Below Deck Down Under’s Wihan Du Toit Getting Fired Was The Most Satisfying Moment In Years (Future Franchise Captains Should Take Note)

Below Deck Down Under season 3 has been tough overall, and Wihan Du Toit’s time on the show hasn’t been easy for viewers or his fellow crew, but watching him get fired was one of the most cathartic moments in Below Deck franchise history. Throughout Below Deck Down Under season 3, I’ve been struggling with the way Wihan’s been behaving. I know I’m not the only one, as Below Deck viewers have been flooding the comments of the show’s social posts to inform the difficult bosun that he’s not working with the rest of the crew in a cohesive way.

While the rest of the Below Deck Down Under season 3 cast has been performing decently, it’s been clear that Captain Jason Chambers wasn’t seeing the full magnitude of how rough it was to be working with Wihan. Jason has been having a hard time working his way through the season with new policies in procedures in place after Below Deck Down Under season 2’s scandal, but he didn’t anticipate there being more of a scandal in the current season. Throughout Below Deck Down Under season 3’s run, Wihan’s behavior has rivaled some of the worst bosuns in franchise history.

Below Deck Down Under’s Wihan Was Fired

He Did Poorly All Season

Below Deck Down Under’s Wihan struggled throughout the first charters of the season, making it clear that he didn’t have the right skills to work within the rest of the tight-knit exterior team. While Wihan, who has several years of yachting experience under his belt, seemed like he could be a great crew mate, he wasn’t the right guy for the job. After stirring up drama throughout the exterior team, Wihan moved on to being unable to cooperate with the interior team, especially his fellow department head Chief Stew Lara Rigby. Wihan’s issues with Lara followed him throughout the season.

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As Wihan continued on through the season and made drama wherever he went, it became clear that he needed to be fired. Captain Jason, however, didn’t seem to see things in the same light. Captain Jason was working hard throughout the season to try and help Wihan to fit into the role, but it became clear as time went on that it wasn’t working. When it came to Captain Jason’s attention that Wihan had been pushing his team to a point of emotional breakdowns and that he was still struggling to get along with the interior, he let Wihan go.

Captain Jason’s Choice To Let Wihan Go Was The Best Decision

He Wasn’t The Right Bosun For The Crew

As Below Deck Down Under season 3’s charter continued on, Captain Jason and Wihan weren’t working well together. Despite both feeling like they needed to develop a better rapport, Captain Jason struggled to understand Wihan’s point of view, and Wihan struggled to feel any urgency about his position aboard Katina. As the charters intensified, Captain Jason began to understand that Wihan wasn’t the right fit for his bosun, but he didn’t know the extent of Wihan’s poor behavior with the rest of the crew. While things were getting worse on the exterior, Captain Jason was mostly unaware of the drama.

When it came to light that Wihan had been one of the more difficult parts of the charter season, Captain Jason took action quickly. As he normally does when things are beginning to get tense, Captain Jason made it clear that he wasn’t happy with the way Wihan was performing, but when he got to the point that he could no longer trust the bosun, he forged ahead. Explaining that he’d “tried to bring up that negativity won’t be tolerated” in the past to Wihan, Jason made the best decision possible and let Wihan go, despite the former bosun’s shock.

Below Deck Viewers Often Struggle To Watch Yachties They Don’t Like

There’s A Level Of Disinterest When They’re Not Relatable

As Below Deck continues with its various spin-offs, it’s become clear that some fans are working hard to align with the yachties they don’t like watching, while others simply don’t try to connect. Yachties can be particular, and no one is going to like every cast member of a Below Deck season. However, when the yachties are working hard and doing their best to ensure that their jobs are done well, it’s easier to fall in line liking a yachtie that didn’t necessarily seem like a good crew member earlier in the season. Others are tough to handle all season.

Unfortunately for Wihan, he was someone who Below Deck viewers didn’t feel they could get behind within the first episodes of the season. While his temperament wasn’t something that seemed difficult early on, the fact that Wihan was terminally relaxed with the rest of the crew and struggled to give anyone genuine directions or feedback was tough. He tried far too hard to be liked, which caused him to be highly disliked when it came to the rest of the crew. Though Wihan wasn’t necessarily bad at his job, he wasn’t someone Below Deck viewers could root for this season.

Wihan’s Termination Was Satisfying For Below Deck Fans

They Were Ready To See Him Go

As Below Deck Down Under continues and Wihan’s absence is ultimately something viewers wind up forgetting, the satisfaction of his termination is something I’ll remember and hold onto. While I don’t root for the downfall of most yachties, watching Wihan work his way around Katina was a struggle throughout the first stretch of the season, and I’m not happy about the fact that he lasted as long as he did. Now, with Wihan having been terminated in the most cathartic of ways, I’ll be happy to watch as someone else fills the role of bosun, and hopefully does it better.

Wihan may not have been a bad person, but his time on Katina made it clear that he’s not a great bosun, at least not in a reality TV landscape. Though he may be good without the cameras involved or the need to create drama to fuel a show’s narrative, Wihan wasn’t the right bosun for Below Deck Down Under season 3. His inability to work with anyone else on the crew, lack of urgency, and difficult behavior towards the women wasn’t something that endeared him to me, and I’m happy to see that Wihan’s moved on to something else.

Below Deck Down Under airs Mondays at 8 p.m. EDT on Bravo.

Source: Below Deck/Instagram