But the mega bucks go to the top dogs, Captain Lee and Captain Sandy, who on a 185-foot superyacht make between $150-$210,000 a year.
How Does 'Below Deck' Star Lee Rosbach Make Money? The beloved but sharp tongued captain likely brings in up to $210,000 a year by helming the yachts featured on Below Deck, Worldwide Boat reports, as that's the salary for skippers of boats in the 150 feet to 177 feet range.
The Below Deck Crew Makes A Salary & An Appearance Fee
The chef makes about $7,000-$10,000 a month, depending on experience and training. The deckhands usually make around $3,500-$4,500 a month, while a bosun would make a little more at approximately $5,000 monthly.
Do Yachties Earn Tips? Yes, yachties can earn quite a lot from tipping. However, a yachtie who works onboard a charter yacht will end up working with limited time off and for longer periods.
It's also the largest Captain Sandy has ever been at the helm of. The yacht is listed on Charter World for a cool €220,000 (around $243,000) per week, comes fully staffed, and is able to accommodate up to 12 guests.
How much does it cost to charter a yacht from Below Deck? The cheaper yachts from Below Deck can be chartered for $140,000 a week. The most expensive ones have charter costs close to $300,000 per week.
Based on past seasons of the show, the cost of a 3-day charter on a luxury yacht can range anywhere from $30,000 to $50,000 or more.
Captain Lee Rosbach has always begrudgingly said that Below Deck guest Timothy Sykes delivered the highest tip ever. Sykes tipped the Below Deck Season 5 crew $35,000, after initially appearing on Below Deck Season 2.
Guests really do pay for their charter.
"They spend their real money to be on the show," executive producer Mark Cronin told Bravo TV. But since it may not be the most relaxing trip, guests that are featured on the reality show get a 50% discount on their charter.
Winter/summer seasons each last around six months and refer to both location and time of the year; summer yacht charter season spans from around April/May through October, while the winter season starts in November and runs through April.
I promise production covers a meal and a drink per person." This confirms that production pays for their meal and one drink only and that certain elements are played up for TV.
Captain Sandy Yawn is cheering on her girlfriend, Leah Shafer, as she makes a major career “pivot.” In a recent Instagram Story, the Below Deck Mediterranean boss shared a photo of Leah showing off her latest accomplishment, and — here's a hint — it's a rather beautiful one.
Q: Is Below Deck scripted? A: No. The direct answer to this question is a definitive 'no'. Nobody appearing on the show is reciting lines from a script, nor is anything staged in the strictest sense of the word.
They welcomed daughter Lauren before their split.
After a decade of service as the iconic Captain of Below Deck, Lee Rosbach has revealed what his favorite moment from ten seasons of the show is.
The charter guests you see on the show are genuine charter guests. They pay their own money to secure a space within the six weeks of filming time each season. It can cost tens of thousands of dollars to charter any of the superyachts featured in the series.
How much Below Deck crew make. Per Refinery 29 and Crewfinders, a second and third steward(ess) on a yacht the size of My Seanna would earn an average of about $5,000 per month. Meanwhile, a chief steward(ess) like Kate Chastain will be taking home around $5,500 to $6,000 a month.
And the glaring "plus" that Lee was referring to was the guest's food and drink. That's right, none of that is included in their price and they're billed at the end of their trip.
“They get paid in a few different ways,” Goslicky wrote via Reddit in March 2021. “They do get a salary for being hired as part of the yacht crew, they do get to keep their tips, and they do get a production fee.”
Below Deck's chief stews are some of the hardest workers on yachts. They're the team lead for anything relating to the guests on the interior (aside from the chef).
Below Deck: Crew Received No Tip Only One Time In All Franchise Seasons. Below Deck fans may remember that the crew received no tip once. That was because Captain Lee kicked the guests off the yacht for breaking rules. The Below Deck crew received no tip only once.
Production crew sleep off the boat and work in shifts. There are no charters that are not filmed. I hope this helps. Curiosity questions: if something happens to the captain, who maneuvers the yacht and/or takes charge of running the yacht?
Captain Lee demystified the tipping process further on Twitter, sharing that every member of the crew gets an equal cut of the tip, including the captain, as well as the couple of Below Deck crew members who have typically not appeared on camera, such as the first officer and engineer.
All in all, while Below Deck is an entertaining reality show, and despite the fact that it's unscripted, we believe it's not an accurate representation of what life working on a superyacht is like. Ultimately, as with any other TV show, the production team will be mainly interested in increasing viewership.