In this episode of the Yacht Business Podcast, Rosie ODonnell from Yachts for Science tells us about the initiative – It’s good for yacht owners and it’s good for science. Then I editorialise a little about the SailGP DAO.

Bookmarks & Shownotes

• 00:57 – Yachts for Science came together in 2019.
• 04:20 – MY Slipstream will tow a net across the Atlantic as part of a new project.
• 05:29 – The organisation works with the Manta Trust on projects.
• 13:45 – Drones have made marine science a lot easier and cheaper.
• 17:00 – The Volvo Ocean Race has had some science done while during the race in various editions.
• 17:51 – How do you stay in touch? Twitter? Somewhere else?
• 18:09 – Editorial : The Sail GP DAO

The Sail GP DAO – For the Fans… of NEAR Protocol

In a previous episode, I talked about SailGP having to change things up a bit for the fans. The format, which forces nearly every race to be the same, is a bit like – you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. It’s less about the skill of the athletes and more like ‘I hope there is a wreck to make it interesting.’

Earlier in 2022, Sail GP introduced a new crypto partner, the NEAR protocol. They renamed the marks on the course so the brand could get some airtime from the commentators, pretty basic sports-marketing stuff. But because NEAR is a blockchain company, there was talk of one of the sailing teams being owned by a DAO, or Decentralised Autonomous Organisation. 

It’s an interesting pitch. Allow the fans to own a team. Sounds good in theory, but there are a lot of disfunctioning DAOs out there at the moment. 

SailGP has amended its rules to allow thousands of racing fans to either invest in a new SailGP team or to provide specific governance on many of the decisions for that new team – or both.

The marketing says:

• MEANINGFUL – You get a voice in SOME of the team decisions
• ACCESS – NFT as a VIP pass is pretty well established now
• REWARDING – Members benefit when team succeeds? 
• GLOBAL – Seems a bit redundant
• ENGAGED – In other words, if you have skin in the game you will be more invested (Literally)
• FUTURE – ‘REal World Implementation of Web3 (So What)

Okay, that’s the pitch and some of it sounds interesting, but… have you ever been in a protest hearing at a yacht club? Have you ever spent any time on the Sailing Anarchy forums? Sailing fans can’t really agree on anything, let alone appointing management of a sailing team. 

Then there is the fine-print. It’s likely that the more investment you make, the more votes you will get. The more you own, the more rewards you get. 

Most DAO projects are transparent about the ‘Tokenomics’ of the project and the constitution has not been written yet, or if it has, it hasn’t been shared. In terms of NEAR itself, 20 wallets hold 70% of the tokens. 

Then there is the customer journey.  Click the ‘Register your Interest’ button and there is nothing about sailing or SAIL GP. 

1. Name and Email. Even though NEAR is permissionless, SAIL GP doesn’t want just anyone owning the team. They want to know who you are. 
2. Your NEAR Wallet ID. Presumably so they can check the balance. But in order to register your interest for the DAO you need to sign up to NEAR. Some great growth marketing tactics there. 
3. You need to enter your discord ID and or your Telegram ‘Handle’. If you thought the old bulletin boards about sailing were impossible to navigate, try running a sailing team through Discord. 
4. Then you are asked “What is your involvement in the NEAR community (Not the SailGP community, the NEAR community). So this is for NEAR fans, not for SAIL GP fans. 
5. Then you are asked “What is your interest in the NEAR x Sail GP partnership, and the first option is “Build: Integrated Tech Development”.

This is not a loyalty program or a fan-club. This is an investment product. 

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