A super yacht designed by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has finally taken to sea a year after his death.

Christened "Venus", the boat bears all the hallmarks of Apple's hugely popular electronics gadgets, with sleek lines and minimalist design.

The luxury vessel set sail in Aalsmeer, the Netherlands, where it was built, with Laurene Jobs and her three children in attendance.

Jobs is said to have been working on the design from 2007 until right up to his death last year from pancreatic cancer, despite knowing that he wouldn't live to see it completed.

"I know that it's possible I will die and leave Laurene with a half-built boat," he told Walter Isaacson, his biographer. "But I have to keep going on it. If I don't, it's an admission that I'm about to die."

Jobs worked on the project with French designer Philippe Starck, who told the BBC that the pair shared the same vision when building the boat.

"Steve and I shared the same idea about the elegance of the minimal, the elegance of work well done," Starck said.

The largely aluminium vessel is 256ft high and some 250ft long. It's controlled using seven 27-inch iMacs, a record number, and features the same glass used in Apple gadgets in its detailing.

In Jobs' biography, Isaacson writes, "The planned yacht was sleek and minimalist. The teak decks were perfectly flat and unblemished by any accoutrements.

"Like 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 40 feet long and 10 feet high."

Starck said in a statement that the design was agreed early on and never changed over the years.

"The project never changed during the process of five years dedicated to a rigorous work on details, driven by the famous eye and genius of Steve Jobs," said the statement.

The yacht, Starck said in a statement emailed to Associated Press, "reflects Steve Jobs expectation and vision."

There is still speculation as to what will happen with the yacht now that it has been completed. The Jobs' family could chose to keep the yacht, rent it or sell it.

Upon its completion, the staff who worked on the ship's construction were each given an iPod inscribed with 'Venus' on the back.