Bad analogy.
A ship captain should be demonstrably skilled in navigation, among other things.
A voter is part of a conflicted collective and makes political choices based on a sense of their own interests.
Believing only elites should vote is based on the groundless assumption that you need certain level of knowledge to vote, and that those elites then make disinterested neutral choices based on a rational sense of the greater good.
Nah they see and experience the world exactly the same way—through the lens of their own interests. And vote accordingly.
Meanwhile for everyone on a ship, it’s in all their own interests to have a competent captain who is skilled at the craft of ship sailing.