I hate to rain on a parade, but one thing is that the relationship between boats is a lot more libertarian than the relationship between the crew of one boat. Even Plato uses the example of the ship at sea to argue for his idea of the geek dictator ("philosopher king").
The crew are literally "all in the same boat" and so there isn't really much room for disagreement. Historically, western culture has decided that the best way to run a boat is under the command of a single captian, and not many people have argued with this. I wouldn't be surprised if it's impossible to ensure the boat without a designated captian. I think this will create a tension that you'll have to work around, at least.

On the other hand, if this was a flotilla of boats... then I think you'd begin to see a natural harmony between you idea and decentralization. Islands of consistency in a sea of eventualness.

Prehaps, you could pitch this not as a single vessel, but as a prototype for a flotilla... maybe invite current sea captians to join your network? That way you might be able to release some of the inevitable pressure of forcing participants into too small a space (1 ship)