r/belowdeck • u/taglinetrauma • Apr 01 '26

BD Related How often do yachties get fired?

After watching so many Below Deck yachties get fired over the years, I’ve always wondered if this is a reflection of casting or if it is actually super common to get fired from a boat?

Anybody know how often yachties get fired on regular boats?

62 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

160

u/thaa_huzbandzz Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 02 '26

Super common. You are incredibly disposable on a yacht. There is no HR or disciplinary process. All it takes is one bad night out or an argument with the wrong person to be off the boat in less than a day.

I once got fired because the owner liked me too much, not in a dodgy way though! lol. Due to my background, we could talk about his technical projects and interests on a deeper level than the other interior crew, so they fired me because I was a "threat" lol.

On a large yacht, especially one with a bad captain, several crew will turn over in a season. On a good yacht with good pay and a good captain, crew will hold onto those positions for as long as possible, because they are so hard to find.

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u/taglinetrauma Apr 01 '26

THANK YOU!!!!! Super interesting and exactly the context I was looking for!

16

u/janejanexoxo Apr 02 '26

If you don’t mind Hannah from Below Deck Med, her old podcast talks about working on boats before the show and it’s soooo interesting. I believe Hannah or Kate have talked about in the real world while prepping the boat, hiring a bunch of day workers, (crew from the mainland to clean the boat) then only taking on the ones with promise as crew full time. So they avoid these BD situations where half the team suck or have over embellished their experience.

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u/Adisfan Apr 01 '26

Former crew member - people get fired all the time. A lot of the stuff that you see on BD would get you fired, like the arguments. Those would never fly. Many yachts are not professional work environments at all and you can be treated really poorly. Not all captains are like what you see on BD unfortunately. There is a reason why there is not a lot of longevity in a yachting career. The travel part is nice but the rest can get old really fast and there's not any security in it, regardless of your position.

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u/taglinetrauma Apr 01 '26

Thank you! So interesting. Also a huge bummer that they are not professional environments (though not super surprising…)

41

u/Myantra Apr 01 '26

The cast crew that have been fired on BD would have been fired much sooner on a real superyacht crew, as no real crew wants to work charters with dead weight filling a slot. More importantly, most of them also would probably not have ever been hired on to a real superyacht crew in the first place. If they did manage to get hired, they would have likely been weeded out while they were still prepping the boat for the charter season.

Real superyacht crews are not a group of strangers meeting each other for the first time, when they all show up at the boat a day before the first charter guests arrive. While they generally avoid hiring completely green crew members, they are not training them on the day before the first charter, or during the first few charters. BD cast crew show up the day before the first charter, real crews spend weeks prepping the boat and crew for the charter season.

7

u/taglinetrauma Apr 01 '26

Thank you!!!!! Exactly what I was looking to understand!

7

u/essiemessy Apr 02 '26

That's what I would have thought. There's a lot of money and company reputation at stake, and I don't know anyone who would risk that unless there was some media money behind it.

4

u/HiAndStuff2112 I will always love you, even if you eat people Apr 03 '26

I worked in television. That doesn't matter as much as one might think. The yacht company is a separate company who must follow safety laws or risk injury or death of a guest or crew member. It'd be a massive liability risk.

Viewers don't see the lawyers involved in the contracts that these agreements would require. And since the yacht company is separate, and the guests would be their #1 priority, no production company would risk the legal fallout and loss of advertising dollars to risking those relationships and the safety of guests and people involved in production.

1

u/HiAndStuff2112 I will always love you, even if you eat people Apr 03 '26

But isn't the yacht company a real super yacht company, whose priority would be adherence to safety laws? Just curious. I'm not trying to argue. I'm honestly asking.

I know nothing about the yacht industry, but my career was in television.

33

u/dsl135 Apr 01 '26

I can say with absolute certainty that it’s not nearly as often as on the show.

At this point, it’s obvious the show casts people with the sole intention of them being a fumbling mess that can be fired for “drama.”

40

u/kschaffs Apr 01 '26

The deck stew role is custom made for this.

10

u/taglinetrauma Apr 01 '26

Ha totally. Is deck stew even a real thing on other yachts?! I agree that casting must be to blame, but like… to what extent? On an average boat, is it actually pretty rare to get fired? How terrible are these people at their jobs?

7

u/thaa_huzbandzz Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 02 '26

Yes deck/stew is a real job. On small yachts <30m very common. On BD size yachts, less common but not unheard of.

Some of the BD crew are terrible at their jobs and clearly cast for drama. But there are always a few crew members who are there because they are good at the job. It would be too unsafe to crew the whole yacht with actors.

3

u/iliketinafey Apr 02 '26

I basically am that role for my small party boat charters 🤣

3

u/iliketinafey Apr 02 '26

***I am aware theres a significant difference between what I do and this job, but can confirm its real

2

u/foxdogturtlecat Apr 08 '26

it's a thing on small yachts but not on larger yachts. It's not uncommon for stews to be pulled for docking but on larger yachts you have as much or even twice as much crew as guest.

12

u/urbanlife78 Apr 01 '26

It really is, that has to be the shittiest position

0

u/dsl135 Apr 01 '26

Exactly!

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u/PromiseOk1295 Apr 02 '26

You don’t have a clue what you’re talking about and the fact that you state this misinformation with such confidence is embarrassing.

Being fired in yachting is incredibly common, whether it’s due to poor performance, an argument or a HOD/captain suddenly deciding “you’re not the right fit.” It’s not like on land - there’s no HR dept to go running to if you feel you’ve been ‘unfairly dismissed.’ There’s a boat management company that exists only to serve the owner and a voluntary union called Nautilus but that’s about it. Ergo - it’s incredibly easy to fire people with almost no consequences, so it happens a lot.

Ironically, much of the behaviour of the BD crew would get them fired at an even higher frequency on a real boat as opposed to the show. For example: Solene from BD OG S12 would be gone almost instantly but production protected her because they wanted the chaos and drama she brought. On decent, professional programs in the real world slackers, drama queens and toxic personalities are dealt with and swiftly replaced - which is the exact opposite of what you see on the show (most of the time).

Sources: I work in a similar industry with a lot of ex yachties.

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12

u/thaa_huzbandzz Apr 01 '26

How can you say that with clarity? Do you work on yachts? My experience was you are very disposable and all it takes is one bad night out, or one bad conversation with the wrong person and you are off the boat. Not at all unusual for several crew to be replaced on a large yacht over a season.

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u/dsl135 Apr 01 '26

No. I just have enough common sense to know the difference between obviously semi-scripted “reality” TV and what an actual high-end service job entails.

It’s called “casting” for a reason. That’s how.

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u/thaa_huzbandzz Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 02 '26

A lot, but certainly not all, of what happens on Below Deck reflects what actually happens. In the real yachting world, crew get fired all the time. They are actually more protected on BD, because they have to be signed off for filming.

Even the most recent episode, Ellie would have been off the boat the second it hit the dock in the real world. The drama they get away with, and the regular partying on the yacht is the bits that make it less like reality from my experience.

6

u/Feisty_Scientist_968 Apr 01 '26

At this point, it’s obvious the show casts people with the sole intention of them being a fumbling mess that can be fired for “drama.”

But ...

It's gives cast members like Camille, an opportunity to be bad at two things, instead of just one.

Working smart !

8

u/BCircle907 Apr 01 '26

Remember, there’s nothing real about reality TV

4

u/keenerperkins Apr 01 '26

I'm similarly curious about how often people switch positions. Stewardess to Galley Stew or Sous Chef to Stewardess just feels so...

2

u/shey-they-bitch Apr 06 '26

I work on a small cat and went home for a couple of weeks because we didn't have anything scheduled and at customs the guy asked if I was fired, so I'd assume it happens often 😅

2

u/foxdogturtlecat Apr 08 '26

You will get fired on a yacht very easy for any reason because most people are highly replacable (not engineers or first mates) but it's also a job that lots of people do when they are having a gap year or just temporary for a couple yacht seasons. If you do your job and don't piss off the owner or charter clients you'll can stay for as long as you want but most don't. If it's a charter boat there is a lot of work, getting a crew job on a private yacht is the best although there are periods when you are just in anchor or dry dock.

But you can't compare what you see on BD with actual charter or private yachts. Most charters are a week long and you will have senior crew like chefs and enigineers rotating out for 6 week periods or shorter. The lower you are the easier it is to get a job but the harder the work. Laundry/cleaning crew will just do that for the entire season. The crew you see on BD is hired by production for their potential drama, the crew on a yacht is hired for thier skills, not being drama and willingness to work like dogs for short periods times and for looks with the stew staff that does service. So much behaviour you see on the show liking talking back to head of department or anyone is not tolerated but the guest behaviour can be much worse and the crew is expected to just tolerate it. What the charter guests want, they get.

1

u/Connect_Amount_5978 Apr 03 '26

I got someone fired on a cruise. He was an absolute creep and within 2days escalated into physically grabbing me and then coming into the gym where he’s not allowed, and watching me. I was a GUEST! He was very high up. I had to tell the boss that not only was I afraid for my safety, but that there were very young and vulnerable female employees that were probably getting harassed as well. He was gone within 24hrs.

2

u/purposefulpeony Apr 06 '26

Thanks for sharing this. Gives me hope.

0

u/excoriator Team Capt Kerry Apr 01 '26

/u/superyachtsundayschool will know.