Quest for Kozad

MV Kozad was purchased in May of 2007 by Craig & Jan Tomash to explore the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia Coastal waters with the goal for an eventual trip to Alaska.

We have always loved the ocean, boating and the outdoors! After 33 years of marriage, walking the docks and dreaming of owning a boat, we almost gave up; with raising three children and moving from one end of the country to the other! Boating was put on the back burner!

Then one fine day in May of 2004, my good friend Glenn Benoit asked me to go boating with him and his brother in law on their newly acquired boat the MV Whiteshell! That was it, I was rocked off my feet by the pure joy, solitude and beauty of boating; so taken by the ocean I was not prepared to come back home! If I had to leave the boat, it should only be to sell everything so we could be on a boat! When I told Jan of my revelation; she looked at me shook her head and said "I have been telling you for thirty years I want to do boating". Funny how things change when it becomes the man's idea?

Jan calmed me down and kept me grounded over the next few years until it was the right time to buy a boat. We planned that spring of 2008 was the time to get a boat; we would be looking for a boat to coincide with my retirement, the kids finishing University, leaving home and when Jan allowed me to make the big step.

So, in 2006 we started looking for the right boat; everyone told us it would take two to three years to find that right boat!

The challenge was to find a suitable boat; one which would be safe, comfortable, easily handled by the two of us and affordable! But once you start looking at boats there are a lot of boats for sale which say they are very nice but really they are not! Jan and I are very particular in having things just right! We wanted just the right boat, one which would allow us to gain experience operating a boat on the coastal waters of British Columbia. But also one which looked nice smelled good and was not in need of a whole lot of work! A boat which also met the wish list of wants, all for a price we could afford. Next to impossible would be the statement to describe our quest!

We started looking; well I did the leg work under the supervision of Jan! After extensive researching, dock walking, numerous boat shows, looking at prospects (none made the list as all smelled bad, to big, to expensive, to old, etc)! I was buying as many Boating magazines as I could and lone behold a day happened when I came upon a one line advertisement on an obscure page of the B.C. Boat Journal!

"1974 Willard 30, beautiful condition, for sale".

After a few dozen phone calls, conferring with other Willard Boat Owners through an on-line site, explaining to Jan that this was a great deal; we made a sight unseen offer on Kozad. Poor Jan, she was at work and I was on the phone buying a boat!
Needless to say, the offer was accepted, and we drove the 10 hour trip to Victoria, B.C. to look and see if we had done the right thing.

The boat was at the Victoria Yacht Club and once we saw this beautiful Willard we were hooked. Jan loved the boat before she even stepped on board, I on the other hand thought "boy this is a small boat - I want a big boat!!!" Must be the testosterone thing; after all Glenn had a 45 foot boat and I wanted mine to be bigger than his!

But as always, Jan talked more sense into me and we decided to seriously look at buying this boat! We arranged to take the boat for a sea-trial, have a survey done and if all went well we were prepared to buy this "cute little boat". Everything went well, there were no serious issues of concern and we made a deal to buy "Kozad".

So, after 33 years of dreaming, wanting and thinking of boating, and years of looking for the right boat, we finally did it; we bought our boat!

Only thing this was a year too early!

For you see, our goal was to have purchased our boat for the spring of 2008. After all, everyone told us it would take us three years or so to find the right boat! Ha!!! When the right boat comes along, the timing goes out the window - or the port hole!

We purchased Kozad a year earlier than planned; this was a good thing because now we needed the time and money to upgrade, change and add expensive items; you know so the boat would be perfect for us.

The quest was over and now the fun starts!