Texas women alert

Road to Rolex clinic visits Houston in June

Texas women sailors are invited to participate in the Houston Yacht Club’s Road to Rolex Clinic. Scheduled for June 11 and 12, the Road to Rolex women’s sailing clinic will feature noted coach and sailor Elizabeth Kratzig (Corpus Christ, Texas/Miami, Fla.). The 2005 series of Road to Rolex clinics were created to prepare women sailors for US Sailing’s Rolex International Women’s Keelboat Championship (IWKC), considered one of the world’s pinnacle events for women sailors and scheduled for September 17-23 at the Annapolis Yacht Club, in Annapolis, Md., USA.

The Road to Rolex Clinic will feature two days aboard International J/22 class keelboats, the same boat utilized in the Rolex IWKC. “We have planned both on-shore and on-the-water activities, including an individual skills assessment and a review of keelboat handling and tactics for fleet racing,” said Stephanie Virag, clinic coordinator and member of host Houston Yacht Club’s Women’s Sailing Association.

Registration for the two-day clinic is $150 per team of four, and includes coaching, use of club facilities, water and sports drinks, breakfast, lunch, dinner on Saturday and breakfast, lunch on Sunday. Each participant will receive a copy of the Road to Rolex clinic manual written by Betsy Alison, a five-time Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year. Alison has won the biennial Rolex IWKC five times and is an internationally recognized sailing educator and coach.

To register for the Road to Rolex Clinic at Houston Yacht Club, contact Stephanie Virag at (832) 309-9134 or email Stephanierutledge@hotmail.com.

Match racing champion Elizabeth Kratzig was a member of the US Sailing Team for six years, achieving a top ten ISAF Ranking in the 470 and Yngling classes. A frequent competitor at the top international level in match and fleet racing, Kratzig coached the Dutch 200 Olympic Yngling Team and will be a US Team coach for the 420 World Championship in France this summer.

The Road to Rolex clinics were initiated in 1997 to provide women sailors with additional opportunities to hone their sailing skills. Locations where past clinics have been held include a dozen U.S. locations, South Africa and Holland.