“It was very difficult to get myself used to another captain because when you get another captain on board, you don’t know them, they don’t know you,” he explained, “so you’re pretty much starting at square one again. The only thing that helped me was I’d worked on the boat before, so I felt like I had a a few tricks up my sleeve as opposed to Kerry. But Kerry’s great.”
“He’s very stern,” the Bravo star continued, “very much a captain who says ‘if you mess up, that’s strike one.’ Whereas if you got Captain Sandy, she’s very much like a motherly figure, kind of comforting, wants you to learn and nurture. And Captain Lee is just very much ‘all right, you messed, up do better.'”
But Ben did find solace in reuniting with Chief Stew Fraser Olender for season 11.
“Jumping back into it with Fraser, a familiar face, he’s very much like a like a brother,” he noted, “even though we do argue. We still love each other at the end of the day, but we can’t help but be very competitive as brothers are.”
Below Deck returns Monday, Feb. 5, at 9 p.m. on Bravo. And keep reading to meet the entire season 11 crew.