In the early 1960s, there was a group of kids that grew up in the Bayshores community who became some of our harbor’s most knowledgeable and skilled yachtsmen. We had the Hills, Durgan, Duffield and Johnson families. Coop and Liz Johnson had three sons – Gordon, Dougal and David. All four families are extraordinarily close even after 60 years, spending time on our harbor and around the world together.
At the start of April of this year, Gordon “Gordo” Johnson passed away after a six-month battle with Leukemia. I was taken aback on hearing the news, and like so many other people from around the harbor, felt the pain of losing a close friend even if I had barely known the man. One of his biggest traits was making you feel that you are a friend.
At the age of 10, Gordo started sailing sabots, sail number 4355, at the crew base. Next at Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club, where he joined Dennis Durgan and Marshall Duffield all sailing sabots together on our harbor. The routine was simple then during the warm summer days: rig your sabot’s sail in the morning, head to Shark Island (now Linda Isle) and walk over the PCH bridge to Will Wrights for ice cream. Finish the day by participating in the summer’s evening racing.
Durgan and Gordo then went on to Orange Coast College, where they competed on the sailing team together. Winning the Douglas Cup and participating against other four-year schools, soundly beating them to the point where the sailing coach from the University of Hawaii asked if they would like a scholarship to his school and sail on the team. Both he and Durgan lived on Oahu in Kailua for a year and a half in a Quonset hut on the beach. When Gordo returned to the mainland, he enrolled at USC and became an All-American by winning the sloop and match racing championships. Somewhere during this time, he also crewed for Andy Rose and won two Governor’s Cups. Then he stayed on as the sailing coach at USC for the next couple of years.
By then, Gordo was the hot commodity as a bowman for all the Grand Prix racing boats from around the world. “When we lived on the Peninsula together, I recall someone calling on behalf of the King of Spain, explaining that there was an airline ticket waiting for him at LAX to come sail with the king, and this type of thing happened all the time,” said Gary Hill.
I asked the above group what was one of their favorite sea stories. The same story kept coming up. The year was 1975. Charles Jordon, the owner of the 37’ Paragon, called Durgan and asked if he would put a group together for the upcoming Transpac. Of course, Durgan turned to the Bayshores boys and invited Gordo and Duffield to join the team. On the fourth night of the race, which was the 4th of July, the crew had set the brand new spinnaker up. Gordo, as always, attached his mascot, “Bud-Man,” to the stern pulpit of the boat. It’s unclear whose skyrocket it was, but Duffy and Gordo thought it would be a good idea to light it on that night. The story goes that the rocket took off straight up then went straight into the spinnaker, then blew a hole in the head of it. Before the off watch came back on deck, they had taken the chute down, repaired it, then reset it. When the sun came up the next morning, there was more than one discussion on what had happened to the new sail. The team sailed to a 2nd in class and 8th overall that year.
Another great story was when Durgan and Johnson were in Hawaii and borrowed a Ranger 33 and Islander 36 and cruised the boats to Maui. On their way back to Oahu, “Gordo wanted to check out the leper colony on Molokai. I did not care for the idea that much, so we stayed aboard while Johnson went exploring,” said Durgan. “Next thing you know, Johnson was ‘streaking,’ yes he was butt naked. We just pulled out of the anchorage before the authorities arrived. He had his antics about him.”
Gordo sailed on two Southern Ocean Racing Conference (SORC) overall winning boats. He was aboard two Congressional Cups, a Lipton Cup and two Transpac overall winning boats. The list goes on and on. “He was a great shipmate on board, first to pitch in, great sail trimmer and driver. I am going to miss him. He was such a great storyteller,” shared Durgan. “My wife thought he was going with us on our honeymoon, he came over every Christmas Eve and helped me to assemble the kids’ toys, which leads to many other stories. He was always the first one to volunteer for the work parties at Moonstone. I love the guy as a brother,” said Hill.
A couple of years ago, most of the Bayshores boys gathered for lunch when Gordo pointed out that one of them was mayor of the city while the other was the commodore of the yacht club. Knowing what they all knew about the other brought out a rather deep round of laughter around the table.
While talking to Gordo’s brothers Dougal and Dave, they brought up how much he enjoyed fine wine, gardening and fashion along with a good story.
There’s nothing in the world more powerful than a good story. To recall our life, the ups and downs, the times we pulled ourselves up from the dirt, the times we are recognized for our achievements, the remembrance of a brother, the keeper of all our stories and a good friend. We are all going to miss Gordo the storyteller!
Sea ya.
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