Captain Lee Rosbach from ‘Below Deck’ brings ‘NightCap’ show to Detroit
The “Stud of the Sea” himself was the ship captain on the reality series “Below Deck” about the crews and guests of superyachts for 10 seasons.
The “Stud of the Sea” is coming back home to Michigan.
The “stud” himself, Captain Lee Rosbach, was the ship captain on the Bravo reality series “Below Deck” about the crews and guests of superyachts for 10 seasons. This Thursday, the captain will host his one-man show, “NightCap,” in Detroit where he will chat about his wild career and dish on behind-the-scenes stories of the show.
“I didn’t plan on being a reality star. I don’t think that’s anything that anybody plans on,” Rosbach said. “I just wanted to take it on the road and tell people my story the way that it actually happened, as opposed to what I get to read in all the supermarket tabloids.”
Born and raised in Saginaw, Rosbach had never seen the ocean until he was 35 years old. Rosbach originally owned a few restaurants in Indiana when a friend told him about a restaurant on Turks and Caicos Islands that was available for rent.
“I flew down and took a look at it and came back and begged the wife to let us move to the islands,” he said. “We just packed up and took a chance.”
When Rosbach soon began running out of money and had to shut down the business, he couldn’t find a job on the island. “At that time, in order to get a job on the island, you had to be a native or you had to own the business yourself,” he said. So, his only options were to get a job working on boats that were leaving the island. Rosbach began making boat deliveries and discovered that he was meant to be out on the waters.
The journey to yachting wasn’t easy. Rosbach first had to make enough money by doing deliveries to move back to Michigan, then work more to be able to move to Florida “where the big boats were.” After getting his captain’s license in Fort Meyers, Rosbach moved to Fort Lauderdale.
But how did this superyacht captain end up on a reality television show?
Rosbach received a call about a two-month charter for the first season of “Below Deck.” Originally, he was just meant to drive the boat down to the Caribbean then check on it every few days during filming. But the captain hired for filming didn’t have enough experience for the insurance company to insure the boat, and Rosbach was next in line.
“That’s how I got the first season on ‘Below Deck,’ by being in the right place at the right time and fulfilling a need,” he said. “They didn’t have enough time, because the vetting process takes 90 days, and I’d already been vetted.”
After 10 years on “Below Deck,” Rosbach left the show before its 11th season. Today, he is the host of “Deadly Waters with Captain Lee” on Oxygen, a show about true crime on the high seas.
“It’s a little different genre than what I’m used to,” he said. “I don’t have any unruly crew members that I have to put up with, and I don’t have to deal with unwanted weather or drunken guests, so I get it pretty easy now.”
During “NightCap,” Rosbach will tell the crowd stories about his life on the seas and on “Below Deck.”
“After 10 years, let me tell you, there’s some stories,” he said. “Take a few 21- or 22-year-olds, put them in an exotic tropical paradise, throw in copious amounts of alcohol and give them lots of disposable cash, and what could possibly go wrong?”
‘NightCap’ with Captain Lee Rosbach
8-10 p.m.
Gem Theatre Detroit
333 Madison St.
Tickets: General Admission $50, VIP $100.
Tickets can be purchased at eventbrite.com/e/nightcap-with-captain-lee-rosbach-tickets-916779591437.
