Gabriela Barragan from Below Deck Sailing Yacht slammed Dylan’s reaction to Sunny’s new Lead Deckhand position on Below Deck Season 11.
Ben Willoughby promoted Sunny Marquis to Lead Deckhand on Below Deck Season 11, but Dylan Piérre De Villiers felt it was controversial because they were in a boatmance.
Below Deck Sailing Yacht alum Gabriela Barragan called out Dylan’s negative comments about Sunny on the show and supported her.
“What Dylan said is DISGUSTING, that all you have to do is sleep with your boss to get a promotion. He has literally perpetuated the stereotypes in our industry that all the amazing women Captains, Mates, Engineers, deckies have been working so hard against for YEARS,” the second stew wrote on X.
Below Deck fans responded to Gabriela’s post, making claims that crew members shouldn’t get promoted for sleeping with each other and that Dylan was more experienced for the job than Sunny.
Gabriela stood her ground and believed Sunny was still capable of taking on the Lead Deckhand position, even if she had to ask Dylan for help with certain tasks.
There have been other female Below Deck stars who faced misogyny in the industry, such as Captain Sandy Yawn and Malia White from Below Deck Mediterranean, and Izzy Wouters from Below Deck Season 8.
Both Malia and Izzy were criticized for being given a Lead Deckhand position by their respective Bosuns. Malia was in a similar situation to Sunny because she was also in a boatmance with her superior, Wes Walton, in Season 2.
Ben explained his reason for making Sunny the Lead Deckhand on social media, and Gabriela will continue to root for her since she has experienced mistreatment as a woman in the yachting industry.
