‘Below Deck’: Rhylee Gerber Believes She Could Have Been Bosun if She Worked for Captain Sandy

Deckhand Rhylee Gerber from Below Deck wonders if she could have worked her way up to becoming a bosun if she was on Below Deck Mediterranean instead of Below Deck.

While she says she loves Captain Lee Rosbach and the two have since worked out their differences, she thinks she could have learned more and moved up the ranks under Captain Sandy Yawn’s leadership. Gerber hoped she would have been assigned to Yawn’s boat when she applied to be on the show.

Gerber was a little disappointed when she didn’t get to work for Yawn. She knew Yawn from Jacksonville and Yawn told Gerber to ask to work for her. “She was like, ‘Ask for me,'” Gerber recalled on the Behind the Velvet Rope with David Yontef podcast.

Rhylee Gerber thinks she could have learned a lot from Captain Sandy

Gerber assured Yawn she had asked production if she could work for her. “I feel like I would’ve gotten into a boson position with Captain Sandy,” she said. “And I could also have learned quite a bit more as to the workings of a yacht, because even now, and I’ve said this to fans that are, you know, as supportive me or, or not, you know, there’s still a lot I need to know about
working on deck with that kind of boat.”

“People are very quick to insult and judge it,” she continued. “And this is one thing I always cracked up about. I’ve never operated a large yacht, you know, a large sailing vessel, anything like that.”

“But it’s funny because when it comes to like dropping the anchor or bringing the anchor up on a yacht, it’s a matter of hitting a button,” she described. “And then all the mechanics go into play.” Gerber previously told Showbiz Cheat Sheet that bosuns Chandler Brooks and Ross Inia never let her drop anchor on season 6.

Sexism is alive and well on deck

One of the hurdles Gerber constantly hit was working with a deck team who marginalized or dismissed her ability to work. Even Rosbach admitted that Gerber was one of the hardest working crew members he’s encountered. But she was quickly frustrated with deckhands and the bosun when they diminished her position.

“Sometimes my mouth gets me into trouble,” she laughed when she spoke to Showbiz Cheat Sheet in 2019 about season 6. “But I was 100% authentic. And any emotion I had in life I had on the show.” 

“I was there to learn,” she added. “Sure I’m a fishing boat captain but yachting is different. And I ask a lot of questions, but that’s because I want to learn how to do everything the right way and get better at my job.”

“My immediate thoughts during filming wasn’t that they are treating me differently because I’m a woman,” she recalled. “But afterward I did notice that after Tyler [Rowland] came on, maybe there was something to this. I have muscles, I’m strong. I mean, I lift bigger fish than these jackasses and they’re not really utilizing me.”