The tip money from yachting charter guests is always a crapshoot, but Below Deck season 1 tip money was especially hard to come by for the crew.
Below Deck season 1 was a messy pilot for a reality TV show. But that didn’t stop the show from becoming a ratings hit for Bravo. One major kink in the first season was charters hitting snags. And a couple of times the crew ended up getting no tip from scheduled charters at all!
All of this resulted in bad tips and not tip more often than not. The charter tips were so bad Eddie Lucas and Captain Lee remembered long after
How Much Charter Tip Money Honor Made
Captain Lee and his first crew of Below Deck made a lot less tip money than proceeding seasons due to a series of unfortunate events.
In total, the overall tip money brought in from the charters totaled only $46,000 in season 1! For comparison, a recent charter tip was $25,000 split between the season 9 crew.
So how much did each Below Deck cast member get of that $46,000?
How Much Each Cast Member Made From Tips
Well, it’s not completely cut and dry when calculating how much each cast member made.
At the beginning of Below Deck season 1 there were 11 crew members onboard superyacht Honor.
You had Captain Lee Rosbach and his First Officer Aleks Taldykin in control of the boat, along with Second Engineer C.J. LeBeau. For the interior crew, Chief Stewardess Adrienne Gang, Second Stewardess Kat Held, and Third Stewardess Samantha Orme cleaned the boat and served the guests. Keeping the outside clean and taking care of the water toys were Deckhands Eddie Lucas and David Bradberry. Meanwhile, Chef Ben Robinson fed the crew and guests on Honor. Finally, the original Below Deck series always has some crew members mostly hidden from camera, and in season 1 those were Chief Engineer Nash and Relief Captain Fred.
Captain Lee has a rule that all tip money is shared equally, however, C.J. quit (or basically was fired) before the end of the charter season, so he made less than the rest of the crew.
The other 10 crew members earned approximately $4,290 in charter guest tip money. However, it’s probably closer to an even $4,000. A small portion of the tip money is kept in a kitty for a crew party at the end of the season.
How Much Less Did C.J. Make in Tip Money?
Second Enginer C.J.’s relationship with Captain Lee was rocky from the beginning, which resulted in C.J. abandoning ship. When C.J. asked if the captain had a problem with him, Rosbach cuttingly told him he’d “been himself since day one”.
So C.J. missed out on the last charter of the season because he refused to take a $200 deduction in tip money for drinking on the job with his crush Sam. That ended up costing C.J. a significant amount of tip money, because the final charter tip totaled $12,000.
C.J. ended up earning approximately $3,090 in tip money on Below Deck season 1.
Season 1 Charter Tips Breakdown
The first charter guests on season 1 were a group of gay photographers from LA, the primary being “Johnny Eyelash“. After stew Kat alleged she found white powder that looked like cocaine, Captain Lee immediately canceled the charter. Rosbach was “as serious as a heart attack” in kicking them off the boat. Well, Johnny and his gang were outraged and gave the crew no tip.
The second primary charter guest was a hypnotist Steve G. Jones who gave the crew a $15,000 tip at the end of his stay on Honor. That divided into more than $1,300 for each crew member.
Google tech guy and Adrienne’s “classy” friend Simon left the crew $10,000, or $900 for each crew member.
The next charter tip was doomed from the start because Honor was docked the entire time because of bad weather. Primary Charter Guest and CEO of Bed Bugs and Beyond company Michael Batenburg and the other guests were stranded due to weather. Despite putting together a last-minute wedding for Papa and Amber, the crew only received $4,000, or about $360 each.
Next charter was canceled, so instead of making tip money the crew burned through some of their cash partying.
After losing out on another tip, the crew hosted Joe and Terri, a divorced couple who had their new partners with them, along with their, according to the crew, “bratty” daughter Davana. They left a $5,000 charter tip.
The final charter was with Primary Charter Guest Beverly and her lesbian friends. They left the crew a $12,000 tip, or $1,200 each. C.J. wasn’t part of the crew for this last charter, so the tip was split ten ways.
