Venus, the superyacht designed by late Apple founder Steve Jobs in partnership with Philippe Starck, has been involved in a minor collision in Naples, involving the 105-metre yacht Lady Moura, owned by Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego.

Salinas, who is currently on holiday in the Mediterranean off the Italian coast, posted a video of the incident on the social media network X.

The footage shows Venus slowly drifting towards the Blohm & Voss-built Lady Moura, as the crew urgently shouts and whistles warnings. The 78-metre Venus eventually strikes the side of Salinas’ yacht.

“I’d like to know what the captain and crew were doing that they didn’t see a yacht the size of mine in front of them,” Salinas wrote in his post (translated from Spanish).

“The good thing is that nothing more than a scratch happened, but it’s a big scratch that’s going to cost a lot to fix.”

Venus is now owned by Jobs’ widow, philanthropist and investor Laurene Powell Jobs.

Salinas told X users that he was sharing the video “so you can see that there is no shortage of idiots in the world and understand how important it is to have a responsible and attentive captain in command.”

He urged readers to visit his Grupo Elektra retail chain to “buy Apple products to help [Powell Jobs] pay for their little joke.”

Venus was designed by Steve Jobs and Philippe Starck. Image courtesy of WestportWiki via Wikicommons.Venus

was designed by Steve Jobs and Philippe Starck. Image courtesy of WestportWiki via Wikicommons.

Venus is one of the world’s most recognisable superyachts for its minimal design. It was built by Feadship for Jobs at a cost of €105m. The entrepreneur worked for years on the design while suffering from cancer but died in October 2011, a year before the yacht was unveiled.

A representative from Emerson Collective, the family office of Powell Jobs, confirmed to Business Insider that Venus had collided with Lady Moura. The collision happened on 22 July 2024, but the footage was shared on 7 August 2024.

The spokesperson said that “only crew” were onboard the yacht and that “both boats were anchored when a sudden change of wind led to the collision.”

It is not clear from the video which yacht struck which. Some commentators have argued that the crew of Venus are to blame, while others are pointing the blame at Lady Moura.

Following the drama, both yachts continued on their journeys. Public marine tracking data indicates that Lady Moura made its way to Mykonos on Wednesday (7 August 2024) while Venus was cruising in the Ligurian Sea.

Lady Moura in MonacoLady Moura

in Monaco. Image courtesy of Berthold Werner.

Earlier this year, Lady Moura was involved in another fracas when it was targeted by eco-activists in Ibiza.

The yacht was docked in Ibiza over the Easter weekend when the protesters unfurled a banner that read: “You are kicking us off the island. Your luxury is our crisis.”

The activists later wrote in an Instagram post that the Mexican businessman had no concern for the “suffering of others or inequality or injustice.”

Lady Moura is often called the world’s first ‘megayacht’ and is known as the first superyacht to feature a beach club. Extinction Rebellion says the number of superyachts currently cruising is estimated at more than 9,300, with a combined value of more than €57bn.

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