David Crosby’s link to Gas Light
David Crosby of Crosby, Stills and Nash and his link to Bay Lights Charters, Gas Light
David Crosby — Harmony at Sea
By John Arndt | March 6, 2023 | Sailing Everywhere | Posted on latitude 38 website and full article in April 2023 addition
When rock legend David Crosby passed away on January 19, he left behind an enormous musical legacy, including his stirring harmonies with bandmates Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and Neil Young. Besides his renowned musical harmonies, he also found harmony at sea. This led to many miles of sailing and endless sailing friendships formed aboard his famed 59-ft LOD wooden schooner Mayan.
David gave this photo to Beau Vrolyk, showing David and his wife, Jan, sailing Mayan between
Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz.
© 2023 Courtesy Beau Vrolyk
After publishing our online story of his passing, we received many comments highlighting how much his music resonated naturally with sailors, including CSN songs Southern Cross, Wooden Ships, Lee Shore, and many more. The songs are anthems forming the soundtrack of many sailors’ lives.
Reader Bill Huber wrote a comment reflecting the thoughts of many: “I had to look up, read the lyrics, and listen to Southern Cross, which I always associate with CS&N. I imagined it to be describing a passage on Mayan. (It looks like her on the record cover… remember those?) I fell down this whirlpool thinking about David Crosby, Mayan, Southern Cross and playing it (on the sound system) when we crossed the equator on a passage from Eureka to Fatu Hiva. Thanks to David Crosby for the harmonies to the soundtrack of my youth, and wooden boats. Fair winds and following seas.”
Crosby’s connection to the sea and sailing often appeared in his music, but his actual sailing life, while tightly woven and well known along the coast of California, was less well known to his worldwide fan base. His dad was an Oscar-winning Hollywood producer, so he grew up in Southern California learning to sail in small boats like many other SoCal kids. It was there he first found freedom and escape at sea.
While his sailing life started on other boats, the schooner Mayan is his sailing story. It was an escape that came to fruition in his adult life when he bought the Alden-designed schooner at age 28, in 1969. Sailing aboard her was what he would do for more than 40 years to escape from the demands of the music world and to recuperate from concert tours.
Mayan under construction in Belize. The original line drawings show her long, shallow keel with centerboard. John Alden originally drew Mayan with a gaff rig.
© 2023 Courtesy Beau Vrolyk
Read more about David Crosby’s inspiring sailing and musical life in this month’s issue of Latitude 38.
