Below Deck Sailing Yacht producer Jill Goslicky revealed that season 2 was nothing short of a miracle as the series was the first Below Deck filmed during the pandemic.
Goslicky answered fan questions during a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” and referred to the summer shoot as a “Miracle Season” in the chat. “We filmed this season of Sailing Yacht in August of 2020,” she shared. “Right in the thick of the pandemic. It was definitely scary, and a lot of uncertainty swirled around whether we would even be able to pull this season off.”
“I keep calling this season the ‘Miracle Season’ because I can’t believe we pulled it off,” she added. “COVID changed almost everything about how we shoot the show, with safety being the top priority. And I still marvel at the fact that our production crew bravely went out there and pulled this whole thing off. I will forever be in awe of them for that.”
Captain Glenn Shephard told Showbiz Cheat Sheet he too was amazed the season went off without a hitch. “I’m amazed we were able to do it,” he admitted. “Being in Croatia, which was a tiny fraction of what was going on in Spain. Obviously, they had some but very very low incidents [of coronavirus]. Of course, we had to take all kinds of serious precautions and the protocols were strict.”
“But we managed to go and have a season,” he continued. That also meant that the crew generally partied on the boat in between charters. “We tried to party as much as possible on the boat, near the boat,” he revealed. He added that the community protocols in Croatia were not as strict as what the crew were under. “So it was a little bit more open there,” he said.
“We didn’t want to take any chances with that so we had very strict protocols,” he continued. Everyone who boarded the yacht underwent testing and quarantine beforehand. “We all had regular testing and all kinds of stuff and that included everybody involved, including the guests.”
Fans wanted to know how producers assembled the crew and wondered if Shephard had any input into who was chosen. “The Captains do have a say in who we bring on, but we all collaborate on who should fill out the yacht crew for each season,” Goslicky shared in the AMA.
“The Chief Engineer position, for instance, specifically has to have Glenn’s sign-off each season because that’s a technically skilled job, and the person filling it must be up to the task,” she added.
Goslicky also shed some light on how the cast gets paid. “The cast members get a yacht salary (and collect tips) and also get a production fee,” she remarked. “So it’s a collaborative relationship. If the cast member can’t do the job, they’re let go. If the cast member interferes with the TV show in a major way, that could also get them removed from the boat. So these are decisions that we make alongside the Captains to make sure their staff is up to par throughout the season.”
Below Deck Sailing Yacht is on Monday at 9/8c on Bravo.