Lara Rigby knew she had big shoes to fill coming into this season of Below Deck Down Under. However, there was never a Chief Stew more up the task. While acknowledging there was “pressure” to succeed after Aesha Scott’s successful tenure on the show, Rigby knew her passion for yachting and years of experience would endear her to fans. “My main goal was to do the job the way I do it and maybe inspire people to get into the industry,” said Rigby.
Rigby got off on the right foot by immediately connecting with Captain Jason Chambers. “Jason’s very fair,” explained Rigby. “He wanted the interior to be run smoothly by a professional and that’s definitely what I brought to the table.” Rigby also worked previously with Chef Tzarina Mace-Ralph who returned to work for Chambers after her previous successful season. Despite comparing Mace-Ralph to “Weird Barbie” in one of her confessionals—which Rigby “never intended to cause offense”—Rigby leaned on Mace-Ralph throughout the season, especially when it came to confronting Bosun Wihan du Toit about his poor leadership of the deck team.
“Obviously, in that small environment, you do start to question yourself when it comes to conflicts like I had with Wihan,” explained Rigby. “You start to think: ‘Am I going crazy? Am I seeing this wrong?’ Having the support of someone like Tzarina was immense.” Though her issues with du Toit have yet to be resolved, Rigby hasn’t let their problems affect how she runs her interior team with stews Brianna “Bri” Duffield and Marina Marcondes de Barros. “I was very blessed to have both of them,” said Rigby.
Rigby spoke to Decider over Zoom about her charter season on the Katina, her stance on boatmances, and which Below Deck alumni she’s forged friendships with.
DECIDER: I think it’s really hard to come into an established show and replace a Chief Stew that’s so beloved, but you’ve done a wonderful job. Were you at all nervous about signing up for Below Deck Down Under?
LARA RIGBY: Thank you, I really appreciate that. There was a lot of pressure because Aesha [Scott] is a fantastic chief stew. As you said, she’s loved by everyone. My main goal was to do the job the way I do it and maybe inspire people to get into the industry.
Obviously, you’ve been on super yachts of all sizes. How does the Katina compare? What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?
Katina is a very unique yacht. It was a bit of a shock when I first got onboard. However, in the yachting industry, you’re always faced with challenges, and I’m all for a challenge. I grew to love the Katina over time. She became weirdly special to me.
I think the Katina will has become weirdly special to fans too. We’ve never seen an elevator on a yacht before nor anyone getting trapped inside one with a hot latte.
That elevator! I remember that day with the latte. It was so warm in there. The elevator just kept going up and down, up and down. It wouldn’t let me out. I’m not claustrophobic, but I was freaking out a bit.
You and Captain Jason establish an immediate rapport. What do you admire most about him as a Captain?
Jason’s very fair. He’s a great captain, and he cares about the job, so we related in that way. He wanted the interior to be run smoothly by a professional and that’s definitely what I brought to the table. I think we connected very quickly. He is a great guy; he cares for the crew, and he care about the guests as well.
Now, you and Tzarina had a bit of history before stepping on board. Do you regret any of the comparisons you made about her in your confessionals?
We had a great friendship before this year. We always joked about things like that. We are very different, and I think that’s what makes our friendship fun. Calling her “Weird Barbie” was definitely never intended to cause offense or be a “mean girl” kind of thing. It was a playful comment. I really love her weirdness. I’m actually a lot weirder than people think, but I just don’t show it as much.
In the season trailer, there seemed to be a bit of tension between you and Tzarina, but now, you two present a united front in getting all the departments running harmonious together. What was it like to have her as an ally in your clash with Wihan?
It was great. Obviously, in that small environment, you do start to question yourself when it comes to conflicts like I had with Wihan. You start to think: “Am I going crazy? Am I seeing this wrong?” Having the support of someone like Tzarina—who also was seeing the things I was seeing—was immense. It helped me get through the day and avoid panic attacks. She really backed me up.
It’s clear that Wihan needs to put more thought into delegating tasks and running his deck crew. When did you first notice the cracks among the interior team?
Pretty early on, to be honest. At first, I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt and let him do his thing to see if it all would come together. Ultimately, yachting is my career. It’s the thing I’m most passionate about. I’ve been in the industry for the last 14,15 years. I can’t look away when the way he runs his team affects the guests. They are my priority. When I saw his management style failing, that’s when I had to step in and be like, “okay, we really need to get this sorted.”
I think one of his many issues was that he saw you as an adversary instead of a colleague who was trying to help the yacht run more efficiently for everyone’s benefit.
Exactly. In yachting, we all have our departments, but ultimately, we’re a team. There’s not one department that should have to work harder than the other to make charters run smoothly. Seeing him sometimes not cooperating was frustrating. It was hard, but I do think I stepped in at the right time.
It’s got to be frustrating to watch back some of those moments between you and Wihan because you are so clearly in the right.
Yes, it was hard.
How will your dynamic play out the rest of the season?
As you can see, it’s very frustrating. I think I’m being as clear as I can possibly be and I am not really connecting with Wihan. He’s so defensive. Tensions are building, and, at some point, they are gonna bubble and explode. There’s more to come on that one.
While the deck team is having issues, the interior team seems to be sailing along! What were your first impressions of Bri and Marina?
I was very blessed to have both of them. They’re very eager. Bri is a lovely person. She’s very guest-facing. She’s great with people. She’s got amazing cocktail and service experience. Marina is a hustler. She gets stuff done. My goal was for the guests to be happy. Unfortunately, at times, that meant Marina was down in housekeeping where she didn’t always want to be, but I had to make those hard decisions for everything to be right for the guests.
Have you ever had a stew question your assignments before like Marina did?
Yes. We work with so many different people from different backgrounds, so clashes in communication at times are to be expected. However, I always try and lead my teams by example and try to be as fair as possible. I also want to nurture people so that they can be better versions of themselves. It might not seem like it right now, but there is a method to the madness of keeping Marina in that position. I wanted her to respect and accept the cabins/housekeeping role before putting her on service and allowing her to be around the guests.
She’s doing a fantastic job. If someone isn’t running the laundry correctly, it can sink a whole charter season.
It can. 2 stewards are not enough on a 60M yacht. I normally run a team of 5 girls. It was hard to delegate what needed to be done. I understand that she was in the laundry and the cabins a lot, but I had to make the best decision in that situation. She got it all running smoothy, and the guests were happy. That was my main goal.
If I may ask, what’s your personal policy on boatmances?
If it’s a connection like Harry [Van Vliet]’s and Bri’s, I’m all for it. I think it’s great if you can connect with someone. Everyone’s away from their family and friends, so it’s nice to have a bit of companionship on a boat. For myself, I’ve been there and done that. It’s not a good idea for me personally. Boatmances ends up in disaster 9 times out of 10. They can take a lot of the focus away from the work. For me, as someone who is so passionate about the job, that can be tough.
I have to imagine that the tangled relationships among Wihan, Tzarina, Mariana and Adair Werley were wild to witness firsthand.
That situation was actually quite hard to manage because one day someone’s happy and the next day they’re sad. I’m like, “what’s happened here?” I couldn’t keep up with who Wihan was interested in on a day-to-day basis. It took up a lot of my brain energy every day to try and keep track.
My time is almost up, but I saw you recently met up with Chef Jonno from Below Deck Med!
Yes! I do an annual girls’ trip with some other chief stews and girls in the industry every year in Antigua. He actually joined us on our last one, and we formed a friendship. He told me when I was there that he had just finished filming Below Deck Med, and I was like, “oh, my God, I’m just about to go Below Deck Down Under!” So that was really cool. We had a great connection, and now we work together on a yacht. We have a lot of fun. He’s an amazing person.
Are you friendly with any other Below Deck alumni?
I speak to Fraser [Olendar]. Fraser’s reached out to me, and he’s given me his support because it’s difficult to deal with some of the comments on social media sometimes. You hone in on the negative instead of the positive comments. He knew what that was like and wanted to share his experience on how he dealt with that side of things. I was very grateful to hear from him and get his perspective.
Lastly, what can you tease about the reason of the season?
I can tell you there is going to be a lot more drama [laughs]. There might be a few changes coming too. Just get ready for a wild ride because the season definitely doesn’t get any calmer.
New episodes of Below Deck Down Under air Monday nights at 8/7c on Bravo
Read the full article here
