Captain Jason Returns to ‘Below Deck Down Under’ With a More ‘Assertive’ Approach [Exclusive]
Captain Jason Chambers returns to Below Deck Down Under for his sophomore season and said it’s no more Mr. Nice Guy when it comes to crew expectations.
Chambers dealt with a defiant chef and a distracted stew last season of Below Deck Down Under. This season he is coming in with a more assertive approach.
“I really wanted to be a little bit more assertive on the food quality and I wanted a big change in the galley,” he told Showbiz Cheat Sheet. “And I asked Aesha [Scott], after the first week I was with her that we knew we both wanted a big change in service. We had hurdles in front of us that we still couldn’t get to where we wanted to get to. But we got through them and we grew their departments both in the galley and the service did go through some rocky patches. But, you know, it was a growing moment.”
Captain Jason returns to ‘Below Deck Down Under’ with a new approach
Chief stew Aesha Scott referred to Chambers as her “fourth stew” because he ended up giving the interior much more support than most superyacht captains. Chambers said he’s stepping back more this season.
“I am definitely stepping back a little bit more due to the structure of the boat,” he explained. “Thalassa was a big boat and it was a big boat for that crew to try and get together. And it was a lot of responsibility for me to hand over on day one.”
“So on season 1, I got involved and then pushed back and pulled back,” he added. “So look, they’re on top of it. The weather wasn’t conducive to start. There wasn’t so much going on in the first charter or two. So they got to have that time to get to know the boat. And it was an easy boat to get to know in that regard. So I didn’t have to be hands-on. And when I did get hands-on, I probably got in the way a little bit.”
How did watching ‘Below Deck Down Under’ Season 1 change Captain Jason’s approach for season 2?
Returning to a Below Deck series for any crew member is usually a transformative experience. After viewing himself in action last season, did his actions influence how he worked with the crew on season 2?
“Look, when I walked away last season, I was obviously concerned about how I was going to be depicted,” he said. “It was so easy to do your job walking up to a boat and not knowing it, not knowing the crew, the guests coming in and getting to know everything from day one and then get going. It was just it was so easy to just put the blinkers on and go forward.”
“And knowing that what I saw after season 1, I trusted the process a lot and I had the same challenges on season 2,” Chambers revealed. “I walked up to a boat, a propulsion system I’d never driven before. It was old, it was single screw it had issues, now got a crew coming in I haven’t met. It was back in the seat again of, OK, this has to get going. So get into it.”
One constant that made him especially happy was being able to work with Scott again. “We just work off each other,” he said about the chief stew. “We just know it’s there. It’s good energy. I don’t need to ask for something if I know that she wants to put in 100%. I can pick on her for something. And she understands that. She actually sees a flaw there and won’t take it personally and takes it positively and then doesn’t have it back up against being told what to do.”
Below Deck Down Under Season 2 premieres on Monday, July 17 at 8/7c on Bravo.
