Brian De Saint Pern

South African Brian de Saint Pern entered the world of reality TV when he joined the cast of Below Deck, a Bravo reality series that follows the lives of a superyacht crew. De Saint Pern was the Lead Deckhand on Valor, the yacht that starred in the show’s seventh season, which was filmed in Phuket, Thailand. Since appearing on the show, De Saint Pern has maintained a large social media following, including an impressive 41,700 followers on Instagram (where he also has a coveted “blue-tick” account).

De Saint Pern hails from the South African coastal town of Bluff, which is where he first developed his love of the sea and sea-faring — as one might expect, he grew up a keen player of water sports such as water polo and surfing. When he joined the cast of Below Deck in 2019, he had in fact only been in the yachting business for four years, although he had developed a reputation as a natural. Part of the show’s plot followed his journey as he looked to gain the necessary qualifications to be promoted to First Mate. His dedication to the notoriously tough profession is such that he can sometimes work for up to 128 days without a day off — and that involves being “on-call” 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It’s clearly not a job for anyone but the most seriously committed, but De Saint Pern is most definitely that.

Now with the unusual addition of “reality television star” to his resume, De Saint Pern will continue to be a one-off in the world of chartered yachting.