Below Deck Sailing Yacht‘s first four seasons produced some very big tips from wealthy charter guests willing to blow tens-of-thousands of dollars to reward the hard work of Captain Glenn Shephard‘s ever-changing Parsifal III crew. However, the biggest tip to date in the spinoff show’s history came from Primary Charter Guest Bryan Gaurnieri, and his gay friends Craig Lowry Shreve and Wickliffe Shreve, Madison Stutts and Erik Robert Funderburk. The group gave one of the biggest tips in all of Below Deck history at $30,000 USD while on Below Deck Sailing Yacht season 4. Let’s take a look at how much money each crew member made from this giant tip and the other top tips from the last four BDSY seasons. We’ll also take a look at how much money cast members made on each season of BDSY.
Biggest Tips In Below Deck Sailing Yacht History: $30,000 Tip Explained
Primary Charter Guest Bryan Guarnieri and friends after giving the crew the biggest tip in show’s history (Bravo).
Avid Below Deck fans already know Primary Charter Guest Bryan Guarnieri is hard to please. His obnoxious list of demands, including a ten-course meal on his preference sheet, while sailing in Sardinia, Italy, is reminiscent of his previous trip on the original Bravo yachting show. In Below Deck season 8, Bryan, Craig and Wickliffe chartered My Seanna in Antigua. Hot-headed Chef Rachel Hargrove briefly quit during the preference sheet meeting because of his four pages of demands. She ended up knocking off Bryan’s socks, leaving him crying and giving Captain Lee Rosbach’s crew a $25,000 tip, which divided into $2,250 a piece.
Chef Ileisha Dell similarly delivered five-star delectable cuisine in BDSY season 4. The entire crew embraced the LGBTQ+-themed charter, especially First Officer Gary King and deckhand Chase Lemacks when they danced in speedos and rainbow-colored fans. The crew’s hard work didn’t go unnoticed, or uncompensated. Bryan and his upbeat group of friends left the crew a whopping $30,000 tip. BDSY season 4’s charter guests gave some big tips, but Bryan’s group outdid the rest. The $30,000 tip divided amongst nine crew members meant everyone took home $3,333 for a three-day charter. That’s over a thousand dollars per day in pay. And that’s not even including cast member’s Bravo and yachting salary, too. The next biggest tip on Below Deck Sailing Yacht season 4 came from returning Primary Charter Guest Jim Blumenthal‘s group. They tipped the crew $27,500 or $3055 (€2,700) each.
Primary Charter Guest Jim Blumenthal hanging out with Chef Marcos after meeting on the show back in season 3 (Instagram).
Without including the final charter, the BDSY season 4 crew made $175,600 in tips from eight charters, already beating the tips totals of any of the previous BDSY seasons. Each crew member made $19,511 in tip money eight charters into the season, with one charter left to go.
Biggest Tips From BDSY Season 3 & Total Tip Money Made
Below Deck Sailing Yacht season 3 cast members line up to say goodbye to nightmare charter guest Erica Rose (Bravo).
On Below Deck Sailing Yacht season 3, the crew had a great haul of tips from charter guests. The top tip, $23,000, came from Canadian tech entrepreneur and reality TV star Lane Merrifield, fiancée Amanda Bourke and friends. Each crew member on the charter took home $2,555.
Millionaire Primary Charter Guest Lane Merrifield, his fiancé Amanada, and friends from BDSY season 3 (Bravo).
They really enjoyed playing on an obstacle course against the crew and Captain Glenn, Chief Stewardess Daisy Kelliher, Chief Engineer Colin MacRae, stewardess Ashley Marti and the rest of the original crew each made $16,762 for the charter season out of a total of $160,500 in tip money. The season also had one of the most infamous and disgraceful lowest tips in Below Deck history, left by Erica Rose, her husband Chuck (Charles), and her mom Cindi. They gave a paltry $6,500 tip to the crew after terrorizing the yachties for three days.
Biggest Tips From BDSY Season 2 & Total Tip Money Made
Co-Primary Charter Guests Nikki and Rusty (Bravo).
Below Deck Sailing Yacht season 2 turned out to be a shortened season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Gary’s love triangle with Australian Alli Dore and deckhand Sydney Zaruba dominated the drama much of this season of filming. The boatmance resulting in a pregnancy took over headlines after season 2 aired. Deckhand Jean-Luc Cerza Lanaux impregnated Brazilian beauty Dani Soares while working together. He then refused to step up and be a father to the child. He even refused to take a paternity test or visit Dani and their daughter in Australia.
Doctor Frank Martinis and his wife Jessica on BDSY season 2 (Bravo).
Due to the shortened season, there weren’t many high tips. Primary Charter Guest and board certified urologic surgeon Frank Martinis and his group ended up tipping the highest, at $23,000 or $2,500 per cast member. Avid sailors and Co-Primary Charter Guests Rusty Niedwick and Nikki Linn, from Newport Beach, California, gave practically the same amount, too, at $22,500. The shortened season resulted in the crew only making $106,450 or $11,830 per person that charter season.
Biggest Tips From BDSY Season 1 & Total Tip Money Made
Co-Primary Charter Guests Alan and Jennifer Ward (Bravo).
Despite the consensus from Below Deck‘s subreddit that Below Deck Sailing Yacht season 1 is one of the worst season’s in the show franchise’s history, the crew hauled in some big tips. The highest tips were lower than any other BDSY season, however the show was filmed in 2019, so, factoring in inflation, the crew did well. They could’ve done better, though, if Chef Adam Glick and Chief Stewardess Jenna MacGillivray kept their PDA outside of working hours.
BDSY season 1 crew members Paget Berry, Ciara Duggan, and Byron Hissey at a tip meeting (Bravo).
Retired high-level software engineer at Apple Alan Ward and his wife Jennifer, from New Orleans, Louisiana, and their group celebrated the recent marriage of Italian model Alessia Caprio and Indonesian beach club owner Guy Somers while aboard Parsifal III. The group tied for the most generous tip of $20,000 or $2,222 each. Some of the worst charter guests of season 1, a testosterone-fueled nightmare for the crew (including season 2’s Primary Frank Martinis) wreaked havoc aboard the sailing superyacht. Primary Charter Guest Richie Hosein — a successful entrepreneur from Long Island, New York, with ventures in health care, hospitality, nightlife and music — and his group of frat boys at least compensated the crew well after thoroughly embarrassing themselves. They also tied for highest tip of the season at $20,000. The BDSY season 1 crew ended up making a total of $143,000 and earned over $16,000 per crew member in tip money.
