The average Yacht Captain salary is $107,036 as of May 25, 2023, but the salary range typically falls between $86,918 and $122,719. Salary ranges can vary widely depending on many important factors, including education, certifications, additional skills, the number of years you have spent in your profession.
The pay range for a yacht captain can vary greatly and for less experienced captains on smaller vessels it may start around $45,000 while it can range up to as much as $300,000 or more for very skilled captains on larger luxury yachts.
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.
The Below Deck Crew Also Brings In Tips
The Captain usually makes between $150,000 to $210,000 a year working on a 185-foot superyacht, assuming the Captain is working full-time. Additionally, the Captain can make up to $100,000 on top of the salary they are getting if they charter their yacht for the entire year.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The amount of money the crew gets in tips is not realistic.
“On a yacht of that size, [a good tip] would be $5,000 a person for seven days of work,” she explained. “Our charters are a little bit shorter, just so we can make the show. But everything else is the same… we usually get around $2,500, $2,000.
For leadership staff onboard cruise ships, the annual salary can be much higher from $30,000 to $100,000. Who can earn the most money working on a cruise ship? It comes as no surprise that the ship's captain has the biggest salary from working on a cruise ship.
While ZipRecruiter is seeing annual salaries as high as $102,500 and as low as $14,500, the majority of Cruise Ship Worker salaries currently range between $30,000 (25th percentile) to $58,000 (75th percentile) with top earners (90th percentile) making $90,000 annually across the United States.
While ZipRecruiter is seeing annual salaries as high as $62,500 and as low as $18,500, the majority of Cruise Ship Crew salaries currently range between $33,000 (25th percentile) to $46,000 (75th percentile) with top earners (90th percentile) making $55,000 annually across the United States.
“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.”
ZipRecruiter reports that the annual pay for 2022 for cruise ship captains is $54,229 per year. It also reports that annual salaries can be as high as $100,000 to as low as $17,500. Such a great fluctuation in salary is reflective of the skill level, years of experience, location, and cruise line.
How much does a cruise ship captain make? While there's no explicit salary data for a cruise ship captain, the average annual salary for a captain is $92,125 per year . These salaries can vary for several reasons, such as a captain's work experience, their certifications, licensure, employer and other accreditations.
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).
Erica Rose and Charles "Chuck" Sanders drew the ire of staff and viewers alike after leaving a tip of $6500 for the entire crew of Parsifal III. The tip amount was apparently the lowest in Below Deck history.
One egg. But that's why we get the big money." Unfortunately, the Below Deck crew did not get "the big money" after that charter. The guests left a $5,000 tip, which came out to $500 each when split evenly among all the crew members.
Yacht Stewardess Salary Ranges
A stewardess, on the other hand, can expect to make anything in between $3,000 and $4,750 per month. A 2nd stewardess can expect a similar salary, but with the possibility of earning even up to $5,250. A chief stewardess can make between $6,000 and $8,000 monthly.
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.
Captain Sandra Yawn is a world-renowned captain in the yachting industry with over 30 years of experience.
While a chief steward(ess) such as the legendary Kate Chastain will be taking home more like $5,500 to $6,000 a month. For those working on the exterior of the boat, a deckhand would make $3,500 to $4,500 a month and a bosun would nab $5,000 a month.
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 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.