Behind the Scenes of Below Deck: Girls Escaping Wild Parties and Hostesses Battling High-Stakes Demands from the Ultra-Rich

AMBLING along the immaculate pathways of Puerto Portals’ polished marina village, I was flanked by rows of gleaming superyachts, each one looming from the water like a floating monument to excess.

Their lacquered hulls shimmered beneath the Majorcan sun – vast, extravagant and seemingly designed to seduce anyone who wandered close enough.

Around me, crew members toiled in the afternoon heat, buffing away the faintest blemish from immaculate decks, and stewardesses stood ramrod straight in flawless uniforms, poised like ceremonial guards awaiting their next command.

Soon they would sail beyond the harbour and into the vast, lawless expanse of the open sea, where the glittering facade of luxury can become considerably murkier.

Because beneath this sun-drenched display of wealth in the Brit holiday hotspot lurks a darker world where those employed inside these floating kingdoms are at the mercy of those who pay them – and risk being subjected to sexual abuse and vile demands.

Captain Ruben Heller, who jumps down from the top deck of the yacht he is prepping to talk, told me he has witnessed things aboard that he described as unimaginable, admitting that crew members often learn to “turn a blind eye” at the ingrained culture of prostitution and sexism.

The South African captain warned that, far too often, wealthy owners make increasingly revolting demands of stewardesses who arrive aboard chasing a dream career.

He recalled how a friend working as a stewardess on a superyacht was subjected to one particularly disturbing request – she claims from a rich Saudi.

Ruben said: “He wanted her to pick up his poo from the bed.”

The woman reported the incident to the captain, but was allegedly told: “It must’ve been an accident, just sort it out.”

But according to Heller, the bizarre ordeal did not end there – with the same request allegedly happening repeatedly.

Eventually, the captain confronted the Saudi, who then asked to speak directly with the stewardess.

She allegedly told him: “This is disgusting. I can’t do this. This is not normal.”

And he replied: “What do you mean? How much will it take for you to do that for me?” Captain Heller recalled.

The captain claimed the man then doubled her £5,000 salary to £10,000.

“She couldn’t say no, so she continued to do it,” he said.

Captain Ruben added that he had also encountered numerous owners who summoned prostitutes whenever the opportunity arose – with some even sending their own families away so they could indulge in secret liaisons.

He said: “One boat that I worked on, the owner had his wife and kids on board, they left on a business trip, but there was definitely something else under that, and a load of girls came on. I took them around for a couple of days.

“It was interesting to see the contrast between being with the family and then switching to being with a mistress.

“Some of the women were prostitutes. You see on the cameras things happening on the exterior. There’s a lot of alcohol, sex and drugs involved, but we don’t ask any questions, there’s some things we don’t want to know about.”

Ruben told me a story involving a man whose wife and kids had taken a day off the vessel and he had decided to invite some prostitutes on board.

He said: “The wife came back early and suddenly the girls were forced to climb down the anchor and into the ocean so they didn’t come face-to-face with his wife.”

One British stewardess, who has decided to remain anonymous for protection reasons, said she knew there would “one day be a documentary about all of this”.

The series Below Deck was the first to shine a light on the darker side of the yacht industry – with crew members speaking out candidly about their roles and relationships.

But the anonymous stewardess said: “It’s quite a hidden industry. People think they know about it, but they don’t.

“If you work on a private boat, everything is kept a secret.”

The so-called “yachtie”, who has worked in the industry for just a year, warned that while billionaire owners may be involved in dangerous or disturbing behaviour, she believes another part of the industry deserves far greater scrutiny – the captains.

“Captains who have been at sea for however many years are stuck in their old ways,” she said.

She claimed she had heard of cases in which captains invited young stewardesses aboard for interviews before allegedly sexually assaulting them.

“When you’re at sea, law sometimes doesn’t exist,” she added.

The stewardess also described an industry that has become increasingly saturated, with scores of young people desperate to secure a coveted position aboard a luxury yacht – sometimes at any cost.

She told me: “These young girls and young people will go into the industry and grab whatever they can get. And it can be very dodgy.

“It’s common that the captains will slip a hand up a skirt sometimes, it’s normalised.

“When you have floods of people coming into the industry, it means a lot of mistreatment can go unnoticed.

“Because it’s such a desirable job, they put up with certain things. Stewardesses are likely to deal with abuse because they feel they have to tolerate it to keep their place in an industry many dream of breaking into.”

Kirsty Molloy* thought she had found the perfect ticket to life at sea when she snapped up a job with with Craig Taylor* – a supposed “38-year-old” surfer and skipper sailing around Fiji with an international crew.

Kirsty arrived at the boat buzzing with anticipation, only to discover that the man waiting for her looked considerably older than the slick photograph used on his profile.

Days into the voyage, Taylor allegedly became drunk and unleashed a torrent of abuse at Kirsty in front of fellow crew members.

She said he screamed at her and also threatened to dump her on the nearest island – whether it was inhabited or not.

Taylor, who was actually in his mid-40s, was later arrested by Fijian authorities and charged with one count of causing actual bodily harm to another female crew member Kirsty had worked alongside.

According to The Guardian , Molloy later found out Taylor was a convicted sex offender who was jailed for 18 months after breaking into a woman’s home and sexually assaulting her.

For all its glittering decks and champagne sunsets, the superyacht world has a darker underbelly – and those who work aboard these floating palaces can find paradise comes at a price.

*Some of the names in this article have been changed.