yacht crew reality show

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Below Deck: Behind the scenes of filming the hit superyacht reality show

When it first aired in 2013, Below Deck quickly garnered the attention of a loyal band of die-hard fans. Three years later, the spin-off Below Deck: Mediterranean followed. Amid the chaos of crew love triangles and outrageous guest requests, returning captains Lee Rosbach and Sandy Yawn emerged as respected industry professionals and brand ambassadors for the show.

Below Deck secrets: What the hit TV series didn't tell you

In 2020, the brand’s second spin-off, Below Deck: Sailing Yacht , launched, shining a new light on the crews and challenges of sailing yacht charters. Together, the reality show triumvirate propelled Below Deck and the superyacht industry to global audiences, earning the show its own unique place in the hall of reality television fame. But Below Deck’s producers aren’t done yet. Earlier this year, US network Bravo announced the Below Deck empire was set to grow further with two new spin-off seasons, Below Deck Adventure and Below Deck Down Under . As the sixth season of Below Deck: Mediterranean gets underway on June 28, BOAT talks to executive producer Tania Hamidi about Below Deck’s stratospheric rise and the behind-the-scenes reality of filming the show.

How Captain Lee became TV’s favourite yacht captain

Hamidi is a seasoned television producer and one of Below Deck’s longest-serving team members. She has been a staple of the Below Deck production team for seven years, joining as the second season of Below Deck got underway. Soon after, she was involved in the launch of Below Deck: Mediterranean fronted by captain Mark Howard, who was promptly replaced by captain Sandy Yawn in the second season. This was a key casting decision, Hamidi says. “We loved Mark, but it was really exciting to have a woman in the wheelhouse. When that opportunity presented itself, it just took over,” she says, adding that Sandy “got herself on that boat”.

Captain Sandy Yawn on the reality of filming Below Deck Mediterranean

While captains Lee Rosbach, Sandy Yawn and Glenn Shephard have become familiar fixtures of the show, Hamidi reveals that not even they are safe when it comes to casting the next season. “All the different positions are on the table each season, including the captain,” she says. However, when it comes to changing a captain “there’s got to be a reason”. With crew, familiar faces often return, with notable examples being chief stewardess Kate Chastain and bosun Malia White. This creates a sense of continuity, Hamidi says. “We often have yacht crew come back in higher positions.” Diversity also informs key crew casting decisions to ensure “different types of people feature in different roles.” “It’s fantastic to have a female bosun or a different culture as head of a department that you don’t expect to see,” says Hamidi. “It’s fun to lean into the reality of the industry because it does exist.”

Below Deck: Inside the boats from the hit reality show

A Below Deck charter typically carries a maximum of 12 superyacht crew on board, including up to three resident crew who work on the yacht full time. Often the official captain of the yacht will drop down to first mate to allow for an incoming Below Deck captain. However, generally these crew roles stay off-camera and are not considered “part of the season,” Hamidi says. “They don’t really fit into part of the story, and if you do see them, it’s in an organic way, like an emergency.”

When it comes to casting new crew members, Hamidi reveals that “most” incoming crew already hold their STCW qualification, with some needing a refresher. While the show is totally unscripted, the casting team does look for a specific type of person when choosing the crew. “It’s a TV show so the crew we choose are definitely outgoing and happy to be open,” Hamidi says. “If they are closed off, it’s hard to tell a story and hard for others to come out and tell them their stories.”

Parsifal III : Meet the star of Below Deck's sailing spin-off

The same ethos applies when recruiting the season’s charter guests. As an unscripted show, the guests must be outgoing and excited for the charter. “We really don’t try and make them do things they don’t want to do,” says Hamidi. “We say ‘just have fun, it’s your vacation’.” This, Hamidi claims, is why they have so many guests keen to return, with the Below Deck charter guest casting team having to restrict the amount of returning guests to keep things “fresh”. While it’s well known that Below Deck’s guests pay a subsidised charter rate, Hamidi reveals the opportunity is still very much “aimed at the one per cent”, with guests expected to tip to the full price of the charter. “The guests have a slightly discounted rate but it’s still a pretty penny,” she says. “The average person couldn’t afford it.”

The filming schedule of a typical season of Below Deck is hectic. The intense schedule squeezes nine charters into a filming period of eight weeks. A total of 30 people, comprising yacht crew, guests and camera crew, can be on the boat at any one time. Split into pairs, the camera crew consists of a camera operator and a second team member operating the audio rig. Guided by the director, who watches from a cabin transformed into a “control room”, the camera crew “jump around the yacht” trying to capture key moments of the charter, from pulling anchor to meal prep in the galley. They often arrive onto the yacht at 5.30am and get the cameras rolling before the guests are out of bed. Working a 12-hour shift, they need to ensure all the unfolding action on board is caught on camera while avoiding the other camera crews on board. “The camera crew are running around and hiding from each other while getting all the action,” Hamidi says. This is especially difficult on a four-deck motor yacht, she says, but easier on the wider decks of Parsifal III , the star of Below Deck: Sailing Yacht . To support such an operation, the main charter yacht is accompanied by a support vessel and water taxi, which ferries the camera crew to and from the main yacht. The support vessel, which in previous seasons has been a schooner, catamaran and “mini yacht”, is chosen on the capabilities of its galley to ensure the crews are well fed. The support vessel follows around the mothership but is always carefully anchored out of sight to avoid being in the shot.

While Hamidi admits filming the series is “full on”, for her the hard work begins weeks before when preparation for the show begins. This includes everything from casting the show, choosing a charter yacht, selecting brands to appear on the show and sourcing water toys, such as floating golf courses and superyacht slides. Equipment is checked in the galley, visas are approved and valuable objects – such as art – are removed from the charter yacht. Amid all the noise and intensity of preparing and filming the show, it is the morning water taxi rides to the mothership that stay with Hamidi the most. “You’re out on the water, it’s too loud to have a conversation and it’s beautiful – it’s those moments that stay with me,” she says. Despite two more spin-off series being greenlit, Hamidi is adamant the Below Deck franchise is just getting started. “It’s internationally syndicated, more and more people are interested in yachting, and I think it’s just going to grow and grow and grow.”

Below Deck Mediterranean premieres on Monday, June 28 at 9pm ET/PT on Bravo. New episodes will be available one week early on Peacock beginning Monday, June 21 .

Below Deck: Superyacht Reality TV

People have been saying for a long time that yachts would make a great reality show, so it’s no real surprise that the day has finally arrived: Tonight in the US, yachting reality show ‘Below Deck’ screens on Bravo TV. With episode titles like “Luggage, luggage, everywhere” and “Dude, that’s a dude, dude”, I’m guessing it’s not aimed at the intellectual end of the market. I lost 24 brain cells just watching the trailer. See the trailier here .

When the idea for a reality show got floated (sorry) a few years back, there was an outpouring of vitriol on Dockwalk by yachting professionals deeply concerned that such a show would damage the industry. And now that the show is being launched (sorry), the vitriol is back, as many people see this show as a threat: a threat to the image of the yachting industry, one that will imperil the golden rule of discretion and make yacht owners and guests view crew and yachting differently.

Of course the ‘reality’ is dubious. Crewed by actors and yacht crew who want to be famous, and chartered by wannabe actors who want to be famous, and edited and produced by people who want to be famous… well, it’s safe to say that the ‘reality’ of yachting will be the first victim. That’s not to say that there won’t be situations portrayed in it that we have all actually encountered in our jobs on yachts (the producer worked as a stewardess for 3 seasons, and there are three yacht crew in the cast), but people do not act naturally while surrounded by a film crew. And even if they do let their real selves out on occasion, the final cut is made by people who want sensationalism and spectacle. This is for telly, after all. No one wants to watch a stewardess clean a cabin for 3 days to the sound of Rihanna on repeat. Not least because of Rihanna.

This morning, The New York Times has published an article on the series entitled “Who wants to sail with this ship of trolls?” It’s not a glowing review, to put it mildly, calling the show ‘bland’ and the guests ‘insufferable’ , concluding that, “It’s a good thing the earth is flat, because that means the Honor, the yacht that is the focus of the new Bravo reality series ‘Below Deck’ is bound to sail over the edge someday. That would presumably relieve us of the obligation to pay any further attention to the people on it.”

The show was shot during a 5 week Caribbean charter on the 50m Cour de Leone, which was renamed ‘M/Y Honour’ for the show. The original crew were given time off, although the captain Lee Rosbach, the first mate and the engineer stayed on board (but not as characters in the show) to ensure the boat stayed in one piece. And 9 ‘crew’ were brought in in their place, only 3 of them with any yachting experience. And this alone allows people to dismiss the show as unrealistic, with real captain Lee Rosbach admitting in an interview with The Triton . "They pretty much acted like crew I would have fired- they were all in way over their heads. There were a couple that worked really hard and might have made good entry level crew.” Might have made good entry level crew? Oh dear.

Show co-producer Rebecca explained the casting choice by saying, “The original crew were perfect, but we had to bring in new crew that we’d screened, as we couldn’t be sure that the other crew weren’t convicted felons or wouldn’t punch the cameraman. Oh, now this smacks of disingenuity. Yacht crew aren’t well known for punching people on board, and criminal records are, well, records. Not difficult to check. Of course, what she isn’t saying here is that most professional yacht crew wouldn’t touch this show with a boat hook and a sturdy pair of Marigolds.

This excuse allowed the introduction of a merry cast of TV-worthy characters running around in hilariously tight blue polos. The bios on the show’s website are comedy gold, as it sounds like they have been written by either the cast themselves, a small child, or a shoddy dating website. We have the chief stewardess Adrienne Gang,’ a veteran of the yacht industry’, who lives by the philosophy ‘work hard, play hard’. Original. Other useful facts are that she once wanted to be a doctor and used to tour with rock bands. The fake captain, who looks remarkably like he is made of plastic, has had a love of the water since a young age (jolly good), while CJ LeBeau (yes, that is his name) is an Eagle Scout and a philanthropist, but he has a rebellious side as well . He also, you might like to know, “gets out of most sticky situations with his witty flirtation and likeable personality.” Snort. We have the chef, who enjoys the bachelor lifestyle, and a stewardess called Kat who is a ‘jokester’ , ‘life of the party’ enjoys snowboarding and has been through the Panama Canal. Riveting. Oh, Bravo TV, bravo for giving me a giggle. And of course we have a gay ex-Marine. Openly gay crew members are increasingly seen on yachts, and rightly so. But to imply that they are represented on each yacht is a fallacy. And then we also have Sam, the stewardess who has a degree in industrial engineering, a degree which apparently separates her from the typical “uneducated yachty (sic) drifter”. She prides herself on her leadership abilities, which is a shame really as she’s not chief stew, and going by the episode descriptions this causes some drama. I’ll stop now, but really, these bios are tremendous fun.

As for the guests, they actually are paying charter guests. An ad was run by Bravo TV requesting people who might like to be on a show, but will have to pay for the privilege to cover the charter fee. 50 000 dollars each, according to the original ad. Not your typical charter guest then, but Americans who want to be famous.

“Oh, it wasn’t scripted,” said one guest on a forum. "We just did what we wanted and they filmed us.” For my part I believe it wasn’t scripted, simply because on the advertisement we have some woman lying on a deckchair waving languorously at one of the crew and saying in a strident American accent, “Can you remove this part of the ship for me?” The ship? The ship? No genuine charter guest, past, present or future, has called a yacht a ship. They never miss the opportunity to say the word yacht, (preferably in a very loud voice). But while it may not have been scripted, it was most certainly directed, and by its very nature with a bunch of cameramen and fake cast, unreal.

This unrealistic portrayal is making some yacht crew nervous, and others angry. From what I can see, the objections fall into several categories.

1. A strange anger at the ‘real’ crew involved. The forums are alive with jeers about them never getting hired again, and ‘how to kill your career 101.” Let’s dispense with this one quickly with a quick question: ‘Who cares if they get hired again?’ That’s not an objection to the show itself, it is of absolutely no consequence to anyone but the crew themselves, and they have made their beds.

2. That these people make yachting look unprofessional to the outside world. One yacht chef wailed that the food looked terrible (despite the NYT saying otherwise), and felt that no-one would take his job as a superyacht chef seriously anymore. Another sniffed that deck crew would never be allowed to have their hair so unruly on a real yacht, while another was unhappy that during the course of filming the crew were in the tender, shirtless. You know, there may be a few viewers out there in middle America who will base their view of yachting on this show, but anyone who watches reality TV thinking it is reality is a dimwit and for one, I don’t care what a dimwit thinks about yachting, or anything else, for that matter.

3. That the ‘secret is out!” Ah, and ain’t that the truth. We may even be overrun by young people wanting to get into the industry. This is not the end of the world. In fact it’s very good for crew houses, training schools and bars. There are only so many jobs, and captains can pretty easily sort the wheat from the chav – I mean chaff.

4. The most overwhelming objection is that yacht owners, charterers and potential charterers will be deterred from chartering a yacht because of this show. Oh, poppycock. As captain Rosbach says, “I don’t know why people are taking this show so seriously. I don’t think billionaires sit around watching Bravo TV.” Even if they did, I’m certain they’re not thinking, Oh, I may not charter this year because a low-budget reality show was made about it where the guests were difficult and the crew ran around like monkeys trying to shag each other, crying and drinking. (Ok, so maybe there’s some truth to this show after all.) Otherwise we’d all be watching ‘Airport’ and thinking, Oh, best not catch a plane again, as someone has made a show about difficult passengers, and then people will think that I am difficult, because I too, on occasion, catch planes.’

Anyway, even if the portrayal of difficult guests is spot-on, then real yacht owners and guests won’t recognise themselves in them, because the human ego is protected by a thick wall of self-delusion, making it difficult for us to recognise our own bad behaviour. For example, I have had a very difficult guest look at me sympathetically and say with no trace of irony, “Gosh, you must get some really difficult guests sometimes , not like us, hey.”

Anyone who has ever owned or chartered a yacht, or is seriously planning to, are already aware that this is an industry of professionals, working their buttocks off, being discrete, going the extra 40 miles for yak milk and creating an extraordinary experience for them. Because that is the truth. And that truth won’t change, no matter how many ‘reality’ TV shows are made on the subject. People who treat their crew well will continue to do so, and those that don’t care at all what the crew, or world in general, think of them, will continue not to care. If it stops a single person from chartering, I would be very surprised.

5. That discretion is dead. That the hallmark of the industry-that crew won’t talk- is in jeopardy. The point is, most still won’t, but as the industry grows, and more issues are being discussed on forums such as these and in magazines, it is inevitable that some stories will come out.

So then, are there any positives?

This show can’t be considered particularly harmful, but few would say it’s beneficial to the yachting industry. But perhaps there are a few potential positives to this show being screened, other than stopping people back home asking us if we work on cruise ships.

1. If the show has a shred of credibility about it, it will deliver on its promise of showing the hard work and exhaustion that yachting requires. It may, just may, prepare a few wannabe stewardesses for the reality of the task ahead- the bed-making, the cleaning, the kow-towing. Despite the wealth of information now available about what to expect, you still come across the oblivious hopefuls, like the young and shiny job-seeker I met last year who asked me, “There’s isn’t really much cleaning involved, is there? I know there’s a little bit, but it’s mostly service, isn’t it? I really hate cleaning toilets, it’s gross, I hope I don’t have to do much of that.”(Evil old goat that I am, I really enjoyed bursting that bubble.)

2. On the small boat end of the scale, perhaps the greater exposure of yachts may lead to a few more charters. Doubtful, but possible.

3. A portrayal of crew as actual people might lead the guests to realise they are being judged, and that they do not have complete carte blanche to act as they please. I know that many yachties, perhaps the majority, would place this argument in the negatives, rather than positives section, but this leads to my next point.

Is there a place for superyacht stories in the mainstream media, and how dangerous is it?

There is perhaps a greater issue here. The secret is out. The media have the scent, and superyacht stories are selling papers. Last week, an article in The Guardian , about superyachts and training courses unleashed an absolute storm of rich-bashing in the online comments. This is a concern, because when the media focus on the sensational, the reality is lost. That is not to say that I don’t agree that the sheer excess of the industry is sometimes offensive, but as the entire industry is based on sheer excess, it is a difficult objection to rationally sustain as long as you work on, or around superyachts. They are the ultimate unnecessary item, a floating testament to wealth and success. And hundreds of thousands of people are employed by them, and in the shipyards, the crew agencies, the machinery manufacturers…the list goes on. They pump enormous amounts of money into economies, they pay our wages and buy us houses. Looking at that, it is difficult to maintain the rage.

However, this is not to say that, in my opinion, some media attention is necessarily a bad thing, if handled with sensitivity. There are issues in yachting that I think are worth discussing: violence, sexual harassment, and sexual depravity. I’m not talking here about rudeness of guests, or prostitution, but about abuse of power.

The typical line of yacht crew tends to be that yacht guests charter a yacht with the sense that they have carte blanche, that this is a place where they can depend on privacy while they behave how they like, and that yacht crew should indulge them, without judgement. For the most part, this is true. But not always.

Many years ago, I quit my first yacht when the Madame split one of the Filipino’s noses open with a shoe because a dress fell off the hanger in her dressing room when we were at sea. The next day, the Madame grabbed the same girl by the throat, and in the year after I left, she put her in hospital with internal injuries after a beating. According to a crew member, the captain had accompanied the Madame on a trip to the Philippines, where this girl and another had been bought off their families with a suitcase of money. She couldn’t leave: she was a 21 st century slave.

There is a story there, not about yachting per se but about vast wealth and the abuse of power. I worked on a yacht where on one charter, the principal threw a prostitute down the stairs. Another friend tells me that on her old boat, young Indian boys were brought on for the boss’ pleasure. On another, the guest was Islam Gadaffi. How do yacht crew handle serving a man politely who was allegedly responsible for massacres and torture? In yachting, political ignorance is bliss. But these issues- where our moral line is, and how often we move it, are things that yacht crew must consider. And if a yacht guest holds back from awful behaviour because they feel that they may be judged or reported? I say that’s a win.

That is why I say the subjects must be handled with extreme sensitivity, by careful writers, who know that this is not common in yachting, but can and does happen. But any fair commentary also includes the wonderful stuff- the nice owners, the extraordinary opportunities, the sheer adventure of it all.

But the journalist in me, and the moralist, believes that stories need to be told that are bigger than yachting. No place on earth is a moral vacuum, not even a superyacht, no matter how much money you pay for it. Or no place I want to live in, anyway.

So yes, the secret is out, and not all media coverage will be favourable. Some of it will be written by hacks caring little for the consequences. If you want to be worried about something, be worried about that.

But ‘Below Deck’? One thing is certain: there is no grave danger to the industry in this show. It is a show, and will not change our reality.

The cover has been blown off the porthole. And now we wait for the waves. ‘Below Deck’ may not bring them, but something will.

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Comment by: Timothy Valentine - 8 Nov 2021, 23:31 (2 years ago)

Despite the demerits of the show, it hit me on good side, so I feel I wanna join the industry.

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All Eyes on Deck

How below deck, a reality show pitched as downton abbey on a luxury caribbean rent-a-yacht, became bravo’s new flagship..

When Ashton Pienaar fell overboard during the filming of Below Deck ’s sixth season, it almost ruined the party. A Sarasota real-estate agent named Brandy had chartered the 185-foot superyacht and its crew, which are the focal point of the Bravo reality show, so she and her “wild girlfriends” could celebrate their birthdays with “tequila in their hands at all times.” But enjoying those drinks had to be put on hold after a line tangled around Pienaar’s leg and yanked him off the boat.

The rope, towing a support boat called a tender, dragged Pienaar, a former bodybuilder and exotic dancer turned deckhand, by the ankle as he struggled to keep his head above water. Deckhand Rhylee Gerber called “Man overboard!” into her radio, Captain Lee Rosbach killed the propellers, and a cameraman stopped filming to loosen the line and help rescue him.

Three million people tuned in to the resulting episode, the 11th of the season, to see reality clash with “reality” and briefly be given real human stakes.

Below Deck stars a crew of young, good-looking men and women who work for Rosbach, their exacting boss, fighting and hooking up with each other while serving the needs of entitled, often drunk guests who’d paid tens of thousands of dollars to be indulged with foam parties, 12-course tasting menus, and ungodly amounts of green juice on a floating Mar-a-Lago. (In one episode, the family that inspired The Blind Side, the Tuohys, were aboard and requested a tailgate party.)

What differentiates Below Deck from a flotilla of other reality shows is the degree to which viewers are brought into an environment with its own vernacular and specialized skills, in which the stars have to actually work — and not in the manner of those on, say, Bravo’s Vanderpump Rules , where it doesn’t really matter if a patron gets his margarita on time.

That blend of setting and tension has quietly turned the show into a ratings dreadnought (by basic-cable standards). Season six was its most watched, averaging almost 2.6 million viewers per episode; among audiences under 50, it was the No. 5 reality show on all of cable. The show’s first spinoff, Below Deck Mediterranean , has done nearly as well: Its third season averaged 2.4 million viewers in 2018, and its fourth (currently airing) is on track for the largest Below Deck audience ever. A second spinoff, set on a fancy sailboat, was announced earlier this year.

The idea for Below Deck came from co–executive producer Rebecca Henning, who, back in the ’90s, had worked on a yacht owned by a wealthy New York family. Years later, when she and her husband were working in TV, she pitched the show to Courtland Cox, the producer behind Rock of Love With Bret Michaels and Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School. Cox brought it to his boss Mark Cronin at the production company 51 Minds; they made a sizzle reel at the Fort Lauderdale yacht show with the help of Below Deck ’s future chief stewardess Adrienne Gang.

Downton Abbey was popular at the time, and Cronin and Cox leaned in to the upstairs-downstairs culture of yachting. Crews give up their lives on land in exchange for adjacency to extreme wealth. It was a perfect fit for Bravo, a reality-TV haven that has long offered viewers the opportunity to be income-inequality voyeurs through programs like Real Housewives and Million Dollar Listing. Bravo exec and Watch What Happens Live host Andy Cohen was an early champion, and the network ordered the series in the spring of 2011.

“When Bravo suddenly said, ‘We love the show, let’s make the show,’ I had this moment of panic, of like, Oh dear God, I have no idea how we’re going to make this incredibly complex show, ” Cox admits.

The first hurdle, which almost sank the show, was the reluctance of yacht brokers to allow a production company to hire a group of aspiring reality-show stars to crew their very valuable boats and film the very possibly disastrous results. The owner of the boat used on season one — the 164-foot Cuor di Leone, renamed the far-easier-to-pronounce Honor for the screen — was the only one who agreed. The day Cox walked on deck for a scouting tour, Rosbach was the captain who showed him around. “When a new crew member walks on Captain Lee’s yacht on Below Deck and he gives them that sort of cockeyed, suspicious look, I know exactly what that is, because I had the exact same experience,” Cox says. “I was like, Oh, this guy’s not messing around. ”

And Rosbach admits to being skeptical. He could tell Cox had no idea what he was doing. Rosbach recalls thinking, “It’s going to be a painful learning experience if it continues.”

As Cox toured the boat, taking in the engine room, the spotless teak decks, and the Jet Skis, he realized his biggest challenge would be casting. Reality producers often fish for contestants by looking for people who behave outrageously at nightclubs or music festivals, but because the crew actually had to operate a boat, Below Deck ’s producers couldn’t just hire any unhinged extrovert eager for fame. “You can’t fake being a yachtie, because it’s a tough job,” says Cronin. The cast would also need proper safety certifications and training. So with Gang’s help, Cox and his team found people by going to crew houses, where workers stay between jobs, and spreading the word in Fort Lauderdale while shooting the sizzle reel.

Producers had initially wanted the show’s captain to be young and handsome. They thought they’d found their man in Aleks Taldykin, a yachting pro who auditioned because the economy was still in a postrecession slump and he needed a job. But according to Simon Tusha, who owned the charter company that rented the boat to 51 Minds, the yacht’s owner was uncomfortable with Taldykin taking the helm, even though he was technically qualified. Right before filming began in St. Martin, producers and the owner asked Rosbach. He agreed because his boss asked him to.

“Lee was really pissed, which was really funny because now he loves it,” says Taldykin, who thought about quitting the show before producers persuaded him to stay on as Rosbach’s onscreen No. 2. (Taldykin left after one season and now runs his own yacht-charter company.) The switch ended up being a brilliant decision. After Below Deck ’s 2013 debut, Captain Lee immediately became its biggest star when he kicked the show’s first charter guests off the boat after a crew member discovered a white powder and rolled-up bill in one of their cabins. Rosbach was exactly what audiences wanted a captain to be: a no-nonsense authority figure who could puncture anybody’s sense of entitlement, no matter their tax bracket. His white hair and chunky gold dolphin jewelry glittering with diamonds certainly help too. (Last year he published a memoir, Running Against the Tide: True Tales From the Stud of the Sea , and has 224,000 Instagram followers.)

“Yachting isn’t for everybody, and there’s a lot of pressure because you’ve got a lot to do and a very short time to get it done,” Rosbach says. “Some people can handle it, some people can’t.”

Reality-show star overboard! Ashton Pienaar being dragged into the sea, as captured by one of Below Deck ’s many cameras. Click or swipe to see.

Photo: Courtesy of Bravo

Rosbach doesn’t pick the crew, but he fires them at his discretion and says he runs the boat on the show the same way he always has in his 30 years on the job. Most cast members don’t last more than one season, two if they’re lucky. Each season, some seem less concerned with running the boat well than getting screen time. That said, while most are at the very least competent, producers do seem to try to find one or two completely incompetent people every season, and viewers wonder if those people will get fired, which they sometimes do.

Obviously there’s a great deal of sex in confined spaces. Many yachts in real life forbid intra-crew relationships, but that wouldn’t make for much of a reality-TV show. Cabin cams regularly capture the cast changing and hooking up. But relationships almost never work out, because they’re on a boat on a reality show and you really can’t escape the person or the terribleness of being on-camera.

Part of the show’s alchemy lies in the way it portrays how proximity to wealth can change people. “When you first get into yachting, your taste kind of elevates because you’re around such wealthy people,” says the show’s chief stewardess, Kate Chastain. “You get a tip and you’re like, I earned this. You would never usually splurge on that, but you become much more comfortable with splurging.” This is why deckhands don’t think twice about throwing down their tip money for $12,000 bottle service on their nights off or for a “starter watch.” Chastain says she can spot yachties from afar, whether they’re in uniform or not. “If it’s a guy, and he’s got a kind of new, kind of nice watch and kind of nice sunglasses — we’re not going to push full-on Rolex, that’s a captain,” she says. (“I was wearing a Rolex,” says Rosbach, recalling the first time he and Chastain met. Boat captains make on average $1,000 per foot of boat length per year, he tells me; the boat in Below Deck ’s first season was 164 feet.)

One thing that isn’t quite real about the show: While the people who charter the boats on Below Deck pay for their passage, they receive around half off the boat’s usual price and don’t get to stay aboard for more than a couple nights at a time. It’s still an eye-popping amount of money — guests who stayed two nights on the boat used for season six would have spent around $42,000 plus a cash tip — but much less than the industry norm. Chastain says most regular charter customers would never appear on the show (they can do without the exhibitionism discount), which means fans don’t get to watch the superrich who actually live #yachtlife.

Instead, they get Sarasota real-estate agents named Brandy. The day Pienaar went overboard, she and her squad set down their tequila to grab the railing on the back deck and peer over for a better look at the man flailing in the water. “That was so scary,” Brandy said when he emerged unharmed except for a minor foot injury, and she and her girlfriends were soon distracted by a lunch of flank steak with red-wine reduction and turmeric-infused shrimp.

Rosbach hasn’t been able to shake off the accident so easily. It was the only near-death mistake in the show’s history and the first time Rosbach had a man overboard in his career. It’s an incident he says he still thinks about “all the time,” and one that yachting professionals not affiliated with Below Deck say they can’t imagine happening under normal circumstances. Of course, in the show’s own complicated way, that’s more or less the point.

Additional reporting by Josef Adalian.

*This article appears in the July 22, 2019, issue of New York Magazine Subscribe Now!

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‘Below Deck’ Sails Into a New Era

With a different captain at the helm and new production elements, the reality show about charter yachts is switching up its style.

A man in a crew member suit stands behind a bar and tends to flowers in a vase.

By Shivani Gonzalez

Starting a new season of “ Below Deck ” can be similar to returning to summer camp as a kid — you know it’s going to be fun and that you’ll be in the same environment, but some of the people will be different and you’re not quite sure what the vibes will be.

This time around, in particular, feels that way because for the first time in the show’s 11-season run, Captain Lee Rosbach is no longer at the helm. It’s a pivotal moment for a franchise that has become one of the most popular entities in the sprawling universe of reality TV since premiering on Bravo in 2013 . The show’s appeal was built on endless romances between various crew members (“boatmances,” as they came to be known), horrible charter guests and some sort of passive-aggressive fight about how many shackles of the anchor chain should be in the water. And there was always Rosbach presiding over the drama as he trudged around the boat, reeling off one liners like “I’m madder than a pissed-on chicken” and “we screwed the pooch so many times we should have a litter of puppies running around.”

At the center of the show now is Kerry Titheradge (the stern yet goofy captain of “Below Deck Adventure” fame), who is managing the Motor Yacht Saint David with the cheeky chief stew Fraser Olender by his side.

With that change in captain, the energy on the boat — both onscreen and off — is different, according to Olender.

“Lee has a no B.S. attitude, which I love with him,” Olender said in an interview. “With Kerry, he taught me a lot and sort of forced to me confront issues directly with my team, work them out, as opposed to making executive decisions too soon.”

This shift in management style changes the central conflict — whereas the drama once focused on the captain swiftly kicking out any unpleasant crew member (as we might have seen with Rosbach), the drama now focuses on the whole crew trying to get along (since Titheradge gives people those second chances).

Additionally, Olender noted that the captain’s relationship with the crew can also affect the drama on board.

“Captains absolutely do get involved, whether they know it or not,” Olender said, adding that for the crew, everything is about “trying to impress your captain.”

This phenomenon plays out early in the new season when the lead deckhand, Ben Willoughby, called out a fellow crew member over the radios about not wearing a life vest — something he easily could have done in private. The drama that followed became an interpersonal conflict between the two of them, both with the ultimate goal of impressing Titheradge. (Of course, the two deckhands had kissed on the previous crew night out, which is more in line with the “Below Deck” drama viewers are used to.)

For “Below Deck” showrunners, the changeovers in the cast allowed them to rethink what the show would look like.

From the season premiere, it was immediately apparent that Rosbach’s absence wasn’t the only change this season: The filming is sleeker, the daily, multicourse meals prepared by the chef are given their own glamour shots and the cameras sometimes cut to the perspectives of yachties running around on deck and through the galley.

“Our showrunner, Lauren Simms, is an avid consumer of all different kinds of media,” Noah Samton, a senior vice president of unscripted current production for NBCUniversal, said in an interview. “She pitches us different ideas on how to stylistically evoke different feelings and change the mood a little bit of ‘Below Deck’ without removing what really works.”

Moving through the rest of the season, and potentially through seasons to come, Olender is aiming to bring a cutthroat management style while also bringing affection for his stews, all with his signature British humor.

On Bravo’s side, there are changes in the works for the other “Below Deck” spinoffs — including “Sailing Yacht,” “Mediterranean” and “Down Under” — which collectively, have 26 seasons. Specifically, Samton said that “Down Under” is currently filming and that even though fans should be ready to see new things, the show will stay true to its original concept.

“These are real yachties doing a real job so you have to stay within those confines because the audience isn’t going to want anything that is too produced or fake,” Samton said. “So we have to find ways to reinvent while staying true to the original concept of the show.”

And as Olender said: “I’m sure that every year if I were to work with this franchise again, that I’ll be thrown a collection of total chaotic and disastrous stews — that’s what makes it watchable.”

An earlier version of this article misquoted Fraser Olender, the chief stew of “Below Deck.” He said, “I also feel like Kerry this season. ... Lee has a no B.S. attitude, which I love with him,” not “I feel like Kerry this season, as opposed to Lee, has a no B.S. attitude, which I love with him.”

How we handle corrections

Shivani Gonzalez is a news assistant at The Times who writes a weekly TV column and contributes to a variety of sections. More about Shivani Gonzalez

“Below Deck” — The Netflix Binge Cruisers Will Love

Doug Parker

October 20, 2020

Netflix is known for introducing binge-worthy content to the platform.

And the latest has to be “Below Deck” — a reality series that came to Netflix in the form of two seasons in August 2020.

But the show itself was filmed way back in 2013 and has a total of 7 seasons and 105 episodes.

So why are people raving about the show?

It’s a glimpse into a luxury escape — and the drama onboard

Below Deck follows the lives of crew members who live and work onboard a mega-yacht.

Season one follows the likes of Captain Lee Rosback, First Officer Aleks Taldykin, Chief Stewardess Adriene Gang, Second Engineer C.J. LeBeau, Chef Ben Robinson and Deckhand David Bradberry in their everyday working and personal lives onboard the 164-foot Honor .

The first release of the series averaged 1.4 million total viewers per episode.

All of the crew that is hired to be part of the show are licensed and certified, which involves a two-week course.

Captain Lee says: “ Each of the crew members has to have an STCW, which is a standard set by the maritime industry for watch-keeping and just being on board—it’s basic first aid, firefighting. It’s a two-week course and a certification they have to have before they’re allowed to work on yachts.”

The crew is filmed 24 hours a day , seven days a week working on the boat while being filmed by both hidden cameras and a crew.

But what makes the show so addictive?

For reality TV lovers, Below Deck is one of those shows with a brand that is instantly bingeable. This is because of the on-screen romances, drama, and professional and personal turmoils that are captured on screen.

Noah Samton, the senior vice president of the production for Bravo says that the yachting industry “attracts the kind of people that are good for TV. First of all, they’re a lot of young, attractive people. A lot of people that are sort of escaping their lives for some reason or have this adventurous streak in them. We’re really good at finding the people who are going to wear it on their sleeves.”

And as with other reality TV shows, the cameras capture it all, sharing every aspect of their lives onboard.

The only place that they aren’t filmed is in the bathroom, but only one crew member can be in one at any given time.

Members have tried to get away with their personal antics being held in places without a camera — in one instance, a laundry room — but the crew quickly clocks on.

It’s this close look into their lives, combined with the personalities and the exotic locations, that make Below Deck so exciting to watch.

How is the show really filmed? Here are some of the secrets

When the show was first released there were some questions from fans about how ‘real’ the working lives were of those on screen. But the cast actually work as real-life stewards, sometimes up to 16+ hours a day, and sleep on tiny bunks.

T he charter company actually pays each cast member a base salary; the cast is also paid an appearance fee by the production company. And they’re allowed to take tips by guests. All their food is provided by the boat’s chef, as would be in the case if they were regular employees.

The cast is not allowed to speak to, or interact with, the production team and cameraman in order to keep in line with the show’s guidelines.

Captain Lee is actually in charge of the boat, including when and where they can sail and anything that needs to be considered in terms of the weather. He can also fire anyone at any time. Production is not allowed to have any influence on this.

The boat costs upwards of $300,000 per week to hire — which is why all filming is done during the six-week period.

All cast members get three days off per season during the six weeks of filming on the boat. They can stay in a hotel room on those days, but they’re not allowed to communicate with each other.

There are also advantages for the guests on the boat, as they are given a fifty percent discount on their journey — although they pay their own money to rent the boat and for their tips.

What’s the future for Below Deck?

So far, Netflix has releases only two series of the show, but we can expect more. For the ones that can’t get the show’s pristine sceneries out of their mind, sites like borrowaboat.com have boats and yachts for every taste available to rent, perfect to recreate the sailing lifestyle.

While there are only two series so far released by Netflix, we can expect more. And the new Below Deck season eight will likely premiere sometime in the fall of 2020.

With eight seasons now, it’s likely that there could be more in the future and that audiences will be able to continue to enjoy the drama-filled lives of those who work below deck and onboard the ship.

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Below Deck Down Under

Explores the complex, often explosive dynamics of the crew and a rotating group of demanding charter guests on a yacht in northeastern Australia. Explores the complex, often explosive dynamics of the crew and a rotating group of demanding charter guests on a yacht in northeastern Australia. Explores the complex, often explosive dynamics of the crew and a rotating group of demanding charter guests on a yacht in northeastern Australia.

Jason Chambers
Aesha Scott
Culver Bradbury
14 User reviews

Episodes 36

Self - Captain

Self - Chief Steward

Self - Deckhand

Self - Chef

Self - Steward

Self - Bosun

Self - 3rd Steward

Self - 2nd Officer

Self - 2nd Steward

Self - Lead Deckhand
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Trivia Chef Ryan Mckeown didn't last season one after being rude to the chief stewardess and the charter guests. He also only made basic meals with little to no effort resulting in the captain firing him.
Connections Spin-off from Below Deck (2013)

User reviews 14

Jul 13, 2022
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March 17, 2022 (United States)
United States
Official site (Australia)
Below Deck Australia
Whitsunday Islands, Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia
51 Minds Entertainment
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Runtime 43 minutes
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The Untold Truth Of Below Deck

Since 2013, Bravo's Below Deck has been serving up as much drama as they serve up fancy, three course meals on the luxurious deck of their multi-million dollar mega yachts. Everyone wants to be a fly on the wall of a vacation they could never afford — but this is not that. In fact, it's one of Bravo's most exhausting (but fun to watch) shows.

The series follows the yacht's hard-working crew as close quarters battle against a lack of sleep and a high stress workplace to fuel fights so explosive, they put the Real Housewives of New Jersey to shame (and Teresa Giudice has served hard time , so you know it's serious). It's almost hard to believe that the drama — from the demanding guests to the myriad of co-worker hookups — is actually legitimate, but in reality, the world of professional yachting may be even more explosive than what's seen on the show. This is the untold truth of Below Deck.

A boat by any other name is just as expensive

There's no doubt that the yachts on Below Deck are impressive, but the vessels and the crew may not be exactly what they seem. In 2013, when the series had just debuted on Bravo, co-executive producer Rebecca Taylor gave yachting news site The Triton the low down on Below Deck's lavish boats.

Taylor, who pitched the idea for Below Deck after spending "three summers working on yachts" during college, searched for a yacht and charter guests willing to appear on TV. According to The Triton, the boats were renamed for the series. Mustang Sally, which appeared in Season 3, was renamed Eros. Cuor di Leone, which appeared in Season 1, was dubbed Honor. Most of Cuor di Leone's real crew was given time off and replaced, barring the real captain, engineer and first officer, who each remained on board.

"The original crew was perfect, but in the television world, there's all kinds of reasons you can't do that," Taylor told The Triton. "It's almost impossible to find a real functioning crew and step on with cameras and say go. Just because you have the perfect crew doesn't mean you don't have a convicted felon or someone with anger issues who's going to punch the cameraman. All that matters to us in TV."

The film crew constantly get in the way

The mega yachts on Below Deck may be gigantic, but the crew is lodged in incredibly close quarters. This means that the cameramen tend to get in the way. According to Hannah Ferrier (above left), who served as chief stew in Below Deck Mediterranean, the boat crew generally tried to pretend the TV crew wasn't there, which was exceedingly difficult considering that meant 30 to 40 additional people rotation on and off the yacht a various times. Worse yet, the film crew allegedly left fingerprints everywhere — the horror!

Finding a vessel big enough for charter guests and a film and yacht crew is tricky. Space on the ship is reportedly so tight that the film crew sleeps on a seperate boat .

"You find yourself almost hoping you don't have a sexual harassment claim from a camera guy," Ferrier admitted to Forbes . "You're like, my butt is too big to squeeze by without touching him."

Beyond getting in the way, the film crew does have some drama of their own. In 2017, local St. Martin news outlet The Soualiga Post reported that one of Below Deck's production boats sank after breaking its propellor. Fortunately, no one was injured.

Vacationers get a hefty discount

Looking for a cheap, luxury vacation? The charters on Below Deck still aren't it, even with the hefty TV discount. In a Reddit AMA , Below Deck producer Mark Cronin, admitted that the rich guests who hire out the luxury charters on the series get a steep discount for allowing themselves to be filmed.

Charters typically last three days. For the week, Thought Catalog claims it costs around $150,000 to $200,000 . Cronin admitted that guests on the show get "about 50%" off their stay and free airfare. They're still expected "to tip about 15 to 20%" of the full price and don't make a cent for appearing on the program. At the end of each charter, the crew can expect $1,000 to $2,000 each in tips.

Unlike some of the crew, the guest who stay on board Below Deck's charters apparently aren't carefully chosen by Bravo in advance. Cronin admitted that while he wishes he could be "picky," in reality, "whoever's check clears the bank is on the show." Somehow, it's all worked out pretty well because they've never had a party "too boring" for an episode (though, the cast's drama certainly moves things along).

The Captain won't get physical (but that doesn't stop the guests from trying)

Captain Lee Rosbach (above) is Below Deck's resident silver fox, which is a descriptor he seems to have eagerly embraced. After all, this is a man who named his memoir Running Against the Tide: True Tales from the Stud of the Sea.

Anyway, the yachting vet of more than two decades opened up to Fox News about his guests' wilder demands. According to Rosbach, almost all yacht captains have been "propositioned several times in their careers." But like a true professional, Rosbach generally tries to avoid any situation where passengers may attempt to get physical.

"Never be alone with a female guest in any situation that isn't public, specifically avoid their cabins. You always take someone with you when your presence is requested. That sort of thing is usually precipitated by a large quantity of alcohol so you monitor the situation and avoid the ones that can cause you grief," he said.

Apparently, the captain isn't the only one who gets propositioned. According to Rosbach, it's not uncommon for female guests to ask male crew members to do a little striptease (or as he put it "dance to what closely resembles a stripper pole"). Here's hoping they got a good tip.

Getting propositioned by a mob member is just an average work day

It's not just the male crew members who get hit on by frisky female patrons. Apparently, the women on staff also get propositioned by some pretty powerful men. If you're into picking up mobsters, sugar daddies and famous actors, you might want to consider a career change.

In an episode of Watch What Happens Live , chief stew Hannah Ferrier (above) admitted, "I had a charter guest from the Russian Mafia once request a little bit more than a bed turned down." Later, she joked about how he could have been her sugar daddy, but she gave him up for a bosun (the supervisor of the deck crew): "What was I thinking?"

This isn't the first time a wealthy man made a pass at one of Below Deck's hard-working women. Stewardess Brooke Laughton, who appeared on Below Deck Mediterranean, admitted that a "super hot famous actor" asked her to throw on a swimsuit and get cozy in the hot tub. She told The Daily Mail that she declined "for some strange reason," because she wanted to remain professional and the charter didn't end for another month.

Bravo robbed us of a RHONY crossover episode

We know The Real Housewives of New York were left fearing for their lives after a traumatic boat ride in Colombia (at least, according to People ), but that doesn't mean the ladies don't enjoy a good yacht outing. And yet, Bravo had the audacity to rob us of a RHONY crossover episode!

Below Deck's chief stew, Kate Chastain (above left), was apparently working on a yacht parked in Sag Harbor (a RHONY hot spot) when Ramona Singer (above right) allegedly invited herself on board after a pinot grigio-filled day of filming.

According to Chastain, who spoke to The Daily Dish , Singer started hanging out with boat's owner in the main salon. She was reportedly "feeling sassy" because she had "just gotten her short haircut" (or maybe it was the pinot). If only we could have be a fly on the wall, but you know those chief stews wouldn't tolerate insect stowaways.

Though the RHONY crossover may have escaped us, there's still hope for another Bravo reality series . In August 2018, Southern Charm star Patricia Altschul hit up Captain Lee Rosbach on Twitter (via The Daily Dish ) about chartering his boat. Lee agreed, and Chastain said she was "already planning the theme parties." Fans of Real Housewives of Atlanta got their crossover episode in 2015.

The guest requests get even stranger than you think

Below Deck's charter guests pay exorbitant sums of money to hang out on a yacht for a long weekend, so it's not really surprising that sometimes their demands get out of hand. And even though everything supposedly has a price, that's only if the request is actually possible, right?

Case in point, stewardess Kasey Cohen (above right) told The Daily Mail that one of her strangest requests came from an "old rapper" who asked her to "fluff his marijuana." Though she didn't admit the demands came from Tupac, who's rumored to be hanging out in Cuba somewhere, she didn't say it wasn't Tupac.

"I can barely fluff a pillow and [this guest] wanted me to fluff marijuana," Cohen said. "What the h— does that even mean?"

Lead deckhand João Franco apparently had an even more annoying experience. He was asked to peel grapes for a guest who wouldn't eat the skin, something we've literally never thought about while eating grapes until now. Bosun Conrad Empson claimed a guest asked him to ride a camel, which seems pretty difficult in the ocean. Can camels swim?

Below Deck's singles are used to being swiped left

Though there are plenty of perks to being a yachtie, a glamorous dating life apparently isn't one of them. The constantly on-the-go lifestyle of the crew makes it exceedingly difficult to form lasting relationships, hence almost all of Below Deck's drama. But praise the reality gods that be for bringing the cast together, because if they didn't hook up with their fellow crew members, like chief stew Hannah Ferrier and bosun Conrad Empson did on Season Three of Below Deck Med (above right), they might not be able to find a date otherwise.

Outside of the so-called "boatmances" featured on the show, Ferrier (above left) told Forbes that it's easier for the male crew members, because girls "don't get scared off." Men in Europe are apparently totally different and think reality fame is "trashy." Needless to say, the women of Below Deck are used being swiped left — literally.

Ferrier and Kate Chastain spoke about their Tinder and Bumble habits on the latter's podcast, After Deck with Kate Chastain . Though they're both avid users of dating apps, Ferrier admitted she's looking to "date people that are not [her] type," while Chastain copped to being a straight-up Catfish — her main photo is of Rachel Zoe.

"I put my first name and then I put photos that aren't me, but they could be!" Chastain admitted. Does this ever actually work out?

It's common to get fired or quit mid-season

The cast of Below Deck are not immune to getting fired, and no one wants to be on the receiving end of one of Captain Lee Rosbach's disappointed gazes . When it comes to handing out plane tickets to under-performing staff, Reality Blurred reported that the captain definitely has some "authority" there (even if Bravo helped curate the crew). According to producer Mark Cronin, getting fired or quitting mid-season is pretty common in the industry.

"Yachties tend to jump ship if they're not happy. They are people who don't appreciate being tied down. Most of them don't even have a proper address on land," Cronin admitted during a Reddit AMA .

Still, that doesn't mean Below Deck's captains aren't a little bit lenient at times. Drama makes for good TV, and poorly performing staff make for good drama. Rosbach admitted that Season One's crew got a little more credit than they deserved.

"They pretty much acted like crew I would have fired," Rosbach told The Triton , later adding, "The producers of the show wanted to show the long hours and the stress of yachting, but most of that was caused by the crew being inept."

Are the crew really qualified?

One of the biggest questions in reality TV is always: is it real? For Below Deck, the answer is a little yes and a little no. We've already established that Bravo reportedly picks the charter's crew members instead of the captain, but that certainly doesn't mean they're actors playing a role. Though some crew members are overwhelmingly qualified, like Hannah Ferrier (above right), who has put in at least eight years working on yachts, some of them lack experience. Co-executive producer Rebecca Taylor told The Triton there's typically "a mix of professional crew and young, transient people" on professionally run boats. On the other hand, Captain Lee Rosbach accused the network of hiring people who were "inept" — but could Bravo have been duped?

Apparently, lying on your resume isn't uncommon on Below Deck. Stewardess Kasey Cohen reportedly lied on her resume as did deckhand Andrew Sturby (who was later fired ). Does coming clean for the cameras even matter if Bravo's the one who picked you in the first place? Regardless, the staff do have to train for safety prior to their stay on Below Deck's mega yacht. Captain Rosbach told Reality Blurred they must take "a two-week course" that includes "basic first aid" and "firefighting" to get their STCW certification, which is required to work on a yacht.

Six weeks can't contain the drama

Bravo has a knack for creating the most dramatic reality shows on TV — from Teresa Giudice's iconic attempt at flipping a table on The Real Housewives of New Jersey to the various cheating scandals among the cast of Vanderpump Rules . On Below Deck, the drama seems to write itself. It has everything that makes for good, nautical-themed TV: love triangles , boat flings , laundry room affairs , and a healthy dose of seasickness . What else do you expect from a group of adults who are essentially living in sardine can bunk beds while working a high-stress job?

Apparently, the drama we see on Below Deck doesn't hold a candle to what happens when Bravo packs up their things and heads home. Bobby Giancola, who appeared on Below Deck Mediterranean, told Forbes that the network should "film it for seven or eight weeks. That's when everything starts boiling over." Hannah Ferrier concurred that filming those weeks would be "the worst idea ever." Producer Mark Cronin confirmed a season is only six weeks long.

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Below Deck Captain Lee Rosbach on how real Bravo’s show is

Most of Bravo’s programming has become versions of The Real Housewives , with rich people acting like assholes for our entertainment, and its series Below Deck is no exception.

It’s The Real Housewives on a yacht, with the same requisite drama. But there are two major differences: One is that this is an actual yacht and the cast members are actually working.

The other is Captain Lee Rosbach, who is about as far from a typical Bravo star as you can get and still be on Bravo.

I talked to him about the show’s third season and what it’s like to be the captain of a crew hired by a production company.

Rosbach became captain on the show because the yacht he captains was chartered by the production crew for the first season. It has changed his life, he told me. “I get recognized a lot more and I get asked to do a lot of things like we’re doing now. I’m having a lot of fun with it; I’m enjoying it. If I didn’t have the opportunity to do it, I would have missed out on something special.”

Although they chartered a real yacht with a respectable captain, production company 51 Minds is not making a documentary about yachting, they’re making a Bravo reality show, and that means they cast for both guests and crew members.

A yacht’s crew hired by reality show producers

Selection of his crew is entirely out of the captain’s hands: “that’s something that they handle,” he said of the producers. However, all crew members are required to be licensed and certified.

“Each of the crew members has to have an STCW, which is a standard set by the maritime industry for watch-keeping and just being on board—it’s basic first aid, firefighting,” he told me. “It’s a two-week course and a certification they have to have before they’re allowed to work on yachts.”

However, Rosbach can fire the crew once they’re on board.

“I can’t speak directly to if anybody gets fired or something to that effect, but I can tell you that I do have that authority, yes,” he said. Captain Lee also told me “any time you bring new crew on board, whether it’s for a TV series or whether you’ve lost some of your old crew—which happens quite frequently in yachting—you’re bound to go through some changes, and adaptations are going to be made.”

Three crew members are returning for season three, which debuts tonight:

chief stew Kate Chastain
second stew Amy Johnson
bosun Eddie Lucas

They’ll be joined by a new group of Housewives—er, crew members:

second engineer and deckhand Don Abenante
deckhand Connie Arias
third stew Raquel “Rocky” Dakota
deckhand Emile Kotze
chef Leon Walker

The production crew doesn’t live on board but stays near where the yacht is traveling. “They are centrally located,” Captain Lee said, “and we transport them back and forth every day. The only people that are allowed to sleep on the yacht are the crew and the guests.”

How many people are on board “varies,” he said, based on what’s happening that day; underwater filming, for example, would require additional crew. But it averages eight to 10 production crew members on board.

How real Below Deck’s drama is

Captain Lee Rosbach and Kate Chastain during season 6 of Below Deck. Both are back for Below Deck season 7

Captain Lee Rosbach watches Below Deck at the same time everyone else does, and says that the edited version is “a pretty accurate snapshot, I really do,” he said. “What happens happens and it’s all caught on film.” But there are also things he’s seeing for the first time.

“Hell yes, I’m surprised,” he said. “I think one of the biggest lessons that I’ve learned since I started doing a series is that a captain who thinks they really, really knows what goes on with his crew all the time is fooling himself, because he doesn’t.”

When I asked for examples of what surprised him the most, he said things like “crew staying up later than they should, that sort of thing, or drinking more than they should. You can’t police everybody 100 percent of the time, and no captain’s going to stay awake 24 hours a day to make sure his crew does the right thing. There’s going to be some things they’re going to get away with, and you’re going to find out about later. You almost always find out, but a lot of the times it’s after the fact.”

Despite the surprises, he described Below Deck ‘s drama as “typical” of the yachting industry.

“Some people may disagree with that assessment, but you’ve always got drama on board a boat,” he said. “Any time you get people that are living and working together in that close proximity, you’re going to have issues and things are going to happen, and drama’s going to ensue. It’s been that way in yachting for years, long before the series came around.”

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About the writer

Andy Dehnart is the creator of reality blurred and a writer and teacher who obsessively and critically covers reality TV and unscripted entertainment, focusing on how it’s made and what it means.

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Screen Rant

How below deck crew life differs from real-world yachting careers.

Below Deck is an unscripted reality show following a yacht crew, but the Bravo TV series isn't quite an accurate depiction of a yachtie's real life.

The life of a yachtie as depicted on Below Deck is a bit different than what a yacht crew experiences in real life. The Below Deck series is all about drama , whether it is partying too hard or catching feelings too quickly. The yachties onboard know how to keep things interesting and even make the idea of working on a multimillion-dollar boat appealing. However, the yachting reality series isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. According to the crew, it's not even the same as working on a yacht in real life.

Below Deck follows a yacht crew and its captain as they sail the open waters whilst trying to give charter guests a memorable experience. Such experiences include five-star service from both the chef and the crew and entertainment, including the water toys. When someone’s every move is being filmed, certain things are added to make the show more entertaining. In the case of the crews featured on Below Deck , certain moments are made slightly more dramatic on both the guest and employee side. So, no, yacht crews aren’t always incredibly attractive.

Related: Below Deck: Why Chef Ben Robinson Will Never Return To The Show

As far as the crew goes, the show differs from real life in that Bravo doesn’t create a show out of a pre-existing ship and crew (well, sort of). When the owner of a yacht agrees to take part in the series, the producers get to decide who gets to come aboard, excluding the captain, engineer, and first officer. Captain Lee of Below Deck has accused the network in the past of selecting people who are inept when it comes to this type of work, thus shading the realism of who’s really qualified when watching the series.

Some things that appear one way onscreen are actually an illusion. For example, when the chief stew is showing charter guests their living quarters, she doesn't show them the true master suite. An interview with The New York Times revealed that the executive producers of the show take control of that master suite, making it their control room. Guests are also given a discount on the price of their trip for agreeing to be on the show since they really are going on a vacation. In addition, the charter season on Below Deck is much shorter than a real-life yachting season (via Cheat Sheet ). While a normal charter season lasts about six months, a Below Deck season only lasts around six weeks.

There are things that aren’t scripted for the show. Working on a yacht really is a 24/7 job of constant upkeep and cleaning. The crew will often take advantage of their nights to explore and party off the boat. Everyone is also hooking up, regardless of if they’re a guest or not. As long as the captain doesn’t find out, it’s fair game. Finally, when viewers watch a crewmate walk off the boat, they’re allowed. Unlike a typical contract job, this job comes with a daily rate pay that is invoiced, meaning there’s no obligation to stay. While Below Deck might not perfectly portray real-life yachting, it gets pretty close.

Next: Every Season Of Below Deck, Ranked From Worst To Best

Source: The New York Times , Cheat Sheet

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'Below Deck’ on Honor Yacht - New Bravo Superyacht Crew Reality Show

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By Editorial Team 1 July 2013

The 50m (164’) luxury charter yacht ‘Honor’ is the setting of new Bravo reality series ‘Below Deck’ that follows the lives of crew and guests on board a five-week charter of the Caribbean.

The show has already been subject to some criticism, with many in the industry claiming it does not offer a true insight into luxury yacht chartering. The fact that the yacht was renamed ‘ Honor ’ (previously ‘ Cuor di Leone ’) and the crew of eight were given time off to be replaced by an all-American crew chosen by the executives goes some way to proving this.

Her Captain Rosbach and engineer are real however and remained on board to safely operate the charter yacht throughout the duration of filming. Many in the industry have questioned why they would have taken part in the show when it risks the reputation of ‘Honor’ as a charter yacht as well as exposing unprofessional behaviour of the crew. Yet with a reported $1,000,000 paid by Bravo, treated as a normal charter the Captain would have had to have made it work as he usually would.

‘Below Deck’ is the brain child of co-executive producer, Rebecca Taylor, who has been carrying around the idea since spending three summers working on charter yachts in New England during her college years. She describes the show as documenting when ‘upstairs and downstairs worlds collide’, revealing a young crew who live in a confined space not just with each-other but with their ‘wealthy, demanding charter guests’.

Obviously, much of the drama and antics have been amplified for entertainment value but one thing that can be highlighted through the show is the long working hours of charter crew and the challenges they face in providing a personalised five-star service to each guest. Every episode features different charter guests, from millionaires, to entertainers to hard-partying well-heeled friends, each presenting their own specific demands for the crew to deal with.

By its very nature, the work that goes into preparing a luxury yacht like ‘Honor’ for charter, from doing laundry, cleaning bathrooms, scrubbing floors and washing the exterior to serving gourmet food and champagne is rarely seen in action. The yacht’s formidable chief stewardess Adrienne Gang, said she was glad viewers would get some insight into the yacht lifestyle and also realise how much work it is to be part of the yacht crew. Others members of the crew include Captain Aleks Taldykin, Chef Ben Robinson, David Bradberry, C.J. Lebeau, Eddie Lucas, Samantha Orme and Kat Hela.

For those who haven’t experienced and luxury yacht charter for themselves, it is advised that ‘Below Deck’ be taken with a pinch of salt. Unlike most luxury charter yachts, only three of the eight crew that took part in the documentary had previous experience and were no doubt chosen for their particularly extrovert personalities. All in all ‘Below Deck’ is just another reality show and while it may represent some situations negatively, should not be taken too seriously. If you are interested in chartering a luxury yacht similar to ‘Honor’ contact your nearest yacht charter broker .

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one thing that can be highlighted through the show is the long working hours of charter crew and the challenges they face

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50m Benetti 1999 / 2021

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Cuor di Leone
Rebecca Taylor
Adrienne Gang
Captain Rosbach
Aleks Taldykin
Ben Robinson
David Bradberry
C.J. Lebeau
Eddie Lucas
Samantha Orme

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'Below Deck': 'Real Housewives of New York City' Star Jill Zarin Shakes Things Up on the Boat

Jill Zarin of The Real Housewives of New York City is coming to add some spice to the second half of Below Deck season 11 .

On Monday, Bravo dropped the midseason trailer for the popular reality show and teased the arrival of the RHONY original cast member, 60, who starred on the show from 2008 to 2011. In the clip, Zarin appears as a demanding charter guest who pushes the yacht's staff to their limits.

"This is a buffet meal," Zarin says in the new clip. "It shouldn't be a three-hour meal. Make it better."

She goes on to tell the staff that her "burger's cold," and the video then cuts to Anthony Iracane voicing his confusion and frustration over the situation with the Real Housewives of New York City legend.

"Can I have a translator in the galley, please?" he says. "Because I have no idea what the f**k is going on right now."

ET recently chatted with Fraser Olender and Barbie "Barbie" Pascual about the new season and the appearance of Zarin, who Olender referred to as the "most difficult" guest of the entire season.

Meanwhile, Barbie told ET she was overjoyed to see the RHONY alum come on board.

"I was like, 'Jill!' And she was like, 'Do we know each other?'" Barbie said. "I know everything about Jill, so I was so excited to have Jill on board and she was really high maintenance, but so am I, and she's a Housewife, what do we expect?"

"She was fabulous. I loved her," she added.

The rest of the nearly three-minute trailer promises tears, hookups and a tense moment where Titheradge tells one member of the St. David's staff that they do not have a future working on the yacht.

"I've done everything I can for you to succeed. The issue is, you are not thriving," Titheradge tells a staff member who is not seen on camera. "If you're not all-encompassing, adding value to the rest of the crew, I can't have you here."

Also on board in the last nine episodes of season 11 is a new steward on the St. David who shakes things up for the crew members and the established relationships already underway prior to the new arrival showing up on the scene.

"She's an attractive girl," deckhand Kyle Stillie says.

"Bloody hell, I'm in trouble," adds deckhand Ben Willoughby.

Below Deck airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on Bravo.

The reality of Below Deck on Bravo

By Lucy Chabot Reed

Yacht crew finally have their own reality show. Well, sort of.

Considering “reality” as a genre of television shows, Bravo TV’s “Below Deck” does indeed follow the crew of a 164-foot (50m) megayacht for five unscripted weeks of charters.

But if we use the dictionary definition of the word reality, “Below Deck” might be a stretch. Sure, in general, crew argue, captains can be tough, stews cry. But a lot of what we’ll see on TV beginning July 1 likely would never happen on a 50m charter yacht.

“They pretty much acted like crew I would have fired,” said Capt. Lee Rosbach, the real-life captain of M/Y Cuor di Leone , the yacht that was used as the set for “Below Deck” and known as M/Y Honor on TV.

Though not profiled on Bravo’s Web site, Capt. Rosbach, the yacht’s real first officer and the yacht’s real engineer remained on board to safely operate the vessel. They do appear in the shows, however, Rosbach being that tough guy with the gray hair.

The show is the brain child of Rebecca Taylor, the show’s co-executive producer who spent three summers working on yachts in New England during college. After getting her degree in film and television, she still carried around the idea to show what life as a yacht crew member was like. She pitched the idea to Bravo, which took it on.

“This life is fascinating,” she said. “There are both professionally run boats, and I worked on them, but I was around enough boats to know that there’s another side. There’s a mix of professional crew and young, transient people. … It’s a really interesting subculture and when you learn about it, you wonder, ‘how does everybody not do this?’”

And though others had similar ideas, Taylor had connections from her time working on yachts. Working with producers, she contacted charter agencies to find a yacht and charter guests who were willing to be filmed. Then they booked a five-week Caribbean charter on M/Y Cuor di Leone , renamed it M/Y Honor , and gave the real crew (except the captain, mate and engineer) time off.

The eight hired crew came on for the charter and when it was over, the real crew returned and finished the season.

Captains, crew and industry people are already critical of the show, after having only seen the trailer. But there’s enough in there to give them pause including tears, a mean captain, and drama. Of course, all that really does happen in yachting, so who’s to say it won’t be an authentic portrayal?

When critics wonder how the crew could do it, why they sold themselves out, I ask them, what would you do? If you are the captain of a 50m charter yacht and someone books a million-dollar charter, what do you do? Seriously, what do you do? Do you decline the charter? I suppose you could. But that won’t kill the show; they’ll just go someplace else? What if the boss has already accepted the charter? Do you talk him out of it? Five weeks?

Do you quit in protest? That won’t stop the show either, as your position likely will be filled by day’s end and the show will go on regardless.

Rosbach did his job. Bravo was his charter client and he went out of his way to make everything work, as a good charter captain should, Taylor said.

“He didn’t say no,” she said. “He tried hard to say yes to everything to make it all happen.”

I would guess that most charter captains would do the same. They might not like it, but they would do their jobs. Rosbach set a few ground rules (chief among them that his first officer and engineer remain onboard) and played along as best he could with an impromptu crew that really didn’t have the experience to be successful.

“The producers of the show wanted to show the long hours and the stress of yachting, but most of that was caused by the crew being inept,” Rosbach said. “On a 50m charter boat, they were all way over their heads. A couple of them tried really hard and they might have made good entry-level crew. I’m worried people will think this is what happens on a 50m charter yacht.

“But it’s TV,” he said. “You can put as much lipstick on it as you want and you can call it a reality show, but it’s entertainment. It’s not made in a documentary fashion to reflect what it’s really like. Why everyone takes it so seriously is beyond me.”

Taylor said she wanted the show to be as authentic as possible, and that includes the good, the bad and the ugly.

“People on big boats might look at this and say ‘who are these kids? They don’t have enough experience to be on this boat’,” she said. “But that fish-out-of-water element was massively important to me. It’s the middle of summer with guests on board and you’re working all the time. Sometimes, you don’t have time to hire who you want and you get a newbie who’s in over her head. It does happen.”

Well, that part is true

“Below Deck” follows a group of crew members living and working aboard M/Y Honor , the TV name for M/Y Cuor di Leone . Here’s what Bravo says about the show.

“The upstairs and downstairs worlds collide when this young and single crew, known as ‘yachties,’ live, love and work together on-board the luxurious, privately owned yacht while tending to the ever-changing needs of their wealthy, demanding charter guests.”

Well, that much is true.

“While each crew member brings a different level of experience, they all share a love for this lifestyle that enables them to travel to some of the most beautiful and exotic locales in the world.”

Not sure about that bit about “a love for this lifestyle.” Most of them don’t know what this lifestyle is. Three of the eight cast members have worked on yachts before, though: Chief Stew Adrienne Gang, Chef Ben Robinson and Stew Kat Held. Where, when and how long is unclear.

The show couldn’t have happened with the “real” crew because of all the logistics involved in the show. All the crew had to be American so there would be no visa issues with being paid by Bravo, and they all had to be screened and checked.

“The original crew was perfect, but in the television world, there’s all kinds of reasons you can’t do that,” Taylor said. “It’s almost impossible to find a real functioning crew and step on with cameras and say go. Just because you have the perfect crew doesn’t mean you don’t have a convicted felon or someone with anger issues who’s going to punch the cameraman. All that matters to us in TV.”

Choosing the yacht was challenging, too. It needed to be big enough to handle not only the crew (11 in this case) and charter guests, but also about 15 camera, light and sound crew during shooting. The TV people slept aboard another vessel as the charter cruised around Anguilla, St. Barts, St. Maarten, and Saba, Rosbach said. The charter guests were real charterers who knew what they were getting into and agreed to be filmed. “Some of them were fun; all of them were entertaining,” Rosbach said.

Eleven cameras caught all the action on the yacht, six stationary cameras set up in various parts of the vessel, including the crew quarters, and five hand-held cameras following crew.

“In some ways, they’re showing basic human nature, which is not necessarily indicative of yacht crew,” Rosbach said. “You are going to have that dynamic when you put any 12 people together to work and live. “And you do forget the cameras are on,” he said. “It’ll be interesting to see what comes out. They can portray you any way they want.”

Some yachties are already worried.

“I don’t want guys looking to buy a boat watch this and go, ‘sheesh, is this what I’ve got to deal with? Forget that,’” said Capt. Moe Moses, who was running a yacht in St. Maarten while filming was going on. “Anyone who knows better knows it’s nonsense. I just hope negative things don’t come out of it.”

He was bothered by some of the behavior he saw in the islands during shooting, including the crew zipping around Simpson Bay in the tender, shirtless.

“ It just infuriated a lot of us down there,” Moses said. “It’s going to make us look like a bunch of meatballs.” When filming spilled over to Toppers to catch the crew drinking, Moses and his crew left the bar.

“I didn’t want to be seen in the background,” he said. “Sure [drinking] happens, but when charter guests are on the boat, crew are not at the bar getting drunk. It doesn’t happen. This is not reality.”

Nor is it really meant to be. It is television, after all.

“I didn’t get a sense that they were out to make yachting look bad,” Rosbach said. “It was TV for entertainment purposes. It was like a soap opera.”

“I worked on yachts for three years; I know exactly what happens on yachts,” Taylor said. “We wanted the show to be the most authentic it could be. The negative reaction is that we’re going to expose that unprofessional side of yachting. Hopefully that’s not the case, but if it is, it’s still authentic. That does happen in yachting.”

An authentic show might include hours of ironing and changing oil filters, but that wouldn’t make interesting television. At the end of the day, Taylor said she was trying to show the two worlds yacht crew live: the life above deck that is composed and professional, and a completely different world two stories below.

“TV is TV,” Rosbach said. “The ‘reality’ in reality TV is a relative term and should be loosely interpreted.” But no one has watched the show yet, not even Taylor. She has the episodes; she just hasn’t sat down to watch them.

“It’s like giving your kid up for adoption,” she said. “You get pictures but you can’t say anything now about what he’s wearing or how his hair is cut. It’s not your child anymore.”

A charter to remember

For Rosbach, it was a memorable charter. He learned a lot about how television works, and found another industry where money is often no object.

After the second episode, an executive from Bravo came to see the set. Then the budget increased. The set designer built a golf green. They added a remote helicopter with cameras and hired drone guys to fly them.

“I though we spent a lot of money on yachts,” he said. “They rival that. But it was interesting to see the whole process and how intricate and complicated it is. It was an experience and 90 percent of it was good. The camera/sound guys are great. I really enjoyed the crew.

“Anybody who thinks that this really is going to have an impact on the yachting industry is overreacting,” he said. “I have a hard time believing billionaires sit around watching Bravo reality TV.”

Taylor, too, wants yachties to give the show a chance.

“The most important thing for yachties to understand is that the show came from a really good, authentic place,” she said. “I want this to be a proper telling of what really happens. That said, you know it’s a television show.

“I want yachties to give it a chance and appreciate it for what it is.”

I was skeptical when I heard about the show, but after talking to Rosbach and Taylor, I feel a little better. Hopefully, some fresh-faced kids in middle America will see the show and be introduced to the yachting industry. If that happens, it’ll all be worth it, the good, the bad and the ugly.

Click this link for promo video for ‘Below Deck’.

Lucy Chabot Reed is editor of The Triton. Comments on this column are welcome below.

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About Lucy Chabot Reed

Lucy Chabot Reed is publisher and founding editor of The Triton.

View all posts by Lucy Chabot Reed →

Below Deck Mediterranean

Below Deck Mediterranean is a reality docu-series that follows a charismatic group of experienced yacht crew who allow their lives of working and living aboard a luxurious motor yacht to be documented. The show is currently booking charters for its upcoming season of the Mediterranean series. Whether you charter yachts frequently, or it is something you have always wished to do, this will be a unique and unforgettable experience for all guests. The charters will be three to four days long and will take place this September and October in one of the most spectacular areas of the western Mediterranean. Because we will be filming the guest experience on-board, the fee of the charter is a highly discounted rate of what the normal charter fee for this particular motor yacht would be. For more information on how to be a charter guest on Below Deck , please email [email protected] .

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Yacht crew reality is full of drinking and cursing.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this TV show.

There's an eye toward demonstrating professionalis

The captain is in charge and takes a tough line. T

Catty behavior is common between crew members. Occ

Folks are shown talking their clothes off down to

Some crew members swear like sailors; words like "

Apple computers are occasionally visible.

Some folks smoke cigarettes. The crew enjoys drink

Positive Messages

There's an eye toward demonstrating professionalism and how importance it is to follow rules at work, but the overall messages communicated in the show are about partying and arguing.

Positive Role Models

The captain is in charge and takes a tough line. The crew members take their jobs seriously, but some exhibit some extremely unprofessional behavior.

Violence & Scariness

Catty behavior is common between crew members. Occasionally the crew must deal with security issues and minor accidents, including fire.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Folks are shown talking their clothes off down to their underwear. Crude references to sex and genitalia, some of which is bleeped.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Some crew members swear like sailors; words like "damn," "piss," and "ass" are audible while "s--t" and "f--k" are bleeped.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Drinking, drugs & smoking.

Some folks smoke cigarettes. The crew enjoys drinking (beer, wine, champagne, hard liquor); drunken behavior leads to passing out, breaking rules, and irresponsible behavior. Guests sometimes bring illegal narcotics on board (the alleged remnants of which are visible), but face negative consequences as a result.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that the unscripted series Below Deck , which features the crew of a charter luxury yacht, has lots of drinking, crude sexual references, and people in their underwear. Some crew members swear like sailors, though stronger words are bleeped. Though there's some professionalism on the job, the drama of the show involves irresponsible behavior of the crew and the aftermath. The crew talks about drugs and on one occasion thinks they see the remnants of drug use. Teens may be drawn to the uniqueness of the lifestyle featured here, but the content is strong enough to make it an iffy option for tweens.

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

Parents say (6)

Based on 6 parent reviews

What's the Story?

BELOW DECK is a reality series featuring the crew of the Honor, a 164 ft. luxury Caribbean charter mega yacht. Cameras follow Captain Lee Rosbach and his crew, first officer Aleks Taldykin, chief stewardess Adrienne Gang, marine engineer C.J. Lebeau, deck hands Eddie Lucas and David Bradberry, and yacht stewardesses Kat Held and Samantha Orme, as they make sure everything is ship shape for the wealthy guests who charter the boat to the tune of $200,000-300,000 a weekend. Also joining them is Chef Ben Robinson, who has an unlimited budget for cooking up gourmet meals with the finest of ingredients. When clients are on board the crew is busy serving signature cocktails, cleaning decks, and making sure that their clients are completely satisfied. But after they disembark, these yachties get the chance to enjoy life on a yacht in the Caribbean while living in very close quarters.

Is It Any Good?

Below Deck features all the drama Bravo reality shows are known for, including illicit affairs, conflicts between co-workers, and lots of drinking. But what sets it apart is the uniqueness of the yachtie lifestyle, which requires a knowledge of -- and desire to -- offer high-level customer service in order to earn big tips, while following a chain of command and abiding by the strict rules of the boating industry. It also shows how yachties use the employment opportunity to experience a life they would otherwise never be able to afford.

These details are interesting, but the crew, which was hired specifically to serve under Captain Rosbach for the show, lacks the professionalism that one wants and/or expects to see when boarding any sort of boat, let alone a mega yacht. Some of the things that they are willing to do to earn their tips might also make you raise an eyebrow. It's not the sort of show you should tune into if you want to learn more about the charter boat industry, but it certainly offers a voyeuristic guilty pleasure.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about reality shows. Do reality shows have to offer a completely accurate portrayal of someone or something? Have you ever watched a reality show that didn't feel real at all?

What kind of impact does featuring folks drinking excessively on TV have on viewers? How can you lessen this impact on kids ?

Premiere date : July 1, 2013
Cast : Adrienne Gang , Kat Held , Lee Rosbach
Network : Bravo
Genre : Reality TV
TV rating : NR
Last updated : October 14, 2022

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The 14 Best TV Shows About Cruise Ships and Yachts

Top cruise ship reality, scripted, documentary, and travel series.

One of my favorite family vacations to this day will always be the 3-day cruise we took from Singapore to Malaysia on the SuperStar Virgo. Even though it was some 20 years ago, I still remember the excitement I felt walking up the grand staircase that wrapped around the Christmas tree, the inordinate amount of time I spent in the arcade room (one the jet skiing game in particular), running down the carpeted hallways to find our room, and the awe I felt at just how huge the entire ship looked from the outside.

My tiny, eight-year-old brain had a hard time processing how something so big could stay afloat, but I had no worries that it wouldn’t. I also remember thinking how cool it was that there was a swimming pool on the top deck, asking myself “how can there be water on top of water?”

It was, without a doubt, a memorable experience and one that I’d like to have again as an adult. I definitely recommend going on a cruise at least once in your life! However, since our collective 2020-2021 reality has put our travel plans to a grinding halt, the only way to do that is vicariously through our TV screens.

So we’ve put together a comprehensive list of TV shows about cruise ships for all you sea-lovers to get the travel bug somewhat out of your system. Whether the format you’re looking for is reality, travel, scripted, or documentary – we’ve got it! So put on your best cruise outfit, grab that poolside cocktail, and settle down onto your couch to binge these TV shows about cruise ships!

CRUISE SHIP REALITY SHOWS

Below deck, brave (2013 – present).

As passengers, we only ever see the surface of what happens on a cruise. We’re the consumers in this entertainment and service industry, after all. Bravo’s reality series Below Deck literally brings us below the ship’s deck – to behind the scenes of the luxurious experience of a ship.

Each season of Below Deck follows the young crew of a superyacht during the ever-busy charter season, chronicling their lives both working and living aboard the vessel.

Some of the yachties, as the crew members are also called, have a prior yachting background while others are there to personify the “work hard, party harder” attitude and bring little to no experience to the table, which always makes for an interesting team dynamic.

One thing is for sure though: there’s nothing these guys wouldn’t do to make sure their clients have the best experience possible.

Below Deck also gives a great view into the perks of working on a yacht, one of which is traveling to places like Sint Maarten, the British Virgin Islands, the Mediterranean Sea, the Bahamas, Tahiti, and most recently, Phuket!

Below Deck Mediterranean, Bravo (2016 – present)

Below Deck was so popular and successful that in March 2015, Bravo announced the arrival of its first spin-off show: Below Deck Mediterranean .

The premise of this spin-off reality show is similar to the original in that it documents the personal and professional lives of the crew on board a superyacht, this time 150-feet in length!

While the regular yachties take a break, the cast of Below Deck takes over for roughly 6 weeks and sail through all sorts of beautiful locations.

Each season features a myriad of colorful guests and customers, ranging from executives on business trips and millionaires on vacation to groups of friends looking for a good time and a sea-bound party.

Here, Chef Ben Robinson from four seasons of the original Below Deck joins the Mediterranean crew as they visit Greece, Croatia, Italy, France, and Spain!

Below Deck Sailing Yacht, Bravo (2020 – present)

News of a second Below Deck Spin-off first came in March 2019 and it wasn’t until December that year that fans got confirmation of a premiere date: for February 2020.

Entitled Below Deck Sailing Yacht , it follows the same format as its predecessors but this time, for the crew on a 180-foot luxury sailing yacht called the Parsifal III as it sails through Greece during charter season.

In a crew mixed with vastly different members, there’s bound to be some tension when certain attitudes and job ethics come to clash – and that’s what reality shows are all about, especially when you’re in a country so beautiful, surrounded by equally beautiful people!

Old relationships are tested while new ones are formed (often to the chagrin of others), but there’s never a dull day on Parsifal III.

Chef Adam Glick, who was on two seasons of Below Deck Mediterranean , joins the Sailing Yacht crew this year. However, with the second season lined up to air in March 2021, it looks like Adam will be bowing out of this new crew.

The Cruise, ITV (2016 – 2018)

It’s not glaringly obvious what the difference is between a yacht and a cruise ship, especially when there are some yachts that are the same length as a cruise!

One difference is that yachts are privately owned and directly chartered while cruise ships are owned by corporations. However, the main difference really lies in the guest experience.

On a cruise ship, you have access to amenities like a gym, pool, spa, arcade room, restaurants, what have you. Renting a yacht, though, provides a more personal and luxurious experience.

ITV’s The Cruise takes us from the yacht setting of the previous shows to an actual cruise ship, though this series does primarily follow the ship’s crew as well.

The Regal Princess ship is over 1,080 feet long and has a whopping 19 decks, so it makes sense that there are more than 1400 crew members manning operations.

The Cruise shows us the hustle and bustle of maintaining their five-star service as they go from Copenhagen to St. Petersburg, the Mediterranean, and even Alaska throughout its five seasons.

DOCUMENTARY TV SHOWS ABOUT CRUISE SHIPS

Mighty ships, discovery channel canada (2008 – 2016).

After a successful one-off special entitled Inside Queen Mary 2 , the Discovery Channel commissioned an entire series exploring the workings of the world’s mightiest ships!

What’s great about Mighty Ships is that while we do get to learn about a few cruise ships along the way, the show actually covers all types of sea vessels – probably some that you never even knew existed!

Mighty Ships lets you in on all the secrets these vessels hold throughout their voyages; from preparations made for the journey to the voyage itself, and ending when their job has been successfully delivered.

While the previous shows primarily display the crew’s interactions with each other and the guests, Mighty Ships focuses heavily on the operational and technical side of running the ships.

It even goes so far as to computer-generated animations in order to better explain to its audience certain aspects of the ship that cannot be seen or visited in person. Interlaced with that are interviews with the crew as they provide more information about the ship as well as what life is like aboard it.

Mighty Cruise Ships, Discovery Channel Canada (2014 – 2022)

Mighty Ships evolved into two spin-offs; the first was Mighty Planes that aired for four seasons and employed the same format while following various types of aircrafts. The second premiered in 2014 and was a more direct spin-off of the parent series: Mighty Cruise Ships .

Everyone wants to know what happens on these huge, extravagant, cruise ships and Mighty Cruise Ships definitely lets us witness the lavish life without having to pay the thousands of dollars that come with a cruise ship ticket.

Each episode brings us aboard a brand new ship – each with its own features, amenities, and cutting-edge technology that only seems to get better as the episodes progress.

These ships are built for their destinations, whether intended to endure the harsh cold temperatures and narrow passageways of the Nordic fjords or to breeze through the coastlines of Scotland.

On board, the ships cater to every aesthetic too – interested in Viking history? The Viking Sea is the boat for you. Looking for an adrenaline rush at sea? Check out Carnival Vista and their suspended bike loop and waterpark! Mighty Cruise Ships truly lets us see the best cruises there are to offer.

Cruise Ship Killers, Justice Network (2020 – 2022)

This next show takes a much darker turn than those that came before – if you couldn’t tell right away from the title Cruise Ship Killers . If you’ve got an interest in true crime, you’re definitely going to want to add this show to your list.

However, if that’s not your thing and you’re the kind to get paranoid pretty quickly, maybe you should skip this one. I say that because one thing’s for sure: Cruise Ship Killers might make you second guess your desire to go on a cruise – ever.

This true-crime documentary series tells the stories of people who got on a cruise expecting to have the vacation of a lifetime – only to never return or be heard from again.

Each episode will keep you guessing right from the get-go: was the businessman’s death foul play? Was the young woman kidnapped? Did he fall overboard? Did the missing woman just get off at one port and decide to stay to start a new life? There’s just no telling where each episode of Cruise Ship Killers will take us.

* Side note: if you want to look into cruise ship crimes even more, check out the Cruise Ship Disappearances episode of the Wine and Crime podcast . It’s very informative, and the hosts are also really funny!

The Cruise, BBC One (1998)

Not to be confused with the ITV reality show of the same name previously mentioned, BBC One’s The Cruise is an observational documentary series that followed the crew of the luxury cruise ship named Galaxy as it set off on its maiden voyage through the Caribbean – including a pit stop in Jamaica on Christmas Day!

While we have a chance to witness the personal lives of the crew onboard Galaxy, we also get a glimpse into how the crew handles the pressures of everyday operations on the luxury cruise. From dealing with a confrontational passenger at the ship’s casino to facing a whole congregation of born-again Christians, you truly never know what challenges a new day will bring. Not to mention the preparations for their new entertainment show!

Most notably, The Cruise is what paved the way for singer Jane McDonald, who was then an entertainer for Galaxy. After the show, she went on to become a recording artist, actress, media personality, and TV presenter. The Cruise even released two additional specials with Jane in the spotlight!

CRUISE SHIP TRAVEL SHOWS

Cruising with jane mcdonald, channel 5 (2017 – 2020).

I have always thought that hosts of these lifestyle-type shows have the best job in the world – those that get to do food and restaurant reviews, explore different countries and cultures, and now, even experience cruise ships!

Remember Jane McDonald from the previous show, The Cruise ? Well, she’s back for more sea-worthy adventures on the Channel 5 travel series, Cruising with Jane McDonald , where she films a travelogue showcasing the very best aspects of the ship, both in terms of service and aesthetics.

Right off the bat, she starts off with a mega-cruise ship called the MSC Divina through the Caribbean, where over 4000 passengers make the most of their holidays on the ship and at the port.

Throughout its six seasons, Jane travels the world one cruise ship at a time, truly living the best life.

The Voyager With Josh Garcia, NBC (2016 – 2019)

NBC’s The Voyager with Josh Garcia also follows the travelogue format through the eyes of traveler and host, Josh Garcia. However, instead of focusing solely on the experience with cruise ships, The Voyager provides a wider perspective of the world as a whole.

Josh takes his viewers with him as he travels the globe by ocean, disembarking at every port with the intention of discovering the nooks and crannies of each culture he encounters.

Each episode is a learning experience not just for Josh, but for us as well. He speaks with the locals, learns about native and regional traditions from cultural experts, and fearlessly tries the local cuisine every chance he gets.

Through The Voyager with Josh Garcia , our global wanderlust is ignited, and our traveling bucket list just keeps getting longer and longer!

SCRIPTED CRUISE SHIP TV SHOWS

High seas, netflix (2019 – 2020).

High Seas , also known as Alta Mar in its original Spanish, is a Netflix original series that aired for three seasons beginning in 2019.

Unlike the modern cruise ship settings that we’ve seen so far, High Seas takes place on a luxury ocean liner in the 1940s!

Sisters Eva and Carolina Villanueva climb aboard the Barbara de Braganza liner as it voyages from Spain to Brazil. Unbeknownst to the other passengers and crew, they’ve smuggled a mysterious woman onboard after she pleaded for their help.

Things go terribly awry when the woman is thrown overboard and Eva, a curious and headstrong writer, launches an investigation into the mysterious goings-on on the ship.

Eventually, both she and her sister discover shocking secrets that tie into their family’s dark past. Who are they supposed to believe?

Sadly, the fourth season of High Seas was originally planned to continue the series but was subsequently canceled in mid-2020.

Wreck, BBC Three (2022 – present)

One of the newest shows on this list of top cruise ship shows is BBC Three’s horror-comedy series Wreck .

The series follows Jamie Walsh, a nineteen-year-old who takes a job on a board cruise ship called The Sacramentum to figure out what happened to his sister, who went missing from the same ship three months ago.

As Jamie learns the ins and outs of living and working on a ship, he befriends other crew members in order to help with his investigation into the disappearance of his sister and how a recent attack on a crew member could be connected to it.

The Love Boat, ABC (1977 – 1986)

The Love Boat is a scripted rom-com/drama series that aired on ABC more than 30 years ago! However, when watching this series you’ll find that a lot of the scenarios portrayed are still reflected, to some extent, in the reality shows on this list as well.

The show takes us on board the MS Pacific Princess, a luxury passenger cruise ship. Captain Merrill Stubing is at the helm, guiding not only the ship himself but his crew members as they attempt to deal with a new passenger’s antics in each episode.

These crew members included the cruise directors, photographer, purser, bartender, doctor, and eventually, even a troupe of dancers!

The Love Boat was based on the original made-for-TV movie of the same name, which in turn was based on the non-fiction book Love Boats.

The reason the scenarios in this show seem so true to life is because the book was written by Jeraldine Saunders, a real-life passenger cruise ship director !

Avenue 5, HBO (2020 – 2022)

Science fiction and dark comedy collide in this HBO original, bringing cruise ships to a place you never could have imagined: space. Yup, you read that right! Titled Avenue 5 , this is also the name of the interplanetary cruise ship owned by Herman Judd (played by Josh Gad) and captained by Ryan Clark (played by Hugh Laurie).

While setting off on an eight-week-long cruise, Avenue 5 experiences technical difficulties that set off a devastating chain of events: a temporary loss of gravity and the Chief Engineer’s accidental death, causing the ship to veer off-course.

When it’s estimated to take three years for them to return to Earth, Captain Clark and his crew need to figure out how to keep their passengers calm, collected, and safe – even as mishaps are happening left and right. Will they ever be able to make it back home?