‘Below Deck Down Under’ Bosun Jamie Sayed Has Totally Dressed Up As Pirate Before

Accomplished, commanding, shrewd, and handsome, bosun Jamie Sayed cuts quite an impressive figure. Originally from the Gold Coast, the Aussie worked as a police officer, lifeguard and solider before entering the yachting industry. He has traveled all over the world working on boats of all sizes before landing aboard M/Y Thalassa and on screens everywhere, courtesy of Peacock’s Below Deck Down Under.

With over half the inaugural season available to stream, fans of the franchise have gotten to watch Jamie excel at his job (remember that charter guest he saved from drowning!) and manage a green deck crew, consisting of deckhands Culver Bradbury, Brittini Burton, and Benny Crawley who have made more than their fair share of mistakes. Even though Jamie and Captain Jason Chambers butt head from time-to-time, Jamie always manages to take his criticism and learn from it, leaning on his team to execute their new skills under intense scrutiny. However, his management and communication style doesn’t always work with Benny, which has caused tension among members of the deck crew. Not everything with Jamie is so serious though. On night outs, he isn’t afraid to cut loose and party in the hot tub with sexy Stews Magda Ziomek and Tumi Mhlongo and create some drama of his own.

Before this week’s episode of Below Deck Down Under, we got the chance to speak to Jamie about how he started his career in yachting, his M/Y Thalassa deck crew and his podcast that allows people to share their stories with the world.

Decider: On the show you’ve talked about your police background and other work you’ve done in the past. Can you talk about your career transition to yachting?

Jamie Sayed: When I was 21, a mate of mine tried to get me into the yachting industry after he moved to the US, but I had other goals that I wanted to pursue first. So I got into yachting later in life—I’m 37 now—and in an unexpected way. I left Australia and moved to Columbia to learn Spanish for a while. After that, I went to Mexico and then traveled to the US. Only then, when that same mate encouraged me once again to get into yachting, did I really consider it.

So at the end of 2017, I jumped on a boat, and I was pretty green. I had been on boats in Australia to go wake boarding and other water activities, but I needed to learn the ropes. To do that, I went straight into charter season in the Bahamas. It was wild—one minute, I was on land, the next minute I was jumping on a table and dancing like a pirate with wigs and swords to entertain guests. I thought it was pretty cool!

So you’re telling me you have a little bit of Keith Stone, entertainment officer extraordinaire, in you?

Oh, for sure. I actually dressed like a pirate on this season too, but the spotlight was all on Culver!

How did you get involved with the Below Deck franchise?

I had been approached by producers a few times before it worked out. You hear about the show all around the industry, but I learned more about it through Bugsy Drake [from Below Deck Mediterranean]. I was friends with her before signing up for Below Deck Down Under. I didn’t ask her a bunch of probing questions, but maybe I should have.

You’ve butted heads with Captain Jason, but it seems like a mutual respect has been growing throughout the season. What was your experience working with him?

At the start of any job, you’ve got to learn who the captain is and how they work and vice versa. It took some time because we are all just thrown on to a boat together and had to scramble to make it work. While we’re getting adjusted to each other, we’ve got guests coming on, beach setups, and entertainment. Plus, we had to do everything safely.

At the start, there was a little bit of tension between Jason and me. We always had the same goal; we just had to figure out how to work together to get there. We initially just had slightly different pathways.

Do you have any advice you’d like to give Captain Jason for when he works with his next Bosun?

Once he’s comfortable with his boson, which is pretty early on, he should just let the boson take over and trust their judgement.

It’s very obvious that Benny has had a rough couple of years, but your issues with him as a deckhand have all been valid. In hindsight, is there anything you wish you could have done differently?

At the end of the day, I was actually pretty easy on Ben. I didn’t approach the captain on a lot of issues because I’m there to filter the information up the chain of command. Actually, if I had to do it again, I would have gone to Captain Jason sooner. Captain Jason was aware that all the Benny drama was happening, but he never got the full story while we were on the boat. Ben was very open about his past and how difficult the last few years were for him. I did feel bad for Ben so it was difficult for me to understand how to handle Ben as a manager. As much as I wanted to coddle him, I needed him to level up and be a productive deckhand as well.

He got away with a lot of things that you just don’t get away with on other boats. Plus, Captain Jason and Ben got along really well as mates. At one point, I just felt I had to step back. It was a really difficult situation I was in.

Who is easier to manage, Culver or Keith Stone?

Culver, for sure. Keith Stone comes out when Culver has an idea or knows that he’s about to morph into the entertainment officer. As Keith Stone, Culver just goes for it. Obviously, he got permission for pretty much everything besides the jacuzzi, but he came up with his plans and made them happen. As long as his deck jobs were finished, I was fine with him making that transformation.

It’s difficult to be a woman working on deck in the yachting industry, but Brittini shows a lot of promise. What was your favorite part of working with her? 

Brittini listened most of time [laughs]. She was very good for someone who was pretty green. She also had a nice little sense of humor. We were able to joke around and have “BJ” time. It gets serious on deck, but we actually had a lot of fun. We once got into a full-blown mud fight on the bow. We talked about it on my podcast.

Can you tell me about your podcast?

I have a podcast that’s called “Wake Up With Jamie.” I was at a bar sitting by myself in Panama, and I noticed some people nearby who were telling stories. I realized that every single person has a story. So, I thought why don’t I create a podcast and start interviewing random people and ask them to share their stories. So that’s what I did.

While working on the M/Y Thalassa, Culver and I did these little mock interviews with each other with an invisible microphone about what was happening on deck and with the water excursions. It ended up being good practice!

New episodes of Below Deck Down Under premiere Thursdays on Peacock

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