reasons there was no formal agreement on the job.

The aluminium-hulled yacht was built by Royal De Vries shipbuilder's in Aalsmeer, just south of Amsterdam, with interiors designed by Starck.

The bridge features a control panel made up of an array of seven iMac computers. It had better hope that it is not using iMaps for the navigation system, or it could end up being a modern Flying Dutchman, forever lost on the high seas.

http://news.techeye.net/business/dea...s-to-pay-bills