Schooner Skipper

Nautical educator Roger Taylor

Benjamin Brewster / Lake Champlain Maritime Museum

Multifaceted boating enthusiast Roger Taylor ’53 is now captain of the Lois McClure, a full-scale replica of an 1862-class sailing canal schooner. The vessel, created by a four-year collaboration among boat builders, nautical archaeologists, and volunteers, was sponsored by the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum (LCMM), built in Burlington, Vermont, and launched on July 3, 2004. During that year’s maiden voyage around Lake Champlain, Taylor and his crew gave tours of their “floating classroom” to more than 15,000 adults and children. He is back at the helm this summer on Lake Champlain, and the McClure will also make a “grand journey from the Green Mountains to Manhattan” (see the museum website, www.lcmm.org). Reporting on the vessel’s inaugural tour, Taylor wrote, “Perhaps the best single word to describe the Lois McClure under sail is: Majestic, a wonderful word to be able to apply to a utilitarian carrier of cargo. I feel fortunate beyond words to be able to gain experience sailing a canal schooner.”