The Occu-Soap, Adrift

With its interest in going behind the scenes of elite maritime travel, it may seem at times as if Below Deck ’s documentation is less about demystification and more about further glamorizing luxury tourism. However, in its depiction of superyacht work culture, the franchise shows how “yachties” are promised an exotic experience but are quickly disabused by the grueling, repetitive physicality of onboard labor. This article focuses on the workplace culture of the superyacht, showing how persistent occupational conventions and hierarchies dramatize the occu-soap and the social worlds of work beyond it.