Sailing Story: Alex Kozub
Alex Kozub had heard about sailing all her life but it had never occurred to her that it was an activity she could, or would, ever enjoy. 
“My grandfather served in the British Royal Navy and even after his service he continued to sail,” Alex explained. “My mom always spoke fondly of him teaching her to sail too.”
When Alex was little, her family had moved away from the small boat building town in England her mother and grandfather had both created so many sailing memories in. Her new home in the Rocky Mountains of the landlocked Western US seemed like an unlikely place to run into sailing enthusiasts again.
“I grew up skiing and hiking. Water sports were never really in the picture,” Alex said. “The only time I would ever even think about sailing was in the summers. We would go back to England and I would sit with my grandfather by the harbor watching the boats go by, eating fish and chips.”
It had been years since Alex had been back to England when she serendipitously met Captain Genevieve, virtually, in a Facebook group for women business owners. Captain Genevieve was looking for marketing help and Alex was looking for new clients.
“I’d worked on marketing campaigns for the boating industry before and Genevieve and I immediately hit it off,” Alex said. “We videochatted often about her business goals and how my company, 406 Strategic Communications, could help her meet those goals.”
The more Alex learned about sailing, the more she found herself interested in becoming a sailor too. It seemed she had effectively sold herself on her own marketing pitch!
“At some point Genevieve and I discussed having me come up to the Flathead to shoot some videos of ASA sailing courses, the boats, and the wonderful sailing community,” Alex said. “I asked Genevieve if we could trade my video work for sailing lessons— it was a perfect set up for both of us!”
In the summer of 2024, Alex and her family made the trip to the Flathead. Even though Alex had been working with Genevieve for well over a year at this point, Alex found herself surprised by some of the realities of sailing.
“It was far more relaxed than I thought it would be,” Alex laughed. “I thought it would be like my experience learning to snowmobile, where I just white-knuckled my way through it, convincing myself it would eventually be fun once I got the hang of things.”
This wasn’t the case. In fact, most of the weekend was filled with laughing, chatting, and sometimes having so much fun— she would forget she was actively learning to sail.
“A lot of sailing is more intuitive than you think it’ll be. You see a sail flapping and you intuitively trim it. You notice you are losing wind and you adjust course a bit,” Alex explained. “You can still talk with others on the boat and have a good time while accomplishing the task at hand.”
Alex’s favorite part of the weekend was going out with Captain Genevieve’s all-female racing crew for a weekend sailboat race.
“I thought it would be this intense activity and that couldn’t have been further from the truth,” she laughed. “We ended up in the middle of the lake with no wind… and no one cared! We cracked open a few drinks, ate some snacks, and got to know each other. I couldn’t have imagined a better way to spend an afternoon.”
They didn’t win the race but according to Alex, they absolutely won the weekend.