‘Below Deck’ Problems With Ben Willoughby, Will He Make It?

Below Deck Deckhand, Ben Willoughby ended up promoted to Bosun after Jared Woodin got fired but is he already on the wrong side of Captain Kerry Titheradge? The drama with Jared came in the same episode that saw Stew Cat Baugh leave the vessel after she got bad news from home.

Below Deck Season 11 Has A Wild Crew Under Captain Kerry

Like so many other crews, the team in Season 11 likes partying hard, drinking too much, and then letting their captain down. Bravo fans met flirty Argentinian Barbara ‘Barbie’ Pascual. Well off, and sexy, she got Jared Woodin and Kyle Stillie very interested. As Jared’s firing came after a drunken run-in with Stillie, perhaps some resentment simmered between the men.

Captain Kerry Titheradge arrived after Captain Lee Rosbach stepped down. He seems quite good at handling his crew, but he doesn’t know everything. So, he decided to move Ben up as he knew the vessel quite well. Bravo fans remember Kerry from Below Deck Adventure. Now it turns out that he had some reservations about Ben’s ability to be Bosun. Will he get rid of him?

Problems With Ben Willoughby

With the second half of the season arriving, a lot of people speculate that Ben might get fired. That came after Captain Kerry Titheradge spoke with Entertainment Weekly. Certainly, it sounds as if Ben got the job because of what he knows rather than his ability to get the job done. In fact, Ben claimed on YouTube, that this season was very trying and brought lots of tension and “friction.”

From what Captain Kerry said, the Below Deck bosun didn’t have what it takes. He explained in his interview:

Ben wasn’t my first choice to be in that position, but he does know the boat well. He’s very good at his job, but he definitely needs to stay focused and understand what the chain of command means. I had a lot of faith in him to do that job. But you’ll see in the episode as well, more than once, I said, ‘Are you up for this?’ I mean, I think three times I asked him. And the last time you could see his face, he was sick of being asked a question.

Having dropped that spoiler, it’s no wonder that some Bravo fans think Ben might not last. Or, he might last only because nobody else can do the job. Apart from that, Captain Kerry seems to think that he had “the right skill set,” if not the right “personality” for it.

 

What are your thoughts? Do you hope that Ben makes it to the end of the season? Or, do you think he seems too involved with the rest of the crew and doesn’t understand how to be a leader? Sound off in the comments below, and come back here often for more news about Below Deck. The show airs on Mondays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo.