Kathleen Held stars in Bravo’s new reality series, “Below Deck,” which premieres July 1. Photo courtesy Bravo.
By Kim Kalunian, WPRO News
Kathleen Held has always loved the ocean, but now she’s taking the skills she honed in the Ocean State to previously uncharted waters.
The 28-year-old is one of the cast members Bravo’s newest reality series, “Below Deck,” which premieres July 1. The show follows a group of eight people working on a luxury mega yacht in St. Martin. It’s a chance to see how everyday people working on yacht crews serve the rich and famous, explained Held.
Held has been working as a yacht steward for the past four years. A Warwick native and graduate of URI, Held realized soon after college that she wasn’t certain what profession she wanted to pursue.
“I wanted to travel, to earn money and to meet new people,” she said. “And I wanted to challenge myself. I wanted to be able to grow.”
Having grown up directly across from Narragansett Bay and close by the Rhode Island Yacht Club, Held said she was always by the water as a child. When she was older, a trip to Newport to watch the luxury yachts pull into port stirred something inside her.
“I decided that maybe I could get a job on one of those boats,” she said. So she did some research and stumbled upon a book called “The Insiders Guide to Becoming a Yacht Stewardess.” She read the book cover to cover, and followed the instructions carefully, eventually landing her first job on a 130-foot boat in Miami.
“The experience for me was unlike anything I had ever seen in my entire life,” said Held. “My chief stewardess said to me, ‘You can move our stuff on board. Welcome home.’ To me it was a special feeling.”
Held said she was nervous, but knew that the job was the opportunity she had been hoping for.
That was four years ago, and Held has been working as a yacht stewardess ever since. She’s spent time in various places, including a stint in Maine where she said she “ate lobster every day.”
But being a yacht stewardess isn’t always paradise. Held is responsible for a plethora of duties like decorating, upkeep and daily cleaning, keeping inventory, and attending to passengers’ every beck and call.
“The most challenging part of your job is taking care of the guests,” she said. “You’ve got make sure their needs are met above and beyond.”
Held said her duties can be as simple as running errands for guests, or as outrageous as arranging for caviar to be flown in from another part of the world.
“I like to say that a yacht stewardess wears many hats,” she said.
On Bravo’s “Below Deck,” Held serves as second steward. She said she first heard about the show through a trade magazine, and sent an email and photo into Bravo to be considered. After a series of Skype interviews, Held was told she would be on the first season.
“The feeling was absolutely surreal,” she said. “Honestly my heart started to race a little bit faster and my mind started to wander about what’s to come and what’s going to happen when the show airs.”
Held’s father has a Master’s in film directing and her uncle is a retired actor in L.A., so the glittering lights of Hollywood are familiar to Held. Still, she said, being part of a reality show wasn’t always easy.
“Being a part of television has always been a dream of mine,” she said, adding that the most challenging part of filming was pulling herself together when deep inside she just wanted to break down.
Despite the struggles, Held sailed through the six weeks of filming aboard a 164-foot yacht in St. Martin. Now she has mixed emotions about the series premiere.
“I am nervous to some extent but mainly excited to see how the project comes together,” she said. “I’m excited to see myself on television and excited to see what my crew mates had to say about me when I wasn’t there.”
Held currently lives in Ft. Lauderdale, but her family still lives in Warwick. She said she’s excited to see how people in her home state react to the show.
“You’re getting the inside story of an everyday group of people who come from different backgrounds, who still don’t know what they want to do in five years,” she said.
Held said the yacht guests – the rich and famous – add another dynamic to the show.
“You’re going to get all the glitz and glam from being aboard a mega yacht,” she said.
Plus, the show reveals the hard work of people like Held, something she says they do to maintain a “respectable profession, to travel, to learn and to enjoy themselves.”
“Below Deck” premieres Monday, July 1 at 10 p.m. on Bravo.
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Kim Kalunian
