Kate Chastain Once Made a $10,000 Mistake on a Boat
“But my intentions were good,” the #BelowDeck chief stew insisted.
It’s hard to imagine any of the seasoned crew of Valor ever being as green as their new colleagues this season on Below Deck (unless, of course, they’re Captain Lee Rosbach, who told Kate Chastain on her new podcast, After Deck with Kate Chastain, that he was never as green as this season’s deckhands). While veteran yachtie Kate Chastain has never crashed a boat before, Valor’s chief stew did do some damage to the first boat she worked on as a stewardess.
In the first episode of her podcast, Kate recalled her greener days on her first yacht with Captain Lee and shared a story, which is also featured in her book, Lucky Charming.
“Green Kate left her mark on that boat in a few places,” the chief stew explained. “I accidentally polished all of those antique dipped handles on all the cupboards in the main salon.” Well-intentioned Green Kate thought she’d go above and beyond to make the interior really shine. “I thought they were tarnished so I got the Brasso out and I was scrubbing and really just stripped them all.”
In the end, her strong work ethic ended up costing the yacht owners some major dough to fix her hard work. She estimated the total bill to get the handles redipped to be in the ballpark of $10,000. “I mean I don’t think I’ve worked that hard since. I’m scared to, honestly,” Kate joked.
Captain Lee said he thinks Kate’s heart was in the right place but questioned the attitude and intentions of some of his more difficult crew members. “They think they’re on a vacation,” he said to Kate. While the chief stew explained the yachtie lifestyle can be a big adjustment for newcomers, the captain stood firm that this season’s newbies need to shape up. “It shouldn’t be a big adjustment because you only get out of anything what you put into it [...] that’s not going to fly in yachting. Never has, never will.”
New episodes of Bravo’s After Deck with Kate Chastain are available Tuesday nights after Below Deck. Listen, like, and subscribe to Bravo TV’s After Deck with Kate Chastain on Apple Podcasts. Don’t forget to vote each week for a Yachtie and a Dinghy of the Week by tweeting @AfterDeckTweets and follow @AfterDeckInsta for news about upcoming episodes of After Deck.
