I don't think anyone has as long as the timer is running. Probably Phase II starts after the timer's up. Then the world boss enters the realm. No idea what happens then, though. Probably individual and/or group fights with that boss.
My guess is that a regular World Boss fight will take 24 hrs, just like "regular" boss fights. By sending those ships we reduce the duration accordingly and we get a bonus for our armies. I also assume we're going to send our regular armies to fight the world boss. We'll just have to wait (less than 50 hrs) and see.
What storm said. Phase 1 is the preparing phase, the time reduction and army bonus should come in handy on the next ones.
From what I've gathered, there's 4 phases, each phase lasts a week according to the timer. So this boss thing is a month long event. Phase 1 - the preparing phase, bonus and stuff Phase 2 & 3- the fighting phase to gaing glory. Phase 2 might be defeating the boss's army and the 3rd fighting with him..just speculating. Phase 4 - where we spend the hard earned glory points for weapons and stuff or either hoard them