below deck sailing yacht race

What happened to Below Deck Sailing Yacht Season 5? Here's what we know

W hat happened to Below Deck Sailing Yacht Season 5? That’s the question on fans’ minds after it was revealed Below Deck Med Season 9 will air following Below Deck Season 11.

Ever since Below Deck Sailing Yacht premiered on Bravo, it has followed the OG show.

Below Deck Med would then hit Bravo airwaves once the sailing show had wrapped it’s run.

That’s the way it’s been for the past four years, except for last year when Below Deck Down Under Season 2 aired after Below Deck Sailing Yacht.

So why all of a sudden is there a switch in the schedule, especially since Below Deck Med Season 8 just ended in January?

Let’s take a look at what we know.

What happened to Below Deck Sailing Yacht Season 5?

The reason for the change-up likely has to do with the sexual misconduct allegations that came out against Gary King after Season 5 of Below Deck Sailing Yacht was filmed.

Leaked photos revealed that Daisy Kelliher and Gary were back for another stint aboard Parsifal III with Captain Glenn. The two of them returning was music to fans’ ears as they helped make Below Deck Sailing Yacht a huge success with Colin MacRae.

However, a couple of weeks later, news broke that a member of the production team came out via Rolling Stone to accuse Gary of unwanted sexual advances and harassment. Gary was soon removed from the BravoCon 2023 list, making clear Below Deck Sailing Yacht Season 5 could be in trouble.

Unlike when Peter Hunziker was fired by Bravo for a racist post and then edited out of the season, Gary has not been fired from the show. Plus, editing Gary out really wouldn’t be an option because he plays such a pivotal role and makes a good story even if fans don’t like him.

All of this means that what would have been Below Deck Sailing Yacht Season 5 could be scrapped. Should that be the case, a new season of the sailing show won’t air for a long time.

Then again, maybe the powers that be are still trying to figure out how to save the season with Gary, and they just need more time.

Below Deck Sailing Yacht fans share thoughts on schedule change

A Reddit thread devoted to the Below Deck Med and Below Deck Sailing Yacht swap had fans buzzing.

“I would absolutely be okay with a delay if it means not having to watch Gary. I’m not sure I’ll even watch if he’s on it, especially since Colin isn’t. And Glenn the enabler has went from being best captain to #3 now…,” wrote one user.

Another admitted to liking the sailing show with Daisy but could do without Gary and would be fine if Season 5 never aired.

“AS IT SHOULD BE. Bravo needs to learn- you hire racists, you hire sexual abusers, you’re going to lose money. The end.” was another remark.

A different user doesn’t think the season will air and noticed Daisy switched her Instagram bio, so that may be a clue that Season 5 will never see the light of day. There was also speculation that Below Deck spin-offs will soon be combined for money reasons.

“That is a possibility or they’re still editing the heck out of it to reduce his role as much as possible but that has got to be a monumental task. I doubt they’d scrub an entire season but maybe more things have come out behind the scenes we’re unaware of and they have to do what they have to do especially with all the negative publicity they’re getting with Andy Cohen lately.” declared another user.

Along with Below Deck Sailing Yacht being pushed back, Below Deck Down Under fate seems to be up in the air. As Monsters and Critics previously reported, Captain Jason Chambers asked for fans’ help with Season 3.

Be sure to keep checking back for more news on th e Below Deck franchise.

Below Deck Med Season 9 premieres on Monday, June 3 at 9/8c on Bravo. Below Deck Sailing Yacht is currently on hiatus on Bravo.

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Below Deck Sailing Yacht

Capt. Glenn Shephard and his crew set sail in a luxury sailing yacht to explore the crystal-clear blue waters of the Ionian Sea. The sailing yacht brings new challenges to these young, attra... Read all Capt. Glenn Shephard and his crew set sail in a luxury sailing yacht to explore the crystal-clear blue waters of the Ionian Sea. The sailing yacht brings new challenges to these young, attractive and adventurous yachties. Capt. Glenn Shephard and his crew set sail in a luxury sailing yacht to explore the crystal-clear blue waters of the Ionian Sea. The sailing yacht brings new challenges to these young, attractive and adventurous yachties.

• Mark Cronin
• Doug Henning
• Rebecca Taylor Henning
• Glenn Shephard
• Daisy Kelliher
• 36 User reviews
• 3 nominations

Episodes 74

Top cast 36

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Below Deck Sailing Yacht will introduce Parsifal III. The 177-foot yacht sleeps 12 guests at a time and typically has a nine-member crew, according to Yacht Charter Fleet. To charter the yacht, prices start at $195,000 for a week. During high season, though, a week on the yacht is expected to cost around $225,000.
• Connections Edited into Below Deck Galley Talk (2021)

User reviews 36

• killerkat-1919
• Oct 21, 2022
• How many seasons does Below Deck Sailing Yacht have? Powered by Alexa
• February 3, 2020 (United States)
• 51 Minds Entertainment
• Little Wooden Boat Productions
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 43 minutes

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'Below Deck Sailing Yacht' Star Finally Reveals if Storylines Are Fake

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Below Deck Sailing Yacht star Gary King is going on the record to clarify that the show is definitely not scripted . The news comes in the middle of rumors surrounding producer plants and fake storylines in the Below Deck franchise . However, after his years of experience as a crew member, the reality star can confirm that the drama is as real as it gets.

King recently took to Instagram and answered some fan questions on his story. One of the questions read: “Do the Below Deck producers tell guests to act crazy or are the guests just crazy?” As a response, King denied the rumors and claimed that all guests on the show were actually just crazy.

Another follower asked the reality star whether the producers influenced the drama on the show. Gary replied with a joke saying: “Yeah, they asked us to crash the boat” before clarifying that he was just kidding and that Below Deck Saling Yacht is a completely unscripted show. The yachting industry veteran clarified that the producers let things play out as they are without telling anyone what to do.

'Below Deck' Has Been Accused of Faking Storylines Previously

According to Below Deck executive producers Mark Cronin and Courtland Cox , fans have a huge misconception about the franchise. Cox believes that the viewers don’t understand how real Below Deck is. She added that as producers, his and Cronin’s job is to stay in the background and let things happen. The producer also claimed that the things that actually happen on the show are too wild for anyone to come up with.

Linda P. Jones , who was a guest on Below Deck Season 6, also went on the record to talk about her experience on the show. She took to her personal website and explained that Below Deck is 100 percent real . Jones also spilled the beans on her one-on-one time with Captain Lee and expressed how fascinating it was to hear his stories and ask him questions. She was also all praises for crew members Kate Chastain and Josiah Carter for their professionalism and the five star service they provided to all the guests.

The former guest talked about her time on the yacht and explained how nerve-wracking it is as guests. Jones confessed that while she avoided going down the slide because she didn’t want to be on camera with her makeup smeared and hair wet. She also shared that none of the guests faced any service problems except one night when they didn’t have any bath towels in their rooms. However, she noted that the moment never made it to the show.

Below Deck Sailing Yacht Season 5 is expected to premiere in Fall 2024. All previous seasons of the show are available to stream on Peacock in the U.S.

Below Deck Sailing Yacht

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In a reality TV series, a crew aboard a luxury sailing yacht navigates the challenges of providing five-star service to affluent guests while managing personal dynamics and the unpredictable nature of the sea. Each episode reveals a blend of high-seas adventure and behind-the-scenes drama among the crew members.

Watch on Peacock

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Who Is Below Deck Sailing Yacht's Colin Macrae?

Colin Macrae joined the cast of  Below Deck Sailing Yacht  for Season Two, but who is he?

In a bio shared by Bravo , Macrae is described as a long-time sailor who worked as a Chief Engineer on numerous superyachts for eight years prior to joining the Bravo cast on Parsifal III . "With a big heart and an impish smile, Colin is more than happy to lend a hand anywhere that he might be needed. But when Colin's kindness gets mistaken for weakness, fireworks fly," the bio teased.

Macrae, who has tattoos and long hair, put his boating skills to work aboard the Parsifal III , alongside returning cast member Captain Glenn Shephard, and was part of an all-new crew on the waters of Croatia. The crew included Chef Natasha De Bourg, Chief Stew Daisy Kelliher , First Mate Gary King, Second Stew Dani Soares, Third Stew Alli Dore, and Deckhands Sydney Zaruba and Jean-Luc Cerza Lanaux. However, when it came to his time aboard, Macrae wasn't all business and, in the trailer, promised viewers that things were "gonna get crazy" between himself and the other yachties (via YouTube ).

In addition to boating, Macrae is a bit of a social media master.

Colin Macrae boasts over 93k followers on YouTube

According to a report from Meaww on March 1, Macrae is no stranger to the spotlight. In fact, he has quite the social media following, with 93.5k people keeping tabs on his YouTube channel, which has the name "Sailing Parlay Revival." He also has an additional 23.3k followers on Instagram and 5.5k on Facebook . On his YouTube channel, Macrae give his followers an inside look at his day-to-day life by sharing a number of videos of his adventures at sea, some of which have hundreds of thousands of views.

On Macrae's official website (via Meaww ) his YouTube channel is said to be "about a young man from New Zealand." It is also noted that Macrae had spent his life savings on a hurricane-damaged 2012 Lagoon 450 catamaran after working as a superyacht engineer for ten years.

Below Deck Sailing Yacht , Season Two airs Mondays nights on Bravo.

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Below Deck Sailing Yacht star Captain Glenn Shephard weighs in on Season 5: ‘Be paitent’

Below Deck Sailing Yacht star Captain Glenn Shephard has given fans a bit of hope as Season 5 continues to be pushed back.

Like the rest of us, Captain Glenn is ready to have the hit sailing show back on the small screen.

Season 5 was confirmed at BravoCon last November, even after the sexual misconduct claims against Gary came out.

However, the show didn’t air in its usual spring/summer slot, and now fans are worried.

Captain Glenn recently spoke out with a message about the hit Bravo show.

Below Deck Sailing Yacht star Captain Glenn Shephard weighs in on Season 5

This week, the Bravo personality opened up to The Standard to discuss Below Deck Sailing Yacht Season 5.

“They announced it at BravoCon in November. But then it didn’t air in Spring or Summer. I think it’s coming soon, but I don’t know exactly when. The network decides that,” he shared.

Captain Glenn added, “I get endless questions on social media about it, but all I can say is, ‘It’s coming soon.’ We just have to be patient.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Colin MacRae – Parlay Revival (@parlayrevival_colin)

While we love us some Captain Glenn, there’s another reason we are losing hope for the hit sailing show returning soon. As Monsters and Critics previously reported, Bravo initially included Below Deck Sailing Yacht in the fall promo.

However, the last couple of promos have strictly focused on the Real Housewives shows hitting Bravo airwaves this fall.

Will Captain Glenn keep doing Below Deck Sailing Yacht?

All of the chaos surrounding Season 5 has some fans wondering if Captain Glenn may take a step back from the show. Captain Glenn does seem to be enjoying his downtime traveling the world with his girlfriend, Danelis “Dani” Jimenez.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Captain Glenn Shephard (@capt_glennshephard)

Never fear, though. Captain Glenn has no plans to step back from Below Deck Sailing Yacht any time soon.

“I’ll probably continue doing it as long as they keep asking me back. I love it. But because of my age, it’s time for me to stop and smell the roses a bit. My sailing days for work aren’t over, but I’m not going to do it full-time anymore. I’d love to do more seasons of the show,” Captain Glenn shared with the outlet.

Here’s hoping we get Captain Glenn Shephard back on the small screen soon. Keep checking back with Monsters and Critics for more Below Deck Sailing Yacht news.

Below Deck Sailing Yacht is currently on hiatus on Bravo. Seasons 1-4 are streaming on Peacock.

Below Deck Sailing Yacht - Season 1 Episode 1 - Holy Ship, We're Sailing

Holy Ship, We're Sailing

Below deck sailing yacht season 1, you may also like, pick your plan. cancel anytime..

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At the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, Strong Winds Are Always a Factor

This year a 100-foot class will earn a Maxi World Championship title for the first time, but gale winds forced the big boats to stay in the harbor as racing began.

By Kimball Livingston

They don’t call it Bomb Alley for nothing. The name comes from the winds that whip through a narrow passage between the Maddalena Archipelago and Sardinia, part of the course for the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup . For the 2024 races that began this week, there was enough wind, with gusts up to 54 knots, to suspend some sailing.

The Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, a fixture of Mediterranean sailing since 1985, races out of Porto Cervo, Sardinia, on the northeastern face of the island. For the first time, racing this year includes a Maxi World Championship title for the winner among 10 boats 80 to 100 feet long, vying among a total fleet of about 40. Competition wraps up Saturday. Superlatives apply.

Bomb Alley is a racecourse classic, a birthplace of legends. Winds are squeezed to high velocities in the narrows. The same winds in strategic places are blocked by this islet or that, robbing the sails of power. A boat might drift into a calm, but demons are waiting to knock that boat flat if the crew eases out of the calm spot unprepared for the blast. Thus, Bomb Alley.

Murray Jones, an important player in New Zealand’s America’s Cup victories, called this “a fantastic place to sail; beautiful; challenging.” The veteran Ken Read, who has won multiple world championships, called it “a top racing venue on the planet with the best big boats and the best big-boat sailors, the elite of the elite, bobbing and weaving through spectacular islands and outcroppings. Get your name on the Rolex Maxis trophy and you’ve done something in our sport.”

About those islands and outcroppings, however. Navigators are charged with guiding the boats, cutting corners close, but not too close. They know the beauty, but also the worries. It is not unknown for teams to navigate the rocks ahead of race week, to build their own charts of hazards and depths.

In mild weather, it might be reassuring that underwater rocks show through clear waters. Not this week. Add wind and whitecaps, and the sea turns dark, inscrutable. The ante on getting it right goes up. A boat under full sail might be closing fast on a turning mark — or hazard — perhaps with another boat also bearing down hard. Did we mention adrenaline?

Murray this week shared the tactician’s role aboard the 100-foot Galateia with the American Tom Whidden, a tactician who has won the America’s Cup three times, but reminds people that “I’ve also lost it twice.” Those two are typical of the level of professional sailors who showed up for this event. They were supporting Galateia’s owner-driver David Leuschen at the center of it all.

The experience of driving is intense. Drivers control a machine 100 feet long and 140 feet high that blows spray left and right while they balance on a fine line between the sail power overhead and the keel’s counterweight below, with 25 people working for them on deck and the boat alive in their hands.

“I don’t see the point of racing these wonderful yachts if you don’t helm them yourself” said Andrea Recordati of Milan and a second-generation member of Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, the host of the event. His 100-foot Bullitt (he’s a movie fan) won the Rolex Middle Sea Race last year, whetting his appetite to keep improving the Wally Cento he bought in 2021. As the new commodore of the yacht club, he would not have expected to have the fleet sit out the first two days of racing in a gale, but it happened. History had its own way of writing a wrinkle into “celebrating the 40th anniversary of our partnership with Rolex.”

When the sun sets Saturday on Italy and the racing is finished, everyone will have a story. No one, however, will have memories more clear than the tacticians, whose job was to analyze every move and direct where to aim the boat while allowing for wind shifts, competitors that might be blocking and when the navigator says way or no way. And then, in less time than it takes to read that, they’ve moved three spaces.

Who are these people?

One is the American Ed Baird. Among his many achievements, Baird sealed his hero status in 2007, steering the Alinghi as if it could be on rails, defending the America’s Cup for Switzerland. He came to the 2024 Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup as tactician for ICAP Leopard 3. The boat has a lot of moving parts.

“There is a small backup motor that runs all the time, powering the hydraulic ram that cants the keel from side to side, for stability,” Baird said. “It also keeps two daggerboards active, so there is a lot of machinery moving around.”

Deployed, a daggerboard — a fin — provides lateral resistance and limits sideways slip when the boat is sailing upwind. Downwind, daggerboards become resistance and up they come, out of the way.

Most of the boats have fewer moving parts. Leopard’s configuration, including water ballast, is best suited to long-distance racing. Using water ballast in the short races that are a component of Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup would mean transferring the water from side to side on multiple maneuvers, which probably burns too much time to pay off.

However, whether dashing across the Atlantic or around the rocks of the Maddalena Archipelago, Leopard’s powered winches are important to making the machinery manageable. Forget about humans frantically spinning handles on winches that move the sails.

Powered winches are standard in this fleet, and they are finding their way onto smaller race boats, too.

Power assist goes a long way toward making a 100-foot boat raceable, but, “Don’t kid yourself,” Baird said. “You still need 22 big, strong, smart people working together in combat mode.”

Jochen Schümann, in his role as tactician on the Wally yacht Magic Carpet Cubed, compared himself to “the conductor of an orchestra, giving direction.” As a four-time Olympian with three gold medals for Germany, his path follows a familiar pattern.

He sailed a small boat. He mastered the art of reading wind and current. He developed what sailors call a feel for speed until he could close his eyes and know instinctively what the boat was telling him. He learned the arts of maneuvering for advantage in a fleet with rapidly changing dynamics. Those are the skills a sailor builds over a lifetime and they translate to a 100-foot boat at Porto Cervo.

Perhaps the owner of a 100-foot boat has spent a lifetime building the wealth to play the game, but then it takes a team, and every player is a star.

Maxis Through the Years

Big boats have raced against each other for as long as there have been big boats, but the organizing efforts that led to the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup began with a different set of acronyms.

1980 The term Maxi was coined for a group of yachts, each about 70 feet long, handicapped under a formula known as the International Offshore Rule. As Class A, they raced a series of short and long races out of Porto Cervo, fixing Sardinia as the go-to location for the annual championship of the newly formed International Class A Yachting Association. The first winner was the American businessman Jim Kilroy’s Kialoa IV. Awards were presented by the Aga Khan, a founder of the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda.

1984 Rolex entered the picture at Porto Cervo as sponsor of the Rolex Swan Cup, open to the popular line of boats from the premier Finnish builder

1985 Rolex sponsored the first Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup.

1997-99 Larry Ellison, a founder of the Oracle Corporation, won with Sayonara before switching his focus to chasing the America’s Cup.

2001 With handicap formulas changing, Class A became history and the yachting association was reinvented as the International Maxi Association .

2013 The international sport was now managed by World Sailing. Two world-title events were allotted annually to the I.M.A., and the modern era began. The first sanctioned World Championship mixed dedicated race boats with holiday cruisers, exposing a need for separation.

2014 I.M.A. leadership created the Maxi 72 class for 72-foot boats, to support fair racing. Enthusiasm was high. The class win went to Alegre and skipper Andy Soriano, defeating past winners Bella Mente and Ran. For Soriano, having slipped to the runner-up spot two years in a row, the new format delivered a satisfying win. “The level of competition has been raised more than any of us could have imagined,” he said.

2015 The World Championship title was awarded to the Maxi 72 class. The American Hap Fauth’s Bella Mente took the title by one point over Robertissima III. Maxi 72s continued Worlds title racing in 2016 and 2017. By 2018, too many of the boats had been modified beyond the parameters of Maxi 72s. They continued to be competitive individually, but not as a class.

2017 The grandest fleet of big boats, the J Class , assembled six boats, enough to qualify for a Worlds title. Racing was in Newport, R.I., the home of so many America’s Cup matches. In the 2017 Worlds fleet, only Velsheda, launched in 1933, was original. The other five boats were replicas built of modern materials under class requirements to match the lines of one of the original Js. Harold Goddijn won with Lionheart, developed from a naval architect study for Ranger, the winner of the 1937 America’s Cup.

2024 The Maxi World Championship title was awarded in a blustery week with sailors hoping for a sunny reprieve to wrap it up.

Colin MacRae

Longtime sailor Colin MacRae worked as a Chief Engineer on super yachts for 15 years before joining Parsifal III for his third season. With a big heart and an impish smile, Colin is more than happy to lend a hand anywhere that he might be needed. However, when Colin’s kindness gets mistaken for weakness, fireworks fly.

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