A World First Boat Project Investment Opportunity

Dan Lee Boatbuilding is currently offering a unique, one off opportunity to kickstart a completely new approach to a modern wooden boat build project. I am looking to secure a commission to build one of our new boat designs, Temptress, our all wood, 24′ runabout. BUT with an included element that could actually see the commissioner ending up with a free boat, what the #@$£?

I am looking to produce a project driven, complete YouTube video series that features the build of Temptress as the subject. Firstly this will give the new owner the ability of being able to follow along, watching their boat being built in the form of a weekly YouTube video, forever documenting it’s journey in time. Coupled with this will be a re-invested YouTube revenue share, returned against the project cost, seeing the total cost of the project continually decreasing throughout the build.

A video series showcasing the entire build, coupled with a boat that’s actually going to get cheaper as the project progresses? That’s an opportunity that I believe no other yard or boat builder in the world has ever been able to offer before! Keep reading and we’ll take a look at how this could work.

The projects timeline

Ok, let’s talk figures..

Here’s the damage… a complete build of Temptress is going to cost in the region of £200k plus taxes, which will depend on the delivery location. BUT, that price could be reduced to as much as £0 via my proposed YouTube revenue return program, should the series do well.

Note there will be an investment opportunity for only one boat although there is the potential to split this investment between a number of parties if desired. It will be possible to ship the boat anywhere in the world, subject to an additional cost. I currently plan to build only one boat under this scheme.

How the YouTube return program will work?

Many YouTube channels have already demonstrated the incredible possibilities that can be unlocked with a successful following. The process in many fields, including boatbuilding generates great interest and traction with viewers. Leo of Sampson Boat Co for example is a fantastic showcase of how this process can work with his current restoration of Tally Ho being entirely viewer funded.

I love the fact that in this day and age, people such as myself now have access to platforms that allow us to “think outside the box” and approach projects such as this from an angle previously unheard of. With my unique proposal, I am offering to return a percentage of the revenue earned from each video posted, which will continually reduce the total cost of the boat throughout it’s build. The better the series does, the lower the price will get, possibly even to the stage where the boat ends up being free for the owner! Using a YouTube revenue calculator that I have created, based on historic earnings from my channel, let’s take a look at how some potential scenarios might work out:

Figures above are based on a consistent view rate and RPM (return per mile) from YouTube, averaged out across each video. These figures don’t allow for individual videos potentially going “viral”, which they can do! Financial figures are based on actual revenue figures that I have seen with existing videos.

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Why do you need a commission then?

Why not just start the build yourself I hear you say?! Well YouTube revenue is of course subjective to a number of elements, not least the popularity of the videos. Although there is great potential, there will be a substantial cost to incur in the early stages of the project and the series may take time to build momentum. In short, to ensure that the project doesn’t stall and is certain to get off the ground I would like to secure full funding for the project from the beginning, then we know that from day 1, the project WILL be completed.

Is this actually going to work?

If I can secure a commission, of course. The question is, how much will it end up costing? Right now I am starting to test run the process on a manageable, financial and physical scale, by producing a video series that follows a 1/4 scale model build of the boat.

This will give the first definitive insight into the minimum view rate and therefore income figures that the full project is likely to see. If you are interested in investing then I am happy to share further details demonstrating this. Should I be unsuccessful in securing a commission I may look into alternative funding options such as large number, small value crowd funding options.

What if I want to see this happen but I don’t have a spare £200k?

You can absolutely support this project in a number of ways that can still enable this happen. For a small monthly investment that returns it’s own additional benefits and content you can support me on Patreon.

If you’d like to help the project to succeed without it costing you anything at all then that’s fine too, just head to my YouTube channel and watch as many videos as you can bear before you get bored of hearing my voice 🙂

By all means binge, share with your friends and that alone will help things to move along! Let’s make this project happen.

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If you are interested in commissioning a boat, sponsoring the project or otherwise interested in offering support then please get in touch.