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Lugging equipment up the side of a mountain won’t be the only challenge facing the Below Deck Adventure crew this season.

Chief stew Faye Clarke will have her hands full with drama coming from nearly every department. “I knew we were going to have a challenging season ahead,” she told Showbiz Cheat Sheet. “And things couldn’t always be by the book, shall we say.”

Like most Below Deck chief stews, Clarke met her two stews within hours of picking up the first charter. So it became a sink-or-swim-type situation where she initially didn’t assign rank.

The ‘Below Deck Adventure’ interior crew had no rank, which may have led to more drama

Not assigning rank had advantages. The crew could simply dive in and get to work without going through each stew’s resume in depth. But, not assigning hierarchy has its downsides. On Below Deck Mediterranean, second stews Kyle Viljoen and Natalya Scudder battled over the division of labor, which caused a rift within the interior.

'Below Deck Adventure' crew Faye Clarke, Oriana Schneps, Lewis Lupton, Nathan Morley on a tender
Faye Clarke, Oriana Schneps, Lewis Lupton, Nathan Morley | Photo courtesy of Faye Clarke

It sounds like something similar may already be going down between Kasie Faddah and Oriana Schneps on Below Deck Adventure. Faddah and Schneps worked together previously and on the surface seemed to be friends. But they spoke differently about one another in confessionals.

Faddah said she has no respect for Schneps and described her as “controlling.” Schneps said Faddah is “not someone who likes to be told what to do.” And the Below Deck Adventure crew is only on the first charter.

Faye explains why she didn’t assign rank right away

Clarke told Showbiz Cheat Sheet she had no choice but to remove rank so they could just get to work. The boat was also a disaster and guests were on their way. “So I just [had to think about] what’s going to work best. And because we are thrown in the deep end so quickly, yeah, I’ve got Oriana’s CV and I’ve got Kasie’s CV, but that means nothing to me,” she explained.

“I need to see people work,” she emphasized. “And I need to see their attitude. I need to see if their pace is fast and determined and if they’re supportive. And until I see that, then no one is going to have any hierarchy or whatever. I just need us to be a team together. I need to see their strengths and weaknesses and go, OK, that’s your strength, that’s where you’re going. So I just needed to analyze my girls and work out what was going to work best to make sure that every charter just went as smoothly as possible, basically.”

Clarke teased how she might deal with her interior battling over rank. “I think at the end of the day, they should be adults and respect the fact that we’ve got a job to do. And it doesn’t matter who does it. Just do it. And you know, if you’re going to prove that you’re a good worker, then you will get recognized for that. But until then, no, not this time.”

‘Below Deck Adventure’ crew challenges extend beyond the interior

Below Deck Adventure viewers will have to stay tuned to see how Clarke handles a competitive interior crew. But she also has to navigate an uncooperative deck team and a fiery chef. Clarke and chef Jessica Condy are very similar and they had a good relationship on the boat. But everything doesn’t go smoothly.

“Some of the guys are quite feisty and I think [bosun] Lewis [Lupton] definitely had a challenge with the competitive kind of guys,” she said. “And then you’ve got Oriana and you don’t know what mood she’s going to be in one minute. She’s like, absolutely fantastic. Next minute she’s up with the fairies. Next minute she’s creating drama. Her and Jess, the chef, I was always in the middle of them, trying to keep everybody happy.”

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‘Below Deck Adventure’ Chief Stew Faye Teases Conflict With Deck Crew – ‘It Was Extremely Frustrating’ [Exclusive]

Clarke added that the Below Deck Adventure deck team crew wasn’t very supportive of the interior. “Honestly, it was extremely frustrating,” she said. “So I was working every hour under the sun and so was [stew] Kasie [Faddah]. So was [stew] Oriana [Schneps]. We were exhausted and we were doing excursions and stuff and taking the guests on excursions. So I would have loved a little bit more support, I suppose. But I don’t think the boys quite understood the demand that the interior had, and it was extremely frustrating.”

Below Deck Adventure is on Tuesday, Nov. 1 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo.

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