Lewis, Qubit squeak out IC37 North American Championship

by New York Yacht Club 28 Sep 23:23 UTC September 26-28, 2025

2025 IC37 North American Championship © Paul Todd / Outside Images

By the narrowest of margins, Chris Lewis and his Qubit team won the 2025 IC37 North American Championship. Starting the final race of the regatta earlier today, four teams were within three points of the lead.

As the boats turned around the windward mark, set spinnakers and headed for the final finish of the 2025 IC37 Summer Season, any one of the four could've won the championship. When the proverbial dust settled on a glittering afternoon on Rhode Island Sound, Lewis' team finished a single point ahead of a trio of teams tied on points for second. With the tiebreakers applied, Patrick Shanahan and Wes Bright's Bronco team took second and Steve Liebel's New Wave crew finished third. John Hele's Vigilant team finished fourth knowing that, had it picked up one place at a key point in the regatta, it would've walked away with the crown.

"It's a relief," said Lewis (at left). "The Annual Regatta in 2022 was our last win. We've always been up there; lots of podiums and we're super consistent. If you look at our results in this regatta, consistency was our hallmark. We had the best throwout as well. Not too many great risks, but just trying to start well. We have a team that really gels, just like many of the other competitors out there. And this one went our way. I've been racing for 55 years, and I don't remember a championship with such a close finish."

After a season of sailing with 20-plus-boat fleets for most events, the North American Championship featured a smaller group, which usually translates to a little more room on the starting line. But you wouldn't have have known it watching the start of the final race, as a pack of polished crews stalked the best start at the committee-boat end of the line.

"We liked the boat end," said Lewis. "One of the things we've learned about this fleet is everyone has gotten so strong that the relative speed difference is small. The further down the line towards the pin you start, the harder it is to get across. So we try to do strong starboard and start nearer the committee boats. If it goes well, then folks take your transom and then you can decide when to take your [tack to port]."

But it's not without risk, as Lewis and his team found out. Among the boats battling for the pole position next to the committee boat was New Wave.

2025 IC37 North American Championship - photo © Paul Todd / Outside Images

"There was a little bit of a right shift, and some of us were sort of going for each other at the end," said Lewis. "New Wave schooled me. I had to start on their stern, and we just tacked around the anchor chain of the committee boat, took off to the right and tried to get clear air."

At the final windward mark, Lewis and his crew executed a Sambuca—where the spinnaker set is combined with a jibe—and worked the puffs on the final leg to pull out a fifth-place finish and the championship.

"In sailboat racing, it doesn't always go your way," said Lewis. "Before we started today, we said, 'We want to win some races, but it's not always going to go our way, and we just have to keep grinding it out, working, thinking positive.' And that's what we did. Kudos to my team. These boats are a team effort. The helm gets the glory, but it's every single person on these boats that leads to a top performance."

That's a lesson that Lewis has learned plenty of times over the course of his five-decade sailing career. Patrick Shanahan, who helmed the Bronco to second place and top Corinthian team in the North Americans and third in the IC37 season championship, is still on the steep part of the team-building learning curve.

2025 IC37 North American Championship - photo © Paul Todd / Outside Images

"It's been a very stressful process at times," said Shanahan, who is just a few years removed from sailing two-person dinghies on the collegiate circuit. "We're very lucky that people are willing to do it. It's hard. We're young, we've got to take time off from work to sail, so you need to get people who can fill in here and there. You don't get a lot of practice time. Day 1, you show up, and there's a bit of a learning curve. By the end, you feel much better. It's been great so far, and we're very fortunate to be out there racing."

The Bronco team started the final race two points out of first. But with so many boats in contention, it was almost impossible to draw up a tactical game plan.

"We had a funny quote on our boat," said Shanahan. "Our tactician Ford McCann said, 'Every time I look at scores, it just comes down to, OK, let's go out there and have the best race we can.' So that was our goal, to go out there and do well. On the last downwind, I think we got one or two boats right at the end. Today, [picking up a single boat] was everything."

The 2026 IC37 summer schedule will be announced later this fall.

2025 IC37 North American Championship Overall Results:

Pos	Bow No	Sail No	Boat Name	Owner / Skipper	R 1	R 2	R 3	R 4	R 5	R 6	R 7	Pts
1	17	GBR 017	Qubit	Chris Lewis	3	3	4	4	1	5	5	20
2	14	USA 014	Bronco	Patrick Shanahan & Wes Bright	8	4	1	2	6	4	4	21
3	23	USA 023	New Wave	Steve Liebel	1	5	3	6	7	3	3	21
4	13	USA 013	Vigilant	John Hele	4	8	2	3	4	2	6	21
5	10	USA 010	Voodoo Too	Bill Zartler	2	1	9	9	8	1	2	23
6	27	USA 027	Kuai	Daniel Thielman	5	7	6	1	2	8.5	7	28
7	22	USA 022	Skeleton Key	Peter Wagner	7	6	7	5	3	6	1	28
8	28	USA 028	Knot Today	Julie Wilson	9	2	8	8	10	7	11	44
9	11	USA 011	Pegasus	Evan Cooke	6	11	5	11	5	11	10	48
10	16	USA 016	Kashmir	Michael Mayer Steve Henderson	12	9	11	7	9	8.5	9	53.5
11	19	USA 019	Paragon	Gregory/Jeffrey/Andrew Hodkinson/Pribor/McFarland	10	13	10	10	11	12	8	61
12	2	USA 002	Res Potentia	Thomas Newman	13	10	13	13	13	13	12	74
13	4	USA 004	Barefoot	Nathan Allman	11	12	12	12	SCP	SCP	SCP	74