‘Below Deck Mediterranean’s Lloyd Spencer Could Easily Be a Deckhand on ‘Below Deck Sailing Yacht’ (Exclusive)
Deckhand Lloyd Spencer from Below Deck Mediterranean said he fell into yachting and first developed a love of sailing before rocking his deckhand position on a motor yacht. Spencer’s experience with sailing began when he was a motorcoach driver in Europe.
“So basically when I was working as the European coach driver, our passengers were 18 to 39-year-olds and everything in between,” he recalled to Showbiz Cheat Sheet. “We used to take them sailing in Greece. So you’d have six sailing boats with 80 people on give or take. We’d take them around some of the Greek islands. And I just got on really, really well with the skippers. And when I went back the third time, they were like what the hell are you doing driving busses? Go get your skipper’s license and come and join us.”
Lloyd Spencer from ‘Below Deck Mediterranean’ started his yachting career on sailing yachts
Spencer recalled being hooked on yachting once he was ready to set sail. “I finished my summer season after my third year and I went back and I booked onto the course to sail up the East Coast of England in November, which was quite a baptism by fire because it was bloody cold,” he laughed.
“But I did that,” he continued. “I did a little bit of powerboat training and I absolutely loved it. So I went back to the winter season. And then as soon as I finished that, I went back in and started studying full time and started doing yacht deliveries.”
Does Lloyd Spencer prefer motor yachts or sailing yachts?
Spencer has both motor and sailing yacht experience. “Qualification wise, I’ve got a very low ticket for sailing, but I’ve done quite a few sailing boat deliveries,” he remarked. “A couple of very small ones and then as a first mate, crossing across to the Bay of Biscay and across the Mediterranean.”
With experience on both, does Spencer have a preference between sailing and motor yachts? “That depends on what you’re doing on it,” he laughed. “If it’s a small boat, I’d much rather be on a small sailing boat than a big boat. A big motorboat, you’ve got a lot of heavy air conditioning and all those extras.”
But he said he was still pretty green heading into Below Deck Mediterranean. “Going into the superyacht, I had been working for about eight to nine months and it was more in the engineering side,” he described. “When I came onto the boat, I wasn’t as green as [Mzi] Zee [Dempers], but I was still quite green. So I hadn’t done full charters before and hadn’t been on the boat that big working on deck.”
Lloyd Spencer also makes deckwork a lot more fun
His talents aren’t confined to the deck and in the engine room. Spencer also has an amazing sense of humor and knows how to make deck work a lot more fun. After Below Deck Mediterranean wrapped, he did a crossing with bosun Malia White and shared a “Wash down work out practice” video on Instagram.
And while he’s leading the dance, he gave White some credit for the choreography. “It was a little bit of a mix between Malia and me,” he said. “But you had to have a leader for that one.”
Below Deck Mediterranean airs on Mondays at 9 pm ET/PT. New episodes will be available on Peacock one week early on Mondays.
