Yachting is facing a crew safety crisis, with ‘toxic’ behaviour and sexual abuse ‘normalised’ across the industry and women paying the price, Below Deck star Hugo Ortega has warned.
The superyacht captain and newest bosun on the hit reality show has spoken out to warn of the dangers faced by female crew after the death of stewardess Paige Bell on board a luxury motor yacht in the Bahamas.
‘The recent tragedy involving Paige is not an isolated incident – it’s a symptom of something much deeper,’ Hugo told MailOnline.
‘Behind the glossy image of the yachting industry lies a serious and ongoing crisis in crew safety, particularly around harassment, abuse, and toxic working conditions.
‘These are cases of rape, physical violence, and psychological abuse happening in workplaces with no independent HR, no external oversight, and often no consequence for perpetrators,’ he said.
‘Victims are removed from boats, sent to hotels, and offered hush money tied to NDAs. Meanwhile, abusers continue working, moving from yacht to yacht, protected by silence and hierarchy.’
Some 65 per cent of yacht workers including captains and crew have witnessed or been aware of sexual harassment, be that physical or verbal, according to a 2018 survey by the Professional Yachting Association (PYA).
Shockingly, almost 40 per cent of respondents said they had personally been subjected to unwanted physical touching working on board, while 50 per cent said they had received unwanted sexual or sexist comments.
Hugo, who has been in the industry for more than a decade, said he has ‘worked under dozens of male captains and been on boats with male deck crew who talk about stewardesses like they’re toys.’
Attention is on the issue of women’s safety after the harrowing events of the last month, Hugo says, but far too often incidents are brushed under the rug
Paige Bell, 20, from South Africa , was found dead in the engine room of the luxury motor boat Far From It last Thursday
Paige had been working as a crewmember on Far From It, a £100,000-a-week motorboat docked in the Bahamas. She was found unresponsive near Munoz, who had injuries on his arm from what police described as an attempted suicide, in the yacht’s engine room
He recalled the ‘countless’ times he had personally seen women fall victim to inappropriate behaviour from crew members at every level.
‘The ‘creepy’ engineer that always touches their hips when he passes by her in the crew mess,’ he said. ‘Deck crew that give relentless verbal sexual harassment with no punishment because ‘that’s how it is at sea.”
He added that even captains, who are ultimately responsible for the conduct and safety of the entire crew, cross the line, describing how even married men are known to ‘invite the chief stew for drinks or to their home far too many times for comfort.’
Recalling one of many shocking cases he has witnessed in his decade-long career, Hugo told how one chief stew he worked with was ‘sexually intimidated’ by a yacht owner and decided to report what had happened.
‘She went through the right channels – told management. They dismissed it,’ he said.
‘Then when the owner caught wind of it, they handed her a $50,000 settlement and forced her resignation. That’s how problems get ‘handled’ in this industry – money over accountability.’
‘Almost all’ super-rich yacht owners have NDAs written into their workers’ contracts, he said.
‘While they’re supposedly there to protect the privacy of the owner and guests, in reality they’re used to silence victims.
‘Crew are scared to speak out because they’re told if they break the NDA, they’ll be sued, fired, or blacklisted.’
Hugo, who works as a Bosun on the superyacht St David, is seen on the show with co-star Barbara Kulaif
When new crew start on a yacht, he said, they don’t know who they’ll be working and living with, or even sharing a cabin with, for long periods at sea.
While cabin assignments are typically same-gender, Hugo says, there are occasions when there isn’t enough living space for crew and male and female staff have to share.
In an ongoing case this year, a British stewardess sued the owners of 40-metre motor yacht EALU, alleging she was sexually assaulted by a male crewmember while asleep in a shared cabin.
The woman alleged that the yacht’s operator knowingly housed her with a male chef despite clear risks, creating an unsafe living environment.
Hugo, a crew trainer, said he always warns women about how close the living quarters can be with their male colleagues and tells them not to ‘build trust slowly’.
The qualified superyacht captain has been in the industry for ten years working on multiple boats
‘If you’re stepping onto a yacht with all-male crew or you’re the only one onboard besides the captain? That’s a red flag until proven otherwise.
‘I’m not saying it’s always dangerous, but it’s a setup where stuff can go wrong fast, and too often it does.’
Yachting’s reputation of heavy boozing and partying among staff is close to the truth on some boats, he added.
‘Young and green’ crew members, often living far from home for the first time, can find themselves flung into a ‘work hard, play hard vibe’, where ‘drinks are flowing, lines are being crossed, and no one really watching.’
Inexperienced youngsters ‘might not clock the warning signs’ early enough, he said, advising that those entering the industry ‘don’t rush to let loose.’
‘A uniform and a crew title doesn’t make someone safe. Familiarity just makes it easier to ignore red flags. And on yachts, where privacy is limited and reputations are everything, that’s the perfect storm.
‘What I’ve seen is, when a predator gets comfortable, they get bolder. Suddenly it’s, “Oops, I walked into the wrong cabin,” or “come watch a movie in my room,” and somehow they’re undressed.’
While Hugo made no reference to the show he stars on, instances of misconduct on board have been caught on camera by the series.
When bosun Luke Jones stripped naked and tried to get into bed with a stewardess who was sleeping after drinking too much, the boat’s chief stewardess intervened
Captain Jason fired Luke the next day. On his way out, Luke told Jason that he ‘was sorry’ and was ‘so disappointed’ in himself for the way he’d acted
One episode of Below Deck Down Under in particular left viewers shocked, and highlighted the importance of crew members watching out for each other’s welfare.
When bosun Luke Jones stripped naked and tried to get into bed with a stewardess who was sleeping after drinking too much, the boat’s chief stewardess intervened and notified the captain.
Jones was sacked, along with another crew member who tried to excuse his behaviour as a ‘joke’.
Commenting on the industry as a whole rather than the specific incident, Hugo said that familiarity and close proximity on board often allows men to take advantage.
‘I’ve seen all the excuses. It’s the slow creep of boundary pushing – disguised as casual or friendly. And because everyone is “mates,” people are less likely to report. No one wants to make it awkward. No one wants to be that crew member.’
He said the onus is on captains to ‘set the tone’ on board and foster a professional culture.
‘As a captain now, I’m constantly reminding the guys onboard: this is a workplace, not a brothel. Just because we live together doesn’t mean the rules of professionalism vanish.
‘New crew – especially women – need to feel safe. And that starts with setting the tone from the top. Zero tolerance can’t just be a policy. It has to be a practice.’
Hugo said he would ‘never forget’ the landmark rape case in 2018, which saw a stewardess awarded $70.6million in damages after she was sexually assaulted by a deck hand.
‘I was a deckhand at the time, and I heard guys joking about it. Saying they’d ‘gladly get raped for that kind of payout.’
‘Like the trauma of a woman getting violently assaulted could somehow be turned into a payday fantasy. It was disgusting.’
Shockingly, there are no obligations for yacht management firms or private owners to screen new staff, meaning offenders can get jobs as crew members without disclosing possible criminal backgrounds.
In one high-profile case, a boat captain was hired to helm luxury yachts despite being on a five-year probation for a felony battery charge and having a previous criminal conviction.
Jessie Frost, who worked for a decade on yachts and is now director of UK recruitment firm Crewfolio, believes background checks are needed to stop offenders entering or re-entering the industry.
‘If you’re questioning the need for background checks in an industry where assault, harassment and even murder have occurred, then I’d respectfully ask: what exactly are you defending? This shouldn’t be controversial,’ she told Dockwalk magazine.
She started a petition two years ago calling for criminal background checks to be made a legal requirement for all seafarers, with her petition gaining momentum following the news of Paige Bell’s death.
Some 65 per cent of yacht workers including captains and crew have witnessed or been aware of sexual harassment, research shows
While calls for improved candidate screening have been backed across the industry, Hugo and many others argue that these sort of checks alone simply aren’t enough.
‘A background check won’t reveal someone who’s assaulted three stewardesses but was never reported because of NDAs or fear of retaliation. It’s a surface-level fix to a deep-rooted issue,’ he said.
The biggest problem facing yachting, he believes, is the lack of safe complaint procedures on superyachts, which are often privately owned or run by management companies protecting wealthy clients.
‘Yachting is still an old boys’ club, dominated by white, wealthy men in nearly every decision-making role – captains, brokers, fleet managers.’
Hugo said that senior male crew and captains who have been in the industry for years and whose behaviour has never been challenged develop ‘god complexes where no one says no to them.’
‘You combine that with a rigid hierarchy, closed-door decision-making, and a crew too scared to speak up, and yeah… it’s the perfect storm for abuse.
Hugo said yachting has a ‘work hard, play harder’ culture but that the reality is that it’s hard graft
He said that from his experience, when abuse is reported it is very rare that the perpetrators face any consequences, with victims far more likely to be jeopardising their careers by coming forward.
‘Victims are removed quietly, offered hush money, and warned not to go public. Meanwhile, the guy who assaulted them keeps working – same job, different boat.
‘if anything happens at all, it’s usually a quiet “talking to” behind closed doors. The guy stays on. The behavior shifts for a week. And then we move on.’
He said because of this culture of silence and NDAs on board most ships, this behaviour never comes to the surface.
‘There’s no registry. No blacklist. No centralized way for future employers to know. So the cycle just resets. And until we put real weight behind consequences, this will keep happening.’
Hugo said the onus is on captains to ‘set the tone’ on board and foster a professional culture
While he says he has seen some ‘positive shifts’ in the industry in recent years, ‘it’s not nearly enough’.
The glimmer of hope comes in the fact that more crew are now speaking out in what has long been a closed-door industry, Hugo says.
But outside these whisper networks and the important work done by maritime helplines, there is ‘almost nothing’ in place to protect people.
Attention is on the issue of women’s safety after the harrowing events of the last month, Hugo says, but far too often incidents are brushed under the rug.
‘The needle’s moving – but slowly,’ Hugo says. ‘The real test will be what happens next.’
If you have been affected by any of the issues discussed, the International Seafarers Welfare and Assistance Network’s YachtCrewHelp is free, confidential, multilingual, available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and provides emotional, wellbeing and practical support to yacht crew and their families of any nationality: www.iswan.org.uk/yachtcrewhelp
