Alan 'AJ' Johnson has passed away
by Jonny Harrison 22 Jan 16:01 GMT
Alan Johnson and David Garlick during the Squib Inlands at Rutland © Alisdair Gray
The Johnson family are saddened to share the passing of Alan "AJ" Johnson.
A familiar name to many over the last 60 years in the UK dinghy racing scene, AJ was a passionate dinghy racer across many classes. His racing career started in 1963 at the age of 16 when he came 13th out of 250+ at the GP14 National Championships. He became well known within the GP14 and Enterprise fleets winning the Enterprise National Championships twice, the Inland Championships three times, and the Masters Championships.
Throughout the years he tried his hand in a variety of classes owning at various points Herons, Hornets, Fireballs, Cherubs, Finns, Merlin Rockets and Lasers amongst others. Alan relaunched his championship winning Enterprise '19876 - Subsonic Winkle' from the 1970's in the early 2000's and enjoyed success in this 33 year old boat with his son Matt crewing.
He was also a regular with his original crew from the 1970's, David Garlick, in Squibs where he enjoyed the 'chess game' of this class. In 2012 he won the Squib National Championships and in 2014 he won the Squib National Championships, Inland Championships and Welsh Championships
After 60 years of competitive sailing Alan treated every day sailing as very special and believed that life is for living. He was a life member of Southport Sailing Club and South Caernarvonshire Yacht Club, and loved nothing more than lining up on the start line against friends.
He is survived by his wife Jane, who crewed for him in Enterprises in the 1970's, his 8 children Tracey, David, Kate, Nicola, Paul, Hayley, Matthew and Andrew and 13 grandchildren. Sailing runs in the family with four of his children having sailed across the Atlantic, two working in the sailing and watersports industry, and one having won World and European titles.
He would be extremely proud of the legacy he leaves behind and seeing the next generations follow his passion.
The funeral service will be held on Monday 2 February at 1pm at the West Lancs Crematorium in Burscough, with a reception at 2pm at Wrightington Hotel & Country Club.