Salty Podcast #71⛵️Below Deck S12 - Hugo Ortega | Reality TV drama vs.Real life at sea 🌊 - Salty Podcast: Sailing Stories & Adventures

Episode Transcript
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Capn Tinsley (00:04):
Tonight on the Salty Podcast.
My guest is Hugo Ortega, aSuperyacht 500-ton captain, a
mentor and the new bosun onBelow Deck Season 12.
He's also the founder ofSuperyacht Sunday School, a
platform that helps people gainthe skills they need to break
into the yacht industry.
And, because this is a sailingchannel, we will tie all of this

(00:25):
together and discuss how theseskills can strengthen your own
sailing journey, help chart yourown course, whether that's
entering the yachting business,sailing around the world or
starting your own charterbusiness.
And, of course, we'll betalking about the difference
between the reality show andreal life aboard a luxury yacht.
But before we get underway, ifyou are enjoying content on this
channel, please like, subscribeand share.

(00:47):
It really helps grow thechannel.
I'm your host, captain tinsleyof sailing vessels, salty,
abandoned and island packet 320.
And this is the salty podcast,episode 71.
Uh, please help me.
Welcome, hugo ortega thank.

Hugo Ortega (01:04):
Thank you for such a great introduction.

Yes, yes.
Well, I'm excited to have youhere.
I appreciate you reaching out.
This is awesome, yeah excitedto be here.
We're live on four platformsright now Facebook, youtube X
and Instagram.
And if I could go live onTikTok, they're just kind of
funny about the rules, so, butwe'll be posting your your clips

(01:27):
to that.
So, okay, we're going to talkabout.
We're going to go in a fewdifferent directions here.
First, I like to start off witha few background questions.
Your story starts with anengineering degree and you had a
solid career path right.
What made you realize successdidn't equal happiness?
Go ahead.

Well, I went to college and I think maybe, like
a lot of your listeners, it wasespecially coming from the US at
the time.
It was just a focus thateveryone had.
Right, if you want to besuccessful, go to college.
It's going to open up so manydoors and it did.
It's probably not the doorsthat I wanted to go through.
So I got into this engineeringjob.
I was four years in after mydegree.
I already knew I wasn't reallyliking it.

(02:10):
Started working, then I foundout I really wasn't liking it
and I'm just thankful that atthe two-year mark I just
realized man, this isn't for me.
I don't like the nine to five,I don't like being in the office
.
I don't like being in thefactory.
I don't like the nine to five.
I don't like being in theoffice, I don't like being in
the factory.
I don't like engineering.
I like to problem solve, but Idon't like engineering.
And you know I'm sure we'regoing to get into it.

(02:33):
But I went on this big traveladventure and that's what got me
ultimately onto this other path.
So it's just recognizing that,hey, if I don't like where I'm
at, let's just go find somewhereelse.

Well, I bet that makes you where you can fix
things on a boat.

Yeah, yeah, the problem solving and what I got
from engineering is greatbecause I'm one of the few
captains I feel like that cancommunicate with the chief
engineer and I understand whathe's saying and he can do things
that I don't do, but Iunderstand why he's doing it, so
it leads for a really good,healthy relationship Perfect.

That is perfect, Because I am not a mechanic and
I wish I had those skills.
I just get out the credit cardand called someone to come fix
my boat Right, you said.
Depression nearly consumed you.
How did travel and that firstencounter with a yachty become
the spark that changedeverything?

Yeah, sorry, I was breaking up.
I think you were asking meabout that first instance.

Yeah, Well, when you met the yachty I think you
were you had some depression andthen you encountered a yachty
and something sparked interestin you.

Right, exactly, exactly.
So when I was working I gotpretty low when I was working in
that job and thankfully acompany ended up buying us out
and well, I say thankfully, butwe all got laid off.
But that was really the sparkand kind of what snapped me out
of my funk, because I was kindof it was a blessing, right?

Yeah, it was a blessing in disguise.

And after I got over the initial shock, I knew
I'd always wanted to travel theworld.
And you know better than I,when you're just working a
9-to-5, you don't have a lot ofvacation time.
That's why we ended up gettinginto boating and getting off the
grid, because you need moretime to enjoy and to travel.
So when I went around, I alwaysstarted backpacking.
I went through Eastern Europeand then I ended up in Southeast

(04:16):
Asia and I was inside one of myhostels in Thailand and that's
when I met the first yachty.
He was a deckhand and when hestarted telling me about his
life and he started showing mephotos on his phone of being in
the Bahamas and riding jet skisin the Mediterranean and crystal
blue waters, and I was reallydumbfounded because I didn't
even know that job existed.
And at the time I don't eventhink the show which we're going

(04:38):
to go into later as well BelowDeck wasn't that popular or
wasn't around.
And when he showed me thatother world, I really couldn't
look back.
I was like, well, I alreadylove traveling.
I might as well try travelingand making money, because it's
way more than what I'm doingright now.

Wow, that's awesome Because, yeah, I used to
have a job that was more it wasin the hospitality industry,
which I think a lot of yachtiescome from, that right, some come
from the hospitality industrythe hotel industry.

Right, exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah, you'd be
surprised.
I think most people that getinto the industry, especially on
the stewardess or steward side,are really just hospitality
workers, whether it's, you know,fine restaurants, whether it's
working in hotels.
I mean, at the end of the day,we are kind of like a, you know,
a floating hotel that's on thewater.
So people that have hotel ormanagement or hospitality skills

(05:31):
in general, that's all going tobe exactly what we need on
board.
We just, you know, throw a fewropes, lines and motors in the
mix.

Right, okay, and responsible for people's, so
okay.
So, looking back, do you thinkbeing pushed into engineering
gave you skills that laterhelped in leadership and problem
solving at sea?
Did any of that help you?

I would say definitely the engineering
skills.
Like we said, I think, at thebeginning, what I wanted to do
was become an engineer on ayacht and just the way it all
played out, I ended up going thecaptain route Instead.
I kind of realized I wanted tobe outside.
Played out, I ended up goingthe captain route instead.
I kind of realized I wanted tobe outside.
I didn't want to be in theengine room, I wanted to, you
know, feel the sea breeze whichyou can probably assimilate with
that.
But in terms of um, leadership,yeah, I think that as well.

(06:17):
I mean, I've always been a bitmature for my age, but the
company that I was working for Iwas in kind of being groomed
for a management or a leadershiptype of position.
That was the program I was in.
So I think leading teams andbeing in charge of budgets and
all of that like, even thoughit's a different skill, in a way
it's also exactly what's mademe better at what I'm doing
right now.

Yeah, well, I mean it was a noticeable change in
episode six when you came on andyou were just like this is what
we're doing, and people werelike I like this guy.
You were so calm and you knewwhat to do and you had great
leadership skills.

That's awesome, thank you.

You're welcome.
So you climbed from deckhand tobosun to captain.
What leadership trait made thebiggest difference for you on
that journey?

leadership trait made the biggest difference for
you on that journey?
I would probably.
You know, on the one side, Iwould think I would like to
thank.
You know my organization skillsand you know I like things to
be done a certain way, like SOPs, all of that and I think that
comes back from engineering andusing that right or left side of
the brain.
That's very analytical, but Ithink also people skills, to be

(07:24):
honest, you know, being someonethat can be approachable, being
someone that someone can talk to, and and also just being
willing to learn from otherpeople.
I think that's probably helpedme get the furthest in my career
, because at the beginning Ididn't know anything.
I mean, I was coming.
I was coming from being a deskjockey or a manufacturing
engineer, like I didn't knowanything about boats, I didn't
know anything about linehandling, and I think if it

(07:45):
wasn't for having such anagreeable personality, I think
it would have been a slowerclimb or maybe I'd still be an
officer right now struggling forthat first captain position.
But I had the right mentors andI think that started out by
having the right disposition andthen thinking that I had
something in me that could betaught.

I had something in me that could be taught.
Okay, so as a bosun, you'rerunning deck operations under
pressure.
Well, I do might have alreadycovered this from one skill,
from that role that you thinkevery sailor or aspiring captain
should master.

Well at the bosun position.
It's an interesting and funposition because the bosun is
kind of at least in yachting.
It's like the last time thatyou're still spending the
majority of your time on deck,like I still do some paperwork
or safety related things, butfor the most part you're out
there with the guys and galsfixing things, doing things.
So it's very much so you knoworganization and your day to day

(08:40):
kind of planning skills andthat even if you're in the
bridge, that's the same skillsthat you use to organize
contractors, to plan when you'regoing into the shipyard.
Right, it's all that logisticalside and I think that's
probably the most I still use.
Like, yeah, I go occasionallyon deck now and if the deckhand
or the mate are having troubledoing something, of course time

(09:02):
to show them how to use the Sikagun, time to show them how to
do some light carpentry.
So that's still useful.
But I think at that point,transitioning from bosun into
captain, it's more theorganizational side, the
operations, and kind ofunderstanding the budget, what
we got, how we're going to makethings happen and deadlines.

You're a captain's dream come true.
Well, especially going throughthat bridge in St Martin.

Right, right, yeah, the bridge is super tight.
I think I do.
Watching back, I was actuallyremarking the same thing to my
girlfriend.
I was saying you know, it'sreally helpful, I think, to be a
captain that's telling theother captain what we're seeing,
because if you've never driventhe boat, you don't know that
the captain's looking to knowwhen they can swing or which
distances matter, and I think Iwas good at that before.

(09:52):
But I think after driving boatsthen coming back down, it's
like okay, it's second nature.
I know he's going to want toknow this.
I know he's going to want toknow that.

Yeah, you said said the stern has passed the
end of the bridge.
Is that what you?

said Correct.

And the other guy never said that and he was
loving it, the captain wasloving it.
So let's see, I have beenthrough a bridge like that, but
not in that big of a yacht.
I have taken my boat through abridge like that on the west
coast of Florida.
So let's see, um, you're run,you're under pressure when you

(10:32):
say, when you're the bosun Iwould say so yeah, it's like you
.

You, well, you.
You have a lot, of a lot onyour plate, right at least in
that position on that boat.
That's 180, 180 foot of yachtwith three people under you.
That's not a small feat.
You've got a lot to do and alot of manpower to allocate.
Even though it's just a middlemanagement type of position,
there's a lot on your platethere.

Yeah, you're in charge of safety and everything
for all the toys, all the watertoys and the people that are
when they're out there.
You guys are in charge ofkeeping everybody safe, right.

Yeah, yeah, that's definitely true.
So it's yeah, there's a lot atstake there, so it's good.
Like you said, there's 10guests, three crew under me, 180
foot of boat and probably 30million worth of damage and
sunken costs we can have.
So there's a lot.

Yeah, okay.
So the yacht building, theyacht school Okay, let's talk
about that.
What inspired you to launchyour yacht school after nearly a
decade in the industry?
Was it a decade after being inthe industry?

So I've got over a decade now.
I think the school is gettingclose to the three-year mark.
So let's say, let's just roundand say it was at the seven-year
mark.
It was while I was doing myfirst captain position.
So after already doing that foralmost a year, I had always
been thinking about it.
But I just realized like, hey,you know, there's so much that
I'm still learning.

(11:56):
But there, you know, just likeI wish there was someone to
teach me those things and thereare occasionally, but most of my
career has been a lot ofmentorship and if I can't find
someone, then going off andlearning it on my own.
And I just realized thatthere's not really a centralized
place that caters to yacht crew.
Right, we're like this weirdsliver inside the maritime
industry.

(12:16):
We're not a cruise ship, we'renot a small tiny motorboat,
we're just this thing andthere's a lot of rules and
things that go on to it, butthere's just not a formal
process of like, how do I getinto it, how do I become the
best yachty I can be andultimately in the position I'm
at, now, and how can I becompetitive in the yachting, and
even worse when you start goinginto it.

(12:37):
it's not only that we don't havethat many places to go for good
information, it's also thatthere's a lot of disinformation.
There's a lot of lack ofinformation.
So then people make baddecisions in terms of how they
try to get into it and Irealized that look, I am barely
in this right.
I stumbled upon a guy who wasdoing it.
He told me about it.
I banked it all, I bet thefarmhouse, so to speak, and I

(13:00):
went and did it.
But there's so many people thatmaybe they wish they could do it
, or they're trying to do it,but they're not really knowing
which lever to pull.
What's going to make the mostdifference?
Is this even going to work?
Because I mean, when I wasstarting out, like I remember at
my going away party, I was inHouston, I was working on gas,
and I think half the peoplethere thought I was crazy.
Like they were there, you couldtell their faces when I was

(13:22):
like, oh, I'm going to go workon super yachts, they're like,
wow, this guy is checking intosome mental institution, you
know, and and that feeling ofloneliness or isolation, it's,
it's, it's palpable, it's, it's,it's strong, like my parents
were like, what the fuck are youdoing?
Oh, sorry, I don't know if Ican swear.

That's all right, no problem.
They're like what the hell areyou?

doing.
You have an engineering degreeso I figured there's a lot of
people having theseconversations behind closed
doors and they need a place likeI just paid for you to get this
degree.

No, thankfully, at least I paid for it.

But uh, yeah, all right, I just thought I I
thought that there needed to bea better way and that's what
kind of got me on this train andI I've always been tech focused
because I'm an engineer, so itstarted like as a passion
project and then it kind ofbecame a little bit more than
that and started growing.

Well, you know I'm a real estate agent and my
clients that I sell golf frontcondos, like second homes,
investment properties and theengineer clients are.
They can be difficult becausethey want so much information
and they're going to analyzeeverything.
But, when they make a decision.
It's solid, but they want tosee everything and that's good.

(14:32):
That's good.
Some people don't even look atit.

That's the biggest issue.
It's funny you say that becausethat's exactly how I am, but in
terms of some people notlooking at it like, another
thing is I couldn't tell you howmany yacht crew don't ever read
their contract.
I think maybe by and far 90percent of the people I talk to
when I go hey, you look at thecontract.
They go, oh, and that's one ofthe big points too, I wanted
crew to understand what is inyour contract, why is it there

(14:59):
and what should you be lookingfor, and how can we kind of
decrypt the legalese so you knowwhat the hell you're signing,
because so many people haveproblems with that.
So that's.

Are they all?

different.
Well, there's standards of whatthey should have, but
technically, if you're a smallprivate boat, then there's a lot
of leeway on what you can docompared to, like, a really big
or commercially run yacht.
So there is variation and it'sgood to know and spot things
ahead of time, because sometimesit's just a conversation and
then they realize, oh yeah, likethis person knows what you're

(15:30):
talking about, like that theyneed better terms rather than
being for lack of a better term,being taken advantage of.

Sure, and that happens.

Yeah, yeah, I mean, yachting is a worldwide
industry and the thing is, youknow, to push people into a very
professional super yachtingtype because we're protected by
a lot of rights, but maybe ifyou look at the boat behind me,
that's less than 100 foot.
If you're just a local thatdecides to start working on that
and you guys just work out somekind of cash agreement, that's

(16:00):
a lot different than what we do.
So knowing that you can go fromthat to maybe this and what's
regular and what's right, likethat, it's a big deal and I
think it's just education.

Okay, yeah, that makes sense.
So someone starting with zeroexperience what's the first
realistic step your programhelps them take?

The first thing I like to do, and one of the
immediate things, is, you know,we hop on a call and I also give
them this questionnaire to kindof unload everything that
they've done.
Like, I look at the resume,their CV, because everyone's
starting from a different placeand even though you know, like
people like me, I had noexperience at all.
I had some hospitality.
So we start putting togetheryour CV or your resume, because

(16:40):
that's the first thing thatpeople leave for last, actually.
But I think it's good to do itat the beginning, because then
we look at it and we can see OK,you're lacking in this.
Maybe it's a good idea to gofreelance or do this in the
meantime.
Like, for example, I had one guyhe worked in IT his whole
career and he had never even setfoot on a boat and that's fine,

(17:02):
there's people that make thatwork but he wanted to be more
competitive.
So thankfully, since we startfrom that at the beginning, I
sat with him and I was like,look, there's a few different
websites that you can go to.
You're already in Europe.
You can even just freelancehelp deliver some sailboats or
just go see if you even likeboats.
So by doing that then it helpedhim later on, because then he
goes through the course, he getsthe right certifications.

(17:23):
And then when he gets to theactual marina and he's looking
for work on a yacht, they'relike, okay, this guy's not just,
you know, a Swiss, um it guy,he actually has already been
been, you know, meet on a salesship, he's already washed a boat
, he's already, you know, notjust willing, but he has some
skillset.
So you know, for some peopleit's that, For some people, I
recommend them go work in a baror a restaurant for a little bit

(17:44):
, just to have some customerservice.
It's different advice foreveryone, but if you start from
the beginning imagining whereyou want to go, I think it's
easier to set goals.

Well, that's a good idea.
Someone's asking a question.
It's a good idea to first findout if you get seasick right,
because some people don't evenknow it, they get too far into
it.
Oh, so the question.

Cv stands for curriculum vitae, which is a
resume.
And to the seasickness thing.
It's actually funny because Ithink on yachts we're actually
quite blessed because we're theleast prone for seasickness,
because the yachts typicallyespecially if they're above,
even above, like a hundred foot,you typically will have some
kind of stabilization, eitherstabilizer fins or a sea keeper

(18:32):
or or something.
Right, because the people thatride our boats the guests, the
guy who owns this boat like hedoesn't like rocking, like he's
not in it for the same reasonsthat you are, so they want the
most stable ride that they canget.
So we pay big money to makesure that the boat's not rocking
too much and we pick theanchorages that you're not going
to rock too much.
And then, on top of that, ifit's going to be really bad, I'm

(18:55):
like, hey, boss, we're going tobe getting hit this passage
with five foot seas, you're notgoing to feel comfortable.
I mean, we'll just change thedates or go somewhere else,
because they also don't want todamage the boat, because we have
expensive artwork, because wehave expensive custom whatever
decoration that you can't justpull off the shelf, so they're
really flexible.
And if you tell them, hey, it'snot a good idea.

(19:16):
This isn't going to end well,they'll just go okay, let's move
the trip, Because on top ofthat, these guys are the ones
who run the businesses, so theycan move their life however they
want.
They'll be like okay, I'm justgoing to go hang out in
Saint-Tropez for another week,I'll see you guys down there.
So it's nice because if you'reprone to seasickness, you don't
even go into rough seas thatoften Very, very seldom.

Okay.
Well, Danielle, from over onInstagram says you're a real
asset to this season.
Your experience really shows.

Thanks.

Danielle.
She's a friend of mine, she's afan.

That's awesome.

Okay, so I do have a question about.
I've never been on a cruiseship.
It's just not really my thingJust to go get on there with
another bunch of Americans andgo to Alvar experience on my own
boat and go there andexperience the country and the
people.
I've heard of people gettingseasick on a cruise ship.

(20:16):
So the yachts are I'm showingsome ignorance here.
They're better, they've got thestabilizers and everything more
so than a cruise ship you think.

Well, what I can say to that is like everyone, no
matter what I think everyonehas a limit to, they will
eventually get seasick, right,Like even the most hardened
person.
If you put them in the middleof a hurricane at some point,
you know your balance comes off.
Your balance comes off.
But some people are crazy,prone to it, to the point, like
you said, that they're seasickon a cruise ship which I think

(20:49):
probably like 90% or 95% ofpeople would never right, Unless
it was so bad that you knowhonestly something crazy is
happening.
But those things are so stable,especially the newer ones, they
fit like 10,000 people on them.
So if you feel like you getseasick on a cruise ship, then
yeah, you know the stabilizer isprobably not going to be the
solution, but if you're anyone,else not the career for you.

Okay, yeah.

But the thing is, for most people they're not
going to go through it.
Or if you get seasick on yachts, it's going to be very few
times that we're put into thatsituation and, you know you,
there's always medication for itand a bunch of other remedies
that people use Like.
I've had a lot of crew thatthey make do in a yachting
career just fine with theoccasional seasickness, and you
get used to it too.

Sure, okay, so you teach new crew to avoid
expensive mistakes.
What's the most common andcostly mistake beginners make?

Well, one of the big things.
And for whether you're AmericanAmericans, probably less so,
because I think there's lessmaritime licenses.
But you know, when you'recoming from different parts of
the world, there's a lot ofdifferent courses and
certifications you can get inthe world of boats, right, and a
lot of people they go by whatthey see in some blog or what
someone says and they actuallyend up buying so many more

(22:03):
courses, what someone says, andthey actually end up buying so
many more courses and and a lotof them like, either they have
nothing to do with superyachting or they're just not
necessary, or even they weren'tfor you at this stage in your
career.
They were actually for later.
So I see, sometimes people drop, you know five thousand.
I've had a crew member thatdropped almost ten thousand
dollars in a bunch of differentpacks and courses and things
that they were told to get, andthen you see, hey, hey man, you

(22:24):
could have done that for youknow a couple thousand in your
country, or even less, you knowfifteen hundred bucks, and at
least if you would have spentthat money instead just like
focusing on trying to get somesome work, you would have
started building your CV, as wewere saying, or your resume and
that would get you so muchfurther.
Because these people are soldthese promises that like kind of

(22:44):
almost like, the more you spend, the faster you'll find a job,
and it's not true.
You know, up to a certain pointyou need certain licenses to be
legal, to be on the boat, butyou don't need to go and, you
know, buy the whole catalogbecause it's not going to help
you.
You still are, still say, dayone, stepping on a boat for the
first time so in this case, youdon't always get what you pay

(23:04):
for.
Right.

Okay.
So, Danielle, I just copy andpasted this from Instagram.
This is about the show, so ifwe can answer this, great.
I've got a below-deck question.
Should you have been the one?
To tell Captain Kerry aboutScottish and the guests, and do
you now think he crossed theline?
Are you allowed to answer thatjust now?

I think maybe it's best if we set that one for the
end when we're doing the belowdeck segment, just to be on the
safe side.

So, for people who don't know, because I haven't
said it, we have therepresentative from Bravo coming
on when we talk about the show.
That's a requirement and that'sgreat.
That'll be exciting.
We'll get to meet the rep fromBravo.
So, danielle, we're going tosave that question.
And she also says I am too old,55 years young, to start a

(23:53):
career in yachting.
And she has a question mark.

So am I too old?
She's saying, or she thinksshe's old, but she wants to just
confirm.

I think she wants to know.
Can I do?

it the, the oldest or youngest, however you want to
say it.
The oldest young person or theyoungest old person that I've
helped is pretty much at thecutoff of of about 50.
And it's not to say that youcouldn't later, it's just it's.
It's just getting harder andharder at that point.
Right Cause, like in yourforties, I know plenty of people
that they're sailors or youknow, their body's still running

(24:24):
on all cylinders, they lookyoung in the face, like there's
no aging there.
And it's not to say that youcan't have 55.
Right, there's so manydifferent types of boating and
there's sailboats in theCaribbean and there's so many
things.
But I like to tell people like45 to 50 is my sweet spot for,
like, when you should considerswitching.
If you have it in you and youreally want to do it, go for it,

(24:46):
of course.
But I just think unless you getin quickly at that point, then
you're kind of on a your, yourwindow is getting smaller and
you don't have that muchexperience yet.
Like, once you're in, like,let's say, I could ride this off
into the sunset if I want.
Right, I'll have my licenses, Ican.
I can be 70 and still becaptain a yacht, but I'd be
having a different conversationwith myself starting at 55,

(25:07):
because it might have been hardto accrue the same kind of
experience.
So I think it's not impossible.
But after 50, it does get a bitharder, and the oldest that
I've helped get in is probably45 to 50.
I have seen a50-something-year-old deckhand
and it's just less.
That's what I say Notimpossible, but just taper
expectations?

Would it depend on maybe your one or two person on
a yacht, a smaller yacht, butthe setup you have on below deck
I can see why an older personthat just you know it'd be too
much.
You know, with the tightquarters, no privacy, I think
the older you get you're likeI'm not sharing a room with
anybody.
I think that's okay If you'relike in your twenties, you know

(25:51):
you've got a little moretolerance yeah, you've got a
little more tolerance for that.

Yeah, I think, like you said it, if you're on a you
know, for lack of a better terma below deck type of yacht,
like a big white boat, as wecall them that, I think if you
want to be 50, you shouldprobably be a chief right, like
a chief engineer or a chiefofficer, or the captain.
You wouldn't be starting there.
But if for, like you said, asmall, small yacht like or maybe
even like wow, that was bad.

(26:16):
Like that one, you could do itright.
You never know, that might justbe a captain and like a deck.
One stew or stew slash deckhand,exactly exactly, and that would
be much easier to get into, andthen maybe you can go and
become captain of that and thenyou just jump the whole thing.
So there's ways to do it andthat's what I try to help people
find, like what works best foryou, because it's not the same
as everyone.

Okay, let's see For sailors dreaming of starting
a charter business, because wegot to tie this into uh.
What specific skills from yourschool could prepare them to
succeed with clients, crew andoperations?

I think.
I think, uh, like I mentionedin um in the course, I kind of
like to give a a holistic orlike a full explanation of the
yachting industry, because youknow whether you want to be, if
you want to be crew, it's stillgood to know who your management
company is and why they existand how the recruiter makes
money, and you know how you fitinto the puzzle.

(27:15):
You know what.
What does the charter brokerexpect of the boat?
What are the implications ofthat?
When we have a charter, what'sgoing to happen?
What's the normal tip?
So I kind of go into a lot ofall that stuff.
But one of the biggest thingsabout my course and it's not
just a course, it's not evenjust coaching with me, it's a
community.
So you've got a bunch of othercrew in there.

(27:38):
So it's really cool becauseeveryone in there is they're
already invested in their career, right.
So you've got like this groupof people that do care and do
want to know more and are hungryfor knowledge.
So that's like the best placeto continue getting more
information and working with.
And I can't tell you, you know,when you are dealing with other
people that are kind of at yourlevel, you just or even more,

(28:01):
you kind of like just get a lotsmarter really fast.
So even for me you know being acaptain and being connected to
people ahead of me it lets mekind of download that
information faster.
All being said, you know theconcepts of charters, how they
work, sample contracts, all thatstuff I cover and we talk about
, and again you have thismastermind of people that are
also going through that that canteach you more.

Okay For sailors looking to cruise the world.
What lessons from your schooltransfer directly to passes
making and managing their ownboats?
Because you mentioned in youremail to me I thought it was
interesting from episode 36 ofSalty Podcast you said while

(28:43):
Shane and Amy shared theircruising adventures in episode
36, I would offer a yachtcaptain's insider perspective
from someone who guided whiteboats through these waters
professionally for years.
Can you tell me more about that?
That was interesting, sure sure.

So I figured we could talk, you know, a little
bit more about sailing theCaribbean or going through a lot
of these places, but probablyfrom a different vantage point,
like as a sailboat, and going tosome of those marinas, let's
say, and even cruising theBahamas versus what yachts
typically do, and going down tothe Exuma chain.
Everything from logistics howwe actually run these things and

(29:18):
how we do, I'm willing and alsothe marinas that we go to.
Everything's a little bitdifferent.
So I figured we could talk alittle bit about your caribbean
experience or just kind of goback and forth about that,
because, um, yeah, the thingthat's cool about yachts is just
they're not only are we like abig enterprise, but we actually
really affect whatever localinfrastructure that we plug into

(29:40):
.
Like there's so many businessesthat revolve around yachts,
right from the floristry to thepeople that bring us the food to
when we buy fish.

Like everything is on just such a big scale.
It's interesting.
Yeah, so in St Martin you couldeven create your own carnival
for your boat.
That was amazing.
I was like, oh, this isn'tgoing to be good.
And then, all of a sudden, thefire breathers and the walking
on the stilts and the band.
The band was awesome.

The band was really good.
Yeah, I think that that's.
That's one of the funny andcool things about yachting is,
you know, there really is norequest that's too large.
And I mean, if we've I've I'vebeen in the Bahamas and you know
we're we've got a certain typeof of meat or or food item that
the boss really wants, and Imean we fly things in sometimes

(30:31):
that's the scale of how it is.
You know, I've flown in a$25,000 meat order from South
Florida into certain portsbecause that's just what they
wanted or that's what we needed,or we were out of certain
things.
So it's just an interestinglifestyle.
Like you know, whatever youropinion on it is, it's still
just logistically it's a lot ofhocus pocus to make the magic

(30:55):
happen.
I remember even when we were inCanawan, which is a small
island in St Vincent and theGrenadines same thing it was
COVID and we couldn't leave andI can't remember why.
We really were kind of stuck onthat island and up to a certain
point we were just.
We were literally flying insupplies, we were flying in
water equipment, water toys,whatever, because we still had

(31:15):
guests aboard, but we reallywere completely cut off from the
outside world.
So it was just literally flyingin private planes that had the
stuff that we needed, and it'sjust to make, to make that
happen.
It's, it's a really.
There's a lot of hands and alot of feet moving on the ground
to do that.

That's good.
So the, the communities thereare can make.
I've I mean, I've watched theshow over the years and every
kind of you know, request wasmade and and they made it happen
.
Things were being flown in lotsof money spent.
They made it happen.
Things were being flown in lotsof money spent.

Yeah, if you want to feel poor work on a yacht,
it's a really humblingexperience.

Can you give us an idea on how much it costs for
three days on that yacht?

Yeah, sure thing For say four people Say four
people.
So if you're going to rent acharter yacht that's about that
size, like that saint david,you're looking at, let's say,
it's about 200 000 for the week,and that's before we talk about
fuel and all the other um, whatdo we call them?
All the like additionalexpenses that I get accrued.
So if you're looking at a dailyrate, what you're looking at uh

(32:23):
, what man.
You know what they say whenyou're looking at being
someone's looking at you, you'reworse at math, so, so, you're
looking at what like um I'llfigure whatever.

What do you want me to figure?

well, let's say three days of that.
So you're going to divide byseven months by three.
But anyway, you're looking atprobably about 70 000, right, if
you're looking at three daysper day.

Now, does that include food?
No, so I was saying for likefor like three nights you're
looking at three days a day.

Now, does that include food?
No, so I was saying for likethree nights.
You're looking at probably like70, 80 thousand, depends on.
The boat is older or newer, buton the show you can take it per
day.
But in real life and realyachting you typically wouldn't
like that.
That boat would never charterper day, it would be per week.
So you'd look at seven, 10, 14,28 days.
That's kind of how we wouldroll.
And that's again before fuel,before dockage, before food,

(33:11):
before anything like that, likeany incidentals.
That's just to have the shellof the boat sitting there
without spending any fuel,without doing anything else.

That's amazing.
So what?
If so?
Joyce from from Instagram sayslove below deck, love all these
videos, thanks, joyce.
So so the?
So what?
What do you think the totalwould be?
I guess, well, it depends onthe person's taste if they just
want hamburgers and fries or ifthey want lobster, and so it's

(33:43):
all based on what they what onwhat?
The preference?

sheets say.
So it's all based on what thepreference sheets say, correct.
But most people I've never beenon a charter where we didn't
pull out all the stops on food.
Even if people have particulartastes like, oh I don't like
shellfish, that's fine, we'regoing to still get the highest
cuts of all the other meat andwe're going to have the best
fish and we're going to have,you know, everything's going to

(34:06):
be to yachting level.
So even if you, so even if thepreference sheet says cut
corners here or whatever, we'restill going to spend a lot on
food.
So let's say, if you'respending $200,000, and let's say
the bill depends on how muchyou cruise, honestly, but I'd
say you're looking at, I wouldbe expecting that bill to be
closer to $300,000 than $200,000by the time you're signing it.

That is crazy money.

Yeah.
Hugo, that is and that's andthat's that boat.
I mean I've had friends thatwork on, you know like not.
What do I want to say?
In American, 300 foot or more,like you could be looking at
several million per week.
You could be looking at 1.5,two, two and a half, 3 million
per week on the right, on thosetype of yachts and as far as the

(34:51):
crew goes, do they makeanything other than let's say
we're not talking about belowdeck?

let's just say it's not below deck and then
we'll talk about below deck ifwe can, just on a yacht like
that that's not being shown onTV.
Do they make any kind of salaryor hourly?

On yachts, yeah for sure, we're not slave labor,
we're getting paid.
So don't worry, we get basesalaries.
And then on top of that we getthe tips.
So any kind of yacht, let's sayentry level, for like deck
cannons too we try to shoot forit's anywhere from like 3,000 to
4,500.
That's what I'm seeing.
A lot of new crew.
It depends on where you are inthe world, what size yacht, but

(35:33):
that's kind of like entry leveland it just goes up from there.
But that's they're making thatevery, every month, whether it
boats use, whether it's sittingon the dock, whether it's moving
, you, you, you.
It's just that's how it is.
That's like the, the basesalary.
And then you know there's somany factors that go into that,
after licenses, career and thenright negotiation skills.

(35:53):
But people start going up fromthere.
And then when you throw incharter, I mean people are
doubling or tripling, triplingtheir salary.
Um, with the tips, cause youcan be making 3000, I've made
5,000, I've seen 10,000 on acertain charter per week, per
person, yeah, per person.
And if you're talking over thesummer, that you have, let's say
, two charters per month, thatdeckhander, that stew, is

(36:15):
coining some good money.
And well, that's why I'm hereand that's why so many people
are here.

Right, and so what about the engineer and all
those guys that we don't seevery often on the show?
Do those guys get any of thetip?

Yeah.
So basically, on a boat,everyone who's working should be
getting the tip and it shouldbe even For the industry.
That's pretty standard, likeeven if you're the captain
versus the deckhand.
It's not that we're going tosay, oh, I'm making 10 or 12 and
he's making three, like no,it's split down the middle.

So the captain gets that too, yeah, Nice.

Yeah, you could make an argument that hey, well,
the people on the ground areworking harder.
But I think it's just easiestto not pick and choose.
And we're a crew, we're oneteam, one family, and we just
cut it and split it evenly andyou know, everyone's got their
reason to be here.
No too big or too small,Everyone's pretty integral,

(37:12):
right?
The guy who's driving, woman orman who's driving it in, is
just as valuable as the personwho's cleaning up after everyone
eats.

Like without anyone, the whole thing
collapses 100%.
I think the captain deserves it.
I mean all the work he's put into get that job and the fish
stinks at the head.
If it's a good experience or abad experience, it all goes on
the captain, so I definitelythink he deserves it.
So when people are figuring atip, is there some suggestion
made to the clients?

It's like percentage-wise or something.
This is a really interestingquestion.
It's a really delicate topic inthe yachting industry and I'll
give it from a crew perspectiveand then I'll give it.
Don't be cheap, you know it.
I think this tip standardsfollow really like american
custom, like I think everyone'ssaying basically, okay, if
someone tips 10, then it waslike completely okay, kind of in

(38:01):
the bad side.
If it's 15, it's like okay onthe good side.
18, you think it was prettygood.
20, wow, that must have been,you know, pretty the good side.
18%, you think it was prettygood.
20%, wow, that must have beenpretty damn good.
And then whenever I see morethan that same as if in a
restaurant, you're like, wow,that must have been out of this
world.
I would never shoot for thatone and don't even assume the 20
.
I think if you try to go in andlook at it, it's going to be 10

(38:22):
or 15, then you're eitherdelighted or you're like, okay,
we're right on the money.
And if you're looking at itfrom the broker's perspective,
when they're trying to sell asmany charters as possible, I
mean they'll tell you tip isoptional, throw 5% in there if
you want, because they want youto just book another charter.
But that's why the dance isalways in the middle.

(38:42):
The crew wants 20, the brokerwants zero.
So 10 to 15 is a good place tomeet in the middle.

Well, what does it matter to them?
If the guy tips 20% Doesn'thurt him, right.

I guess they just think that then you'll have more
money to book another charter,I guess, because if the charter
was only I don't know 200 grandversus 240, I don't know.
It kind of doesn't make sensewhen you think about it
logically.
But they're just trying.
They know that people want thelowest price and you know
they're competing with otherbrokers that are cutting here or
getting deals there.

(39:16):
So you know, the sales game isalways different.
The crew, the crew is alwaysthe last one at the end of the
stick and they're always goingto want.
You know, crap rolls downhill.
Well, peyton, just showed up.

Oh great she doesn't have her camera on, but
so we're getting close to thosequestions.
But let's see, let's see whatelse we got here First sailors
looking to cruise the world.
Which lessons from your schoolcould transfer directly to that.
I might've already said that,Did I already?

ask that one.
You did, but we didn't talkabout it so much.
But you know we, we do prep foryou know a lot of the exams and
a lot of the certificationsthat later lead to captain
licenses.
And again, like we I wastelling you before that
something is.
You know, I started out doingthis more so to get people into
yachting and now, as we havepeople that are progressing in
their careers, like the contentis also maturing with them and

(40:09):
with the audience that we've got.
So that's what I'm busy doingnow and putting in now, like we
have a we, we kind of we roll onlike the.
The British licenses areinternationally.
That yachting kind of followsthe UK more so than you know the
U S coast guard licenses.
So there's certain courses,like the Yachtmaster or some of
the RYA courses where you knowwe do talk about, you know

(40:30):
navigational skills ormeteorology or just general
ships knowledge, like all thosethings do transfer over.
Like, even if I'm applying itto a yacht, a hand-bearing
compass and doing a deadreckoning is going to be, I'm
going to use that a lot lessthan you, of course, because
I've got all this fancyequipment, but we're both
learning the same skilletbecause, at the end of the day,

(40:51):
you know, sailing is sailing or,in my case, motoring.
But you know what I mean.

Yeah, so we have to, we have to learn all that,
and and uh well, I took ASA 101,103 and 104, and we covered it
there.
You know chart plotting.
And then of course for thecaptain's license.
There was a serious section onthat.
Thankfully I made 100 on thatsection Nice.

That's perfect.

I was a nervous wreck, so I'm going to show your
website here real quick sopeople can come to this website.

It's Super Sunday School, super Yacht, super Yacht
.
Yeah, sorry about that.
This website, it's super sundayschool, super yacht.
Yeah, sorry about that.
No, it's okay, it just soundslike a church service without
the yacht um, so that is aninteresting name.

So there are courses on here.

Tell me where to go so you're already on it, so
that super yacht sunday school.
That's the home page.
Um, like I was mentioningbefore, the big thing about it
is this is all about I want tolearn.

Not want to learn.

I want to teach and educate the next generation of
yachties, so really, we have somany resources on there that are
free, including in the otherpage.
It was like a masterclass.

Hey, I'm Hugo from Superyacht Sunday School.
How to work on a yacht.

I'm walking you through how you can become world
traveling super yacht crewwithout any boating experience.

I didn't have any, and so many other yachties
don't either on top of that,yawning is one of the most
underrated careers that you'rejust thinking about.
No one knows exists, and I'mgonna be walking you through
step by step.

It's really good about helping you kind of self
identify, because you knowthere's a lot of commitments
that get into this type oflifestyle, and that's the free
training that we have, like LikeI walk you through like what
you can expect, what thesalaries are going to be, why
it's so great, and and I thinkthat's a really good place for
people to get their feet wet andjust see like, am I really cut
out for this or do I really wantto do it Because it is an

(42:41):
absolutely amazing career andexperience.
But it's also not for the faintof heart, right.
And if you're not, if it's, Ihave a good friend that says if
you're not, a hell yes, thenit's a hell no, so it's.
If anyone is curious or eventhinking like, could I do that,
I recommend uh, check out thefree training and that master
class is gonna walk you throughwhat you need to do to find a
job all right.

So if anybody's thinking about this, let me put
up your email, because it alsohas the website in it and the
domain Perfect Hugo Ortega atSuperYachtSundaySchoolcom.
So if you're thinking about itand maybe you're thinking about
sailing around the world, butyou're like I don't have any
experience doing any of thatthis would be a great place to

(43:21):
start, wouldn't you say?

I'd say so my first Atlantic.
Well, all my Atlantic crossingshave been on a yacht, but I
mean, I went from having neverreally stepped foot above
anything more than a ferry.
And you know, now I'mcaptaining yachts and that
doesn't mean you have to be acaptain, but I think it's a good
way to see the sea and also tomake money.
Back when I started, I justwanted to travel and earn money,
and this was a lot more moneythan teaching English in China

(43:46):
and it was a lot more easy to dothan getting certified to do
something across the world, youknow.
So it's a really quick and easyway to get to see a lot of cool
places and places that you notonly are they cool, but you
might never have been therebecause they're so expensive.
You know, Monaco for the GrandPrix that was my first season
Saint-Tropez, Cannes during thefilm festival All these really

(44:07):
cool experiences to see, notjust by water but by yacht.

Yeah, you mentioned in that episode you
were talking to somebody andeverybody went whoa.
You just dropped some wisdom onthe table, like where have you
been, where'd this guy come from?
You were talking about how youlearned to be around so many
different types of people fromso many different areas.

Yeah, yeah, uh, what was?
It was also a quote that, uh,one of my first chief officers
told me he was just saying thatyou know we, we get paid good
money in yachting and as we werejust talking about.
But you know it's, you know we,the reason we do isn't just
because the charters are hard,it's because you know life at.
The reason we do isn't justbecause the charters are hard,
it's because you know life atsea, which you know isn't always

(44:49):
the easiest, is moments ofloneliness.
You miss holidays or you missother special events and their
payoff is great.
But you just have to know thatit comes at a cost and the cost
is worth it, or else we wouldn'tbe here, but that's.
You know what it takes to be aprofessional.
That's what it takes to begreat in this industry is to
realize all that.
And you know we are fromdifferent backgrounds.
You're from South Africa,you're English, I'm American or,

(45:12):
oh, I also speak Spanish as mymother tongue.
So all these reasons that weshouldn't really like make sense
and make it work.
But if we can, kind of somereally great things that are
outside most people's skill setor even most people's like
desire, and I think that's thebeautiful part about this
industry that you see coolplaces, you change as a person

(45:32):
and you also meet so many people, and it's not just the
impression that people leave onyou, but even the impressions
you leave on them.
As we all kind of you know,help enrich each other's lives.

So the people that are are in yachting when they
maybe they age out or they getburned out, whatever.
Where do you think theynormally?
What's the next step for a lotof these people?
Like, maybe they don't become acaptain on a super yacht?
What like eddie?
Remember eddie from season one,two and three or whatever,
correct.

(46:02):
He was running about a tugboatsomewhere.

So he had his well, the US Coast Guard license that
he has I'm not sure if he hashis 100 ton or what he had, but
it also covers the tugboat, sohe's doing that.
So that's kind of the obviousthing.
A captain can phase into othertypes of captains.
I know captains that now driveferries or tow boats or whatever
.
But let's say, if you want tomake a life on land, there's the

(46:28):
easy answer.
First you could stay in theyachting community and become a
recruiter, a broker, a manager,a service provider.
There's so many engineers thatgo man.
I thought I was making it whenI was the chief engineer.
Now I'm on land sending thatinvoice back to the yacht, and
now I'm making more money than Iever did because I'm on land
sending that invoice back to theyacht.
And now I'm making more moneythan I ever did because I'm
running my own business orfreelance business, just fixing

(46:48):
the same problems for more.
So that's a route for engineers.
But I mean, the cool thingabout yachting is that some
people also just save so muchmoney that they're able to kind
of go chase what their originaldream was.
Oh yeah.
I just saw on Forbes theypublished an article.
I just saw on Forbes theypublished an article.
It was a super yacht captainand chief stewardess that quit
yachting and they opened up thisluxury boutique hotel.

(47:10):
I'm not sure if it was.
It was somewhere out west, Idon't know if it was California,
but something like that andthat story is really common.
Like I have a lot of friendsthat now have an Airbnb business
or properties that they want.
That's because it's hospitality,that makes sense and you know
other people start businesses.
You know I started this whereI'm still in yachting, but
there's a lot of otherbusinesses.
It takes a special person toget into yachting and that

(47:34):
mentality will kind of keepworking with you, like you can
kind of keep doing other things.
Or you a lot of people buyproperty.
Like I said, it's a few things,but hospitality or working in
hotels, that's also something alot of chief stews get into it.
There's really the sky's thelimit.
I've seen event planning,everything.

Yeah and so on.
Below Deck.
It's a six week gig, right, doa lot of them.
Just they leave there and theygo get on another boat somewhere
.

It's a mix.
Like I left Below Deck and Icame back to work on Superyacht
Sunday School and it probablywas about six months until I
started working on a yacht again.
Some people hop off and godirectly to working on yachts.
I mean, I think some peopleeven already have their job and
that was like their vacationtime, like I've kind of seen a
little bit of everything.
And then some people go off andyou know they take a break

(48:22):
because it is a.
It takes a lot of energy to dothat experience and that's the
good thing about yachting tooyou can take a break between
working.
No one's asking.
Blocks of time that are missingin your resume is pretty common
in yachting.

So is there a lot of jobs available in this.

I'd say the estimates show that there's
probably about 100,000 crew inthe super yacht sector, so that
would be yachts that are over 80foot or 78 foot, I think is the
cutoff, and up, and the thingis that the number of yachts is
just growing, like again.
Whatever you think about theindustry, like it is growing.
There is a more discrepancy inwealth than ever and there's

(49:03):
more and more of a need for crewas these yachts are getting
bigger and bigger.

There's a lot of people's.
Industries are getting phasedout, you know, for reasons of AI
or whatever technology, butthis is an industry that's OK,
right, it's growing yeah.

I would say for the foreseeable future, because we
are such a luxury and boutiquething like yes, I mean, I think
maybe one day Elon Musk or hisgrandkid creates a robot that's
just as nice to serve you and,you know, there's no need for a
stewardess or a steward.

And you can't put that slide out.
Come on, you can't put theslide up.

Yeah, true, but for the most part, I think this is
an industry that's going to needthe human touch especially at
this price point Wow.

So anybody that's looking for a job, this might be
for you and I like what yousaid.
You don't have to spend amillion dollars, like some
people some other places mightask.
So Hayden of SV Island Spiritsays do you have a favorite
destination, favorite islandharbor?

So my answer is going to be a little bit
unorthodox.
Even though I work on a yacht,my favorite place that we've
been to on the yacht was Norway.
My first summer or no sorry, mysecond summer aboard.
We went to Norway.
It was a 90-meter yacht, a300-foot boat.
So we crossed the Atlantic, wewent up the English Channel, we
came out.
We went up the English Channel,we came out, we went to Norway.

(50:26):
Man, that was unbelievable.
Like that was a such abeautiful place.

And it's so different.

We went in the summer.
Yeah, of course, Like if you goin the winter it's a tough luck
there but we went to Norway,Denmark and Sweden.
That was that summer and it was.

You were in the North Sea right.

Yeah, yeah, how was that?
It was beautiful, I mean thewater was cold.

It was a lot colder than you would expect,
but I say it's really rough.

Well, if you pick the right time to go like you're
obviously watching the weatherwe stopped in the UK for a
couple of days before crossingas well you can find a good
window, but you just have to bemindful because, yeah, the seas
are more violent.
You can find a good window, butyou just have to be mindful
because, yeah, the seas are moreviolent.
But I mean, you think, wakingup and you know, coming on deck,
as you know, in the morningwhen the sun's coming out, like
it's one of the most beautifulthings.

(51:15):
But I think for me, like seeingthat on a fjord and just seeing
that picturesque you can seethe mountains still have snow at
the top, like it it's justsomething so special.
I've never seen something likeit and I think you know we
sometimes get spoiled.
Not that all islands look thesame or all beaches look the
same, I know they don't.
There's pink sand beach,there's really nice white sand

(51:35):
beaches, but that was sodifferent that it just really
stuck out to me okay, so, hayden, you're gonna have to go to
norway.

He always he keeps his boat in the Caribbean and
he goes and sails for six monthsout of the year.

Oh fair, yeah, I mean, even if you don't bring
your boat, if you can go and dosome boating in Norway,
especially in that northwestpart.
It's incredible, it's bar none.

Okay, should we bring Peyton out now?

I didn't know she was going to be out.
I thought she was justlistening to see that we don't.
We have all we talk about belowdeck.

So what happens if you say something wrong I think
it's she'll send you a text orsomething.
I'll just I'll get canceled,then I just won't show up the
next episode, oh no, okay, let'ssee if there's any more that I
wanted to talk about the school.
Um, your school isn't justabout getting a job.

(52:28):
You also talk about buildingpurpose.
How do you help students findfulfillment beyond just
paychecks?
I bet you got a good answer forthat.

Well, it's actually funny because I was talking
about this earlier today Likemoney is a great motivation for
a lot of things, but you knowonly so far.
Like if money's the only reasonyou're doing something,
eventually you're not going tobe able to brute force it
anymore.
When the hard times come,you're just going to go screw
this, I'm out.
I like to say that for yachtingit's about, there's three
different reasons that mostpeople get into yachting it's

(52:58):
money, or it's the travel, orit's the freedom.
Hopefully it's a combination ofeverything.
In a perfect world, the money isthe smallest one.
So even people like myself thatdidn't ever see themselves as
mariners or expecting to reallymake a career at sea, the travel
was so strong, that desire tosee the world, to meet different
people, that that's what reallypulled me.

(53:20):
And then the freedom fromgetting out of my nine to five
and no two days being the sameright, that was all that fuel
that I was like, wow, I'm inlove.
So I mean I try to, especiallyat the beginning, kind of help
figure out what is your driverand make sure that we're
stimulating that and seeing howwe get that working.
Like some people, they want totravel and see the world.
So I would recommend certaintype of yachts and programs that

(53:41):
are going to have worldcruising itineraries or start in
a port that's more likely tohave those type of boats.
Some people just want to be ona boat, but they want to make
money and have a stable life.
So some of those people mightjust sit in Florida, go
occasionally to the Bahamas on asmaller yacht and their life is
more predictable, they havemore time on land, they've got a
partner, et cetera.

(54:02):
So I just try to catereveryone's journey to what
they're looking for and again,it can always change, like you
don't have to be the same personyou were yesterday.
But that kind of personal touchis what I try to do, because at
the end, like you said, it'snot just about money and and you
need to have something elsethat's driving you.

Do any of the yachties not have a place back
wherever and they just move fromboat to boat Like they don't
even have an apartment or ahouse or anything?
Are there?

yeah, I mean that's .
That's very common, especiallyat the beginning, right when
you're starting out, it's um,it's pretty soon that you just
got rid of everything.
And then, once people get intoyachting and start saving money,
that's when you start.

A lot of people will buy an investment property
or a vacation home or reallystack up some money by not
having some place rented oranything, or no car or anything.
I mean you could really savesome money, right.

Yeah, yeah, you can .
I mean.
That's why, you know, when Iwas working as an engineer and I
was making a hundred grand ayear still, I felt like I had
less money than when I starteddoing yachting my first season
and I was only getting 3000 permonth plus the tips.
Because, you know, when I wasworking on land I had the
apartment, the car, a girlfriendbills, everything like a

(55:17):
girlfriend, yeah it wasn't cheap.
Like you know, life comes with alot of commitments and when
you're at sea it's nice.
I mean you go through a periodwhere all you pay is a cell
phone bill, like I'll sign me up.

Sure yeah, if you're in your 20s or 30s, what
an opportunity.

And even your 40s for some.
It's never too late to restart.

So let's go back to Danielle's question.
Now that Peyton's here andPeyton is the representative
from Bravo, she's backstage.
She doesn't have her camera on,so I'm assuming she doesn't
want to come on but shout out toPeyton.
Let's go back to this question.
Should you have been the one totell Captain Kerry about

(56:00):
Scottish and the guest?
Do you now think he crossed theline, the guest?
And do you know?
Do you now?

think he crossed the line, so the reason I didn't
I?
The answer to this question isyes, a hundred percent yes,
right, if, if I am, if I findout that he did something like
that or that he's sayingsomething like that, that's it.
It falls on me, as the leaderof the department, to to deal
with that.
The problem that happened wasthe first strike.
I wasn't at the beach so Inever really saw what was going

(56:27):
on.

In the water.

In the water, right .
So for anyone that doesn't havethe context, one of the
deckhands got extra comfortablewith one of the guests in the
water Anyway, I wasn't there, Ididn't see it.
He was sent in a second time bythe leader that was there the
chief stew.
So obviously someone thoughtthat was okay at the time.
Anyway, it comes back to melater.
We're all drinking, we get inthe car, quite.

(56:49):
I'm quite drunk at the time andhe mentions this and at the
time I think it's a joke, right,because he just mentioned this.
Surely he couldn't be thisstupid, surely this can't be
real, right.
Later on in the jacuzzi, hebrings it up and I'm already in

(57:13):
bed, so I don't know that.
He's told the whole crew this,which at that point would have
made me feel like, oh shit, thisis actually a real thing.
And because he had done suchcrazy antics at dinner, you know
, I really forgot about thatconversation.
Again, the alcohol doesn't help.
I'd forgotten that.
He mentioned that in the carbecause he proceeded to sleep
with someone, like on the beachand in a hotel Sorry, in a
bathroom that night, yeah, andlike there was so much other
chaos that then later that day,when Kerry calls me.

(57:34):
That's when I was like oh shit,like I completely had put this
aside, because then the nextmorning, you know, we do the
meeting, we start cleaning andwhatever, and again he mentions
it to a couple other people insituations when I wasn't there.
So anyway, long story short,you know, fault of mine, I
should have clocked it, maybewrote it down or whatever, but I
forgot about it until the nextday.
But of course there was instantregret there.

(57:56):
I was like, oh shit, yeah, this, this is my place.
And I was actually.
I felt quite bad about it.

And you?
You didn't have the luxury ofseeing what the camera saw until
later.

Yeah, exactly Hindsight's 20-20, especially
when there's a TV show.

Do they ever come and say hey, behind the scenes,
you need to know.
Do any of the camera?
People talk?

No, no, we're left to our own devices.
Whatever you see us doing isbecause we're actually that
crazy and have no knowledge ofwhat's going on.

So those, those camera people, they're not
feeding you information aboutwhat somebody else is doing.

No, it's a neutral party.
There's no, there's no back andforth.

I can see how somebody I mean if somebody got
a little they might want toshare some information, some of
the camera crew they might haveto sign some NDAs or something.
Okay, let's do a little rapidfire, and this is about the show
Reality versus real life.
Let's go Coffee or energydrinks before a long, long

(59:05):
charter I'm a coffee guy okaysuper favorite, super yacht,
gadget or toy oh, interesting,oh, I like.

Well, it's not really a gadget like for the,
I'm thinking for the yacht.
There's something calleddynamic positioning, where the
yacht can literally keep itselfin place, you know, using the
thrusters and engine withoutmoving.
I think that's really cool interms of like a gadget for the
actual boat do they all havethat?
no, no, it's really big yachtswill have that, you know.
I think probably when you'reabove the 300 foot range, you
can count on it.

(59:38):
I haven't had it on anythingsmaller than that.
But you know newer stuff.
I don't know what's going on.
And in terms of gadget for thecrew, I think, um, I was always
really big when I was a deckhandon like a leatherman, because
it had, you know, it's like aswiss army knife.
You have a screwdriver, youhave a knife, you have
everything, and I think that'sreally handy to have on deck
okay, most jaw-droppingdestination you ever dropped an

(59:59):
anchor.

Capn Tinsley (01:00:00):
You already answered that one.
Um what's more stressful?
Docking in tight quarters ordealing with a VIP guest?

Hugo Ortega (01:00:08):
Ooh, that's a good question.
I, I guess, depends on the sizeof the boat.
I think you know, docking on areally big boat like St David it
is difficult for sure, but I'vehad some guests that are really
difficult to manage.
So I'll say the boat, butthere's guests that can be worse
yeah, okay.

What's the most crazy request from a guest that
made you almost say this isn'tworth it?

oh, that's so hard because we're always taught that
there's no, no demand too big.
But I'll probably.
Oh, yes, I know one.
Okay, I was, I working.
So that summer that I wasworking in Norway, Denmark,
Sweden, on that yacht.
We were in Denmark, the bosswas really big on cycling and we
were waiting.
You know, wherever we went, wehad a caravan, we had multiple

(01:00:57):
cyclists, we had a car that hadall the supplies and backup
stuff in case one of the bikeswent down.
Anyway, I was always managingthat the car's not there and
he's getting really, reallyantsy.
He's like we got to go.
We got to go and I was like sir, you know, I'm standing there
with all the kit.
I was like I can't go, we needthe car.
And he's like, hey, that carover there, I want it.
And I look and it's at a redlight.

(01:01:17):
There's just a minivan with afamily in there.
And for a second I was like ishe asking me to go buy that car
or steal it or what's going on?
But I was like no, boss, Ican't go take that car, there's
people in it.
And luckily the other car pullsup pretty much at the same time
while we're talking.
But it was just such an Ididn't even have time to follow

(01:01:37):
up.
I'm pretty sure he was like no,make sure that car gets taken
somehow.
He wanted you to buy it.
Pretty much sure that car gets.
He wanted you to somehow.

He wanted you to buy it pretty much.
He's saying I want that car,like go go sort that out, and I
was like man, he's pretty out oftouch, like I can't just do
that, oh my goodness.

Yeah, you're dealing with people who never
get said no to you're.

Yeah, you're dealing with crazy, crazy money.
That's got to be hard.
Okay, cause just there's thatthat kind of stuff probably
happens a lot right.

Yeah, yeah, I mean when you don't ever get told no,
and when you have enough money,what they say, f you money
right, where you can just kindof make any situation go away.
I mean I've had, um, one of thebosses I was working for, to
the yacht owner he, he, hedidn't like how the neighbor's
dock looked because it was kindof disheveled, and he told us,
hey, get a contractor go figureout, fix that dock.

(01:02:32):
Like, tell them we're fixing it, because I don't want to look
at it that it's so broken andmessed up every time I'm on my
boat.
So yeah, sometimes the requestsare pretty strange and they're
not even on the boat anymore.
So this was at a marinasomewhere no, it was at his
private residence, so he kind oflived at like a headland, which
again he I won't say where itis, but he technically was

(01:02:55):
living on land that was likenational park too, like I think
he paid, he had I don't know who, he bribed or whatever, but he
was not on land that he wassupposed to be able to live
lacing some public land, so hehe was not on land that he was
supposed to be able to live on,he was leasing some public land.
So he was living there andanyway, you could see across the
bay.
Not even it wasn't a giant bay,but you could see, yeah, the
next person's house.
Yeah, their dock was all messedup Maybe a storm hit it, I

(01:03:19):
don't remember but he paid tohave that fixed so he no longer
had to look at such an unsightly.

I would do something like that if I had
crazy money.
Why not?
So how do you manage?
You've got currently on this.
You've got two love trianglesgoing on there.
I've never seen a season socrazy with that kind of stuff.
And you came into it and youwere probably like what's going

(01:03:47):
on?
This is crazy.
What did you think of all that?
You looked very calm.

Yeah, I think I try to stay calm in most situations
.
It takes a lot to rile me up.
But when I got there I did geta feeling of like what's in the
water here?
Like if I would have been herea little bit before, would I
have fallen in love with someonetoo?
Like there's some pheromones orsomething going on.
So a little bit of you know,fomo there.
I was like, oh, fear of missingout.
I don't know what's going on,but I mean I'm very happy to be

(01:04:14):
at arm's distance.
But I think the biggest thingfor me, the biggest challenge,
is just trying to limit how muchthat gets into the job and
trying to give the right advice.
And even in the latest episodeI was reminding Jess, hey,
you're in a leadership position,you can't really mix with the
same person.
So I'm trying it's likecorralling your kids into the
corner and trying to make themunderstand.

So if somebody said all that stuff's off limits
, you'd have trouble gettingpeople.

Do you?

mean like dating people or sleeping with people.

I've seen yachts try to have policies regarding
like, oh you know, don't screwthe crew or no couples.
But look at the end of the day,especially when we're in close
quarters for so long, thingshappen and I think there's
there's times when it crosses tobe a fireable offense.
But for the most part you gotto let people be people, because
I've seen yachts where there'scurfews.

(01:05:06):
I've seen yachts where youcan't do this or you can't do
that, and it gets to the pointthat I don't want to feel like
an indentured servant either.
I just want everyone to be anadult and realize, hey, if
you're going to screw around,this is what happens.
Maybe take a six month periodin between, but it is what it is
.

Guys, if you're watching, I want you to ask your
questions that you've alwayswanted to ask about Below Deck.
So now is the time.
Someone says Baltimore.
I'm not sure what that means,but is this person in Baltimore
that you were talking about?

It wasn't in Baltimore, but, like I said, I'm
not going to give any moreclues.

He's getting close , isn't he All right?
Well, let's see Anybody elsegot any questions.
I'm going to try to think ofone.
Oh, let's see there's a privatechat.
Let's see, no need for me tocome on, I'm listening.
Okay, that's Peyton right there.
We're trying not to break anyrules here we're not going to

(01:06:05):
talk about.
Oh, marion wants to know, canyou get any privacy?
That?
Must be hard to get used to.

Yeah, I think working on boats or on yachts
you're short on space, so thatusually translates into being
short on privacy.
I can tell you that when youwork on really big yachts, you
can finally get some privacy andthe heads of department will
have their own cabins and itfeels less like you're on top of

(01:06:35):
each other.
But I think that's just part ofthe game.
You do have less privacy Evenif you are trying to go do a
solo mission and everyone's like, oh, where are you going?
Can I come?
Can I do this?
Do you trying to go do a solomission and everyone's like, oh,
where are you going?
Can I come?
Can I do this?
Do you want to go to drinks?
You want to do that.
So it is a a social environmentand it probably.
If you're completely a hermit,it's not the thing for you, but

(01:07:01):
there's ways to get some privacy.
Or you know, oh, you're goingto get away from the boat.
We just go to a hotel orsomething and just just plug
into land for a bit.
I think it's good for thepsyche and then holiday as well.

OK, so on a like on the other yachts you've
worked on, is it?
Have you worked on where you'relike?

there's like two or three people I have.
So my first captain positionwas on a 90 foot or I think
that's 27 meter um sport yacht,so that one was just three crew
me, uh, myself, which was my uhsorry me my partner and a
deckhand.
So me and her we had one cabintogether and then he had his own
and we kind of structured it soit was on the opposite ends of

(01:07:42):
the boat so you could feel likeyou had a wing to yourself.
We were in the guest cabin.
But sometimes on those kind ofboats if you're really busy and
you're always chartering, thenthat's going to be full with
guests, so then you will feellike you have even less privacy
so if you were the captain, uh,your girlfriend was the the stew
the stew, and then you had onedeckhand yeah.

You like that better when it's just the three
of you.

No, to be honest, I've always been my first
boaster.
She called me a big boat wanker.
I like big boats and I likehaving a lot of people, but I
think this size that I'm onright now I've got five crew and
that's probably the smallestfor comfort.
If you've got a good crew, fiveis nice, I would rather seven

(01:08:26):
and I like you know, big two.
I like 15 people.
I like 30 people.
It just depends what I'm in themood for.

Below deck in one word entertainment or education.

Ooh, edutainment.
Right, it's a little bit ofboth.
Sometimes it's entertainment,sometimes it's educating,
sometimes it's based on thetruth, sometimes it makes its
own truth.
It's this cool in between.

Well, what was it like the first time you came on?
You've worked on all theseboats.
You come on and there's cameraseverywhere.
What's up?

It's interesting, it's a little bit scary at first
and then you'd be surprised howquickly you kind of forget that
they're there.
You never truly forget.
But I think the benefit for meis I'm doing a job at the end of
the day, so I have, and thenyou would be surprised how
quickly you kind of forget thatthey're there.
You never truly forget.
But I think the benefit for meis I'm doing a job at the end of
the day, so I have something toget my mind off of the
situation.
Once the boat starts moving,once the lines get pulled, I'm
kind of in that mode and in thatmindset again and it's easy for

(01:09:19):
me to disconnect from whateveris going around and just really
get in that one task, whereasmaybe I wouldn't have been as
calm and collected if I was onlove Island and you know cameras
watch me just do my business.

Yeah, I haven't.
I haven't caught that one yet.

I've just seen some videos.

It's probably for the best, Okay.
So I did notice that when you,when you came on, you were just
kind of observing.
You didn't jump into the chaos.
They tried to draw you in.

Yeah, yeah, they did.
Oh, also, I was just going tofollow up that.
I had that commitment that'sgoing to run into pretty soon,
so I didn't know if you wantedto wrap up soon, so I didn't
mean to.

Sure, okay, let's see.
Let's see if I have any moreimportant questions.
I guess that's it All right, sopeople can find you.
Let's put the email up.
So, and you mentioned earlierthat you're you are working on a
captain's school or you want totalk about that.

(01:10:23):
That's in the works.

Sure, yeah, so I I'm.
I'm working on turning a lot ofthe certifications necessary to
become a captain and reachcertain levels.
You know I'm working on puttingthose into like study guides
and materials.
So I'm not, I don't have anyplans to certify people to
become a captain, but I'lldefinitely have materials coming
to help you pass those examsand also just study and prep for
what you need to know beforeyou do it.

Okay and Marianne.
One final question Do you feellike the cast is authentic or do
you feel they are different oncamera?

To be honest, I really love and this isn't just
me saying it like I lovedeveryone that I worked with,
Like I think I had a really coolcast.
I think I had a lot ofexperienced people on boats
compared to certain things I'veseen and everyone was fun.
People have the differentopinions of what's going on on
the show, but everyone's fun,pretty good hearted, and I think
we all just enjoyed hanging out, which was really nice, and

(01:11:17):
I've seen a lot of them in reallife since and I would see them
again.
I'm really, really fortunatefor the people that I met.

Well, the biggest, the biggest difference.
What would you?
What comes to mind between whenyou're on a regular boat and
the below deck boat?
What would be the biggestdifference?

I'll say, and you wouldn't expect it, but I've had
much crazier situations andweirder shit happen in real life
.
So the cameras.
It's sometimes real life isstranger than fiction, I'd say,
but I think just the technicalanswer I'd say is that the
charters are shorter and it'smore fast paced flipping from
that to that, rather thansometimes having a seven or 14
or 28 day.

(01:11:55):
It's kind of like running the40 meter dash versus a marathon.

OK, all right.
Well, let's end on that.
Thank you so much, hugo.
I really appreciate youreaching out and I enjoyed
talking with you.
Thank you so much, and, um, Ilike to end it this way Salty
Bannon.

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Salty Podcast #71⛵️Below Deck S12 - Hugo Ortega | Reality TV drama vs.Real life at sea 🌊

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Salty Podcast #71⛵️Below Deck S12 - Hugo Ortega | Reality TV drama vs.Real life at sea 🌊