The Mayan - David Crosby's legendary schooner

[Paul Elliott]

Mayan has a new owner and new berth in Santa Cruz:
Rock star schooner ‘Mayan’ enjoys new berth, ownership

I casually know the new owner and he's taking great care of Mayan.

[Sand crab]

Back in 1986 Crosby was a fugitive. I remember reading that he was hoping to escape on his boat but it was not in great shape at that time. Shortly after that he turned himself in. I'm thinkin this was the potential escape vehicle.

[SV Sailfish]

Nice to see she's well cared for. Thanks for the link and update Paul.

[markwesti]

I read Crosby's book . I wish I hadn't .

[rhhmadry]

David Crosby’s Boat / The Mayan / Test Pressing

[fogmachine]

I helped bring Mayan up to Santa Cruz from LA where she was getting an interior refit. She is being very well cared for and is in line for a few more upgrades over the next year (including replacing the direct drive main halyard winch with Merlin's original 2-speed mainsheet winch).

I put together a video of the delivery - a very mellow affair.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFNExMS-eqw

We used OpenCPN on a Mac for much of the navigation - even our old-school Dutch skipper warmed to the new technology.

[Paul Elliott]

Yes, the skipper insists on a minimum of electronics (as in zero) in the cockpit.

Here's a video of MAYAN in the recent Great San Francisco Schooner Race (June 13):
Regattas - BOATSWAYNE

I was in the cockpit, working the port jibsheet (bright yellow foulies). We had a blast. MAYAN is truly beautiful, and sails fast when she has wind.

[model 10]

Originally Posted by Paul Elliott

Yes, the skipper insists on a minimum of electronics (as in zero) in the cockpit.

Here's a video of MAYAN in the recent Great San Francisco Schooner Race (June 13):
Regattas - BOATSWAYNE

I was in the cockpit, working the port jibsheet (bright yellow foulies). We had a blast. MAYAN is truly beautiful, and sails fast when she has wind.

That was great. Sailing the bay in the summer is pretty wonderfull. I don't know if we will ever get back there to sail again but your video brought back great memories.

[hellosailor]

"Yes, the skipper insists on a minimum of electronics (as in zero) in the cockpit."
Good thing he hasn't been to Burning Man or caught onto Steampunk design, huh?(G)


Takes time to warm up a steam-powered chartplotter!

[Schooner Chandlery]

It's a lovely boat. We saw her while she was on the market in 2010. Strange thing is I'd noted her foreshrouds weren't fair led through that pin rack back then and I see it's still the same (from the video) now. The upper shrouds are pulled in to go through the pin rack that the two lowers go through as well-- rather than being left outside the pin rack. Paul Elliott, did you guys have the foresail down for a good portion of the race? We ran the GSFSR in 2010 that way because of high winds. Reefed main, no foresail and just the staysail and jib full. I saw the skipper was saying he couldn't fall off at one point (indicating the power of the main was driving the boat?) and was thinking "been there, done that" LOL Looks like you guys had a load of fun. Both David and I really enjoyed the race the year we participated. Fair winds, Brenda

[Paul Elliott]

Originally Posted by Schooner Chandlery

It's a lovely boat. We saw her while she was on the market in 2010. Strange thing is I'd noted her foreshrouds weren't fair led through that pin rack back then and I see it's still the same (from the video) now. The upper shrouds are pulled in to go through the pin rack that the two lowers go through as well-- rather than being left outside the pin rack. Paul Elliott, did you guys have the foresail down for a good portion of the race? We ran the GSFSR in 2010 that way because of high winds. Reefed main, no foresail and just the staysail and jib full. I saw the skipper was saying he couldn't fall off at one point (indicating the power of the main was driving the boat?) and was thinking "been there, done that" LOL Looks like you guys had a load of fun. Both David and I really enjoyed the race the year we participated. Fair winds, Brenda

Yes, the foresail was down for much of the race (the windy part). We started with a smaller jib, but just a few minutes before the start we dropped that and hoisted a larger jib. When the wind picked up we dropped the foresail but kept the big jib. The main was overpowering the rudder, but they quickly figured out how to trim to reduce the helm.

This was more wind, and more speed -- wind in the high 20s with 30 kt gusts, and we hit 11 kts, but probably one knot of that was due to current. This was more than MAYAN had seen in a long time, and it took a while to figure out the sail trim.

I don't know all the details, because I was completely focused on jib trim, and occasionally stays'l trim, so I wasn't paying attention to the big picture. I desperately wanted to not screw up!

[Schooner Chandlery]

Well it looks like you had fun on the trip. The year we did it, the winds were steady in the low 30's and some gust much higher (we hear from others..we didn't have our masthead wx displaying at the time) and because of the course design and the fact we were short on crew, we decided to cross the start line with foresail down. Many of the boats had equipment breaking and sails ripping during the race so we were pretty happy we did that. With a crew of 4 (only had David and I along with two guys who knew how to sail) and two passengers (a child and an along-for-the-ride senior citizen) we were not planning to be in the race and it was a "wing it" kinda day.

With so many gibes in the course (and no desire to do chicken gibes) and such high winds we felt we didn't have enough hands to properly dip and haul in the gaff foresail and the mainsail both. We'd only been sailing the boat a bit over a year at the time. If today, we'd have probably left the foresail up and used the gaff vang to control the gibe w/o a worry. A couple of years of ocean sailing our schooner have taught us the foresail with gaff vang engaged is extremely forgiving of standing gibes. The mainsail? not forgiving--we really have to manage it for gibing, always.

Us in the Raccoon Strait during the 2010 GSFSR windy morning before the race.

[Oceandeep]

I attended the Master Mariners Wooden Boat Show today in Tiburon, CA and guess what schooner was on display by her new owners- the "Mayan". I had a chance to take a few pictures and talk to the new owners . The boat is in great shape and the restoration continues- new plumbing, wiring, etc. There are plans for some extended cruising in a few years I am told.