This quotation contains a figure of speech. What are the exact words that make up the figure. Then is it a personification, simile, or a metaphor.". . . to run over better waters the little vessel...

This quotation is a metaphor.  It is a metaphor because it compares "your" genius to a boat that is hoisting its sails.  This is a metaphor and not a simile because of the way in which it makes the comparison.

If this had been a simile, it would have said something like "my genius is like a little vessel..."  In this case, the comparison is made directly, by using the word "like."  Instead, this is a metaphor because it just says that your genius is a vessel -- not that it is like one.