On January 19, 2023, David Crosby died at the age of 81, following a long illness. He was a founding member of both the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash. Crosby was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice: once for his work in the Byrds and again for his work with CSN. Five albums to which he contributed are included in Rolling Stone‘s list of “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time“, three with the Byrds and two with CSN(Y). Crosby’s work with the Byrds and CSNY has sold over 35 million albums.
David Crosby was also a lifelong sailor, starting sailing at the age of 11. In 1968, Crosby purchased the 1947-built Alden schooner Mayan, which he would own and sail extensively for 45 years. The schooner became a sanctuary from which Crosby could escape at least some of the challenges of his personal and professional life.
Crosby wrote that ““Mayan became my rock. She was always there and I could always get away from the crazies in my business.”
He wrote numerous songs aboard Mayan, including Wooden Ships and Lee Shore. Wooden Ships was one of the songs performed by Crosby, Stills and Nash at the Woodstock music festival, which was only their second public performance as a group.
Crosby wrote of Wooden Ships, “I always figured if everything really went to hell, we’d just leave on MAYAN and head for the islands. Back then a lot of us thought everything was going to collapse pretty soon. I’m sure glad it didn’t.
Crosby wasn’t the only sailor in the group. Steven Stills wrote one of CSN’s best-known songs about sailing, Southern Cross. Sadly, Crosby could not perform on the original recording due to legal problems related to his drug addiction. Crosby was included in the subsequent music video and performed the song with CSN in live concerts.
Graham Nash also sailed with Crosby on Mayan, including a 3,000-mile voyage from Florida to California.
Neil Young, the sometimes fourth member of the group, also is a sailor, who owned a 109′ Baltic trader.
David Crosby has been described as a mercurial musical genius. Alexis Petridis writes that he could be utterly charming and mischievously funny… and incredibly generous to other musicians… He could also be impossible: overbearing, mouthy, convinced of his own brilliance. The thing was, he was right: Crosby genuinely was brilliant.
He will indeed be missed.
A good tribute post to an iconic musician of the 20th century. And a sailor. So many of us are part time sailors, would be sailors, or once upon a time former sailors. We are all connected by water, boats, and music.