New Wave Surfs to IC37 Championship at
2022 Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex
With a five-point lead, and the IC37 National Championship and a Rolex Submariner timepiece on the line, Steve Liebel and the crew of New Wave went into the final race planning for a safe start. It didn’t turn out that way as New Wave found itself owning the pin end of the line, typically a start that is on the Gordon Gekko end of the risk-reward ratio.
“That’s where we ended up,” says Liebel. “We weren’t planning on it, but the pin end ended up being open. We were hoping we could get out. [After the start] we tacked to cross, and I bet there were probably five or six boats that we were crossing by five to 10 feet. If we couldn’t get across any one of those, that last race would have ended a little differently.”
Instead, however, Liebel and his team successfully crossed the fleet and won the final race and the National Championship, which was part of the 13th edition of Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex.
“This is a huge win, we’re very, very proud of this,” says Liebel. “I’m very happy for the team. Any national championship is a nice one to have, heck yeah.”
The New York Yacht Club’s Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex was first run in 1998, and takes place this year from July 13 to 16 out of the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court, in Newport. R.I. The biennial regatta, run at the apex of the summer sailing season, has established itself as one of the premier summer race weeks in the Northeast thanks to the attractive combination of great racing conditions off Newport and the superlative shoreside hospitality at the Club’s waterfront Clubhouse overlooking Newport Harbor. Partners for the 2022 edition of Race Week at Newport include presenting sponsor Rolex and regatta sponsors Hammetts Hotel, Safe Harbor Marinas and Helly Hansen.
