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Tipping on Below Deck Season 8 seems to be on par with a crew who can’t seem to find their footing. The crew went from receiving one of the best tips ever from the first group of charter guests to the lowest.

Captain Lee Rosbach, Rhylee Gerber, Kate Chastain, Simone Mashile, Courtney Skippon, Brian de Saint Pern, Kevin Dobson, Tanner Sterback, Ashton Pienaar
Captain Lee Rosbach, Rhylee Gerber, Kate Chastain, Simone Mashile, Courtney Skippon, Brian de Saint Pern, Kevin Dobson, Tanner Sterback, Ashton Pienaar | Karolina Wojtasik/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank

The first group of charter guests kept the crew on their toes with over-the-top demands and being a little too pushy with the crew. Primary charter guest Charley Walters often invaded the crews’ space, manning the bar and running plates from the galley kitchen.

But he ended up leaving $25,000 as a tip even though the crew struggled to learn to work together. The second group were zoomers who actually went to the same college as deckhand Shane Coopersmith. While they didn’t push the crew as hard as Walters, they didn’t leave the crew with a big tip. In fact, they only left $12,000, which appears to be the very worst tip ever given on the series.

‘Below Deck Med’ charter guest got dragged for his $17,000 tip

Perhaps age was on their side because other than a few grumbles, no one really groused about the $12,000 tip. However, Below Deck Mediterranean Season 5 charter guest Justin Thornton claims that Bravo set him up to look like a lousy tipper for leaving $17,000 for the crew.

During the tip meeting, Below Deck Med producers flashed on the screen that the average tip is usually $20,000. The crew looked disappointed to only receive about $1,277 per person, especially after a demanding charter.

Robert Westergaard, Malia White, Alex Radcliffe
Robert Westergaard, Malia White, Alex Radcliffe | Karolina Wojtasik/Bravo

Thornton offered thoughts on his Instagram story during the episode. “Thank you Bravo … sure did a good job making it LOOK like I gave a bad tip!” he wrote. “That’s reality TV for ya. They told me average was 15k so I said let’s do 17k … that’s 23.4% if prorated out so get off me.”

Is $25,000 the best tip ever on the show?

While the $25,000 tip was one of the highest tips, it wasn’t the highest ever. The highest tip ever was $30,000, which was awarded during Below Deck season 5, according to Decider. The crew on Below Deck Med Season 4 came in second with a $27,000 tip.

The crazy aspect to the $30,000 tip is that it came from Captain Lee Rosbach’s “arch-enemy” charter guest Timothy Sykes. Rosbach considers Sykes to be the worst charter guest to date. “It was when Timothy Sykes took back some of the tip, 5K after he had already handed it to me and said he was taking some back because his 19yr old girlfriend didn’t like her dinner after he ordered it for her,” he tweeted in 2018.

Related

‘Below Deck Med’: Charter Guest Justin Thornton Insists He Left a Good Tip

And while Sykes was his worst in 2018, Rosbach may change his mind and the crew could receive a worse tip than $12,000 this season. Previews show that a drunk charter guest jumps into the ocean during dinner. Rosbach is furious and demands that the guest returns to the boat. When the guest argues with him, Rosbach tells the rest of the group their charter has ended.

Stay tuned. Below Deck is on Monday at 9/8c on Bravo.

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