Kieler Woche: Five regattas, one goal - the Sailing Grand Slam in the test year

The international ATP tennis series has four Grand Slams. These are the Australian Open, the French Open, the recently launched mother of all tennis tournaments in Wimbledon and the US Open. There are also the ATP Finals for the highest ranked singles and doubles players of the season in November. The new Sailing Grand Slam with five major regattas is intended to function in a very similar way. However, the initiators and drivers still have some work to do in the first test year.

Sailing Grand Slam: Five regattas, one series

The Sailing Grand Slam currently consists of the Spanish classic Trofeo Princesa Sofía, the Semaine Olympique Française in Hyères, Kiel Week, the Long Beach Olympic Classes Regatta in the future Olympic area of LA 2028 and the Dutch Water Week in Almere. The latter is to host the final of the best this year. The idea is good for sailing, find their essences here. There are still various hurdles to overcome in the year of birth.

One of these is the still missing rankings for the Sailing Grand Slam. The reason for the lack of sporting overviews for the new series for Olympic sailing, which started off Mallorca at the beginning of April, is the different results systems used by the regattas involved.

Three regattas use the Sailti software, two - Kieler Woche and Dutch Water Week - rely on manage2sail. Work on networking has been going on for a long time, but the result is still a long way off. However, according to the group of organisers at their working meeting in Kiel, networking and the overall ranking should be completed as soon as possible after Kiel Week.

More visibility for Olympic sailing

"We will try to compile a ranking after Kiel Week," Ramhorst announced this week in Kiel. Edward Russo, who is representing the Semaine Olympique Française at the regatta organisers' meeting for Kiel Week, said: "Sailti is working on it. We expect the result soon." According to Kieler Woche sports director Dirk Ramhorst, the aim is to use a low-point system in the Sailing Grand Slam.

Ferrán Muniesa, Director of Club Nàutic Arenal and co-organiser of the Trofeo Princesa Sofía, had already explained in the spring: "We are working on many things to build up this international regatta series for Olympic sailors. This year, our initial focus is on a simplified registration process." The joint entry system for the participating regattas with a standardised Notice of Race and sailing instructions, which is only supplemented by additional appendices for the individual regattas, has already been established.

With their initiative, the organisers are not only aiming to strengthen their own events, but above all the overall perception of Olympic sailing and its best athletes. "We want to offer the athletes and coaches a strong stage, increase their visibility and also involve former legends in the events and reporting," explained Ferrán Muniesa at the Kiel-Schilksee Olympic Centre.

On course for the final of the Sailing Grand Slam

In addition, according to Edward Russo from the Semaine Olympique Française in Hyères, the aim for the future is to establish a team of ten to 15 permanent race management team members who will be regularly deployed at Sailing Grand Slam regattas. Here too, bundling and working together with an increasingly experienced team should have a positive effect in the long term - similar to the professional 52 Super Series, for example.

Another hurdle in this opening year is the Long Beach Olympic Classes Regatta. Because even three years before the LA28 Olympic Games it is still not certain where exactly the Olympic sailing will take place, many Olympic sailors are skipping the US regatta. Which is why there are realistically only three regatta summits on the programme in the opening year of the Sailing Grand Slam, which are heavily frequented by Olympians, until the planned finale at Dutch Water Week, which has been moved to September.

From these results, the sailors should be able to bring in their two best results with a view to the planned invitational final. "We want to use Almere as a prototype for a Sailing Grand Slam final this year," said Edward Russo in Kiel. A strict schedule is soon to be drawn up for the first fully organised season in 2026, which will bundle the four regattas into two-race packages in such a way that the European and World Championships for the ten Olympic disciplines can take place before, during and after.

Schedule should protect events from collisions

Accordingly, the Trofeo and Hyères in spring will be the prelude with two weeks of air in between. After a further five weeks of air, the Dutch Water Week and Kiel Week are to follow, also with two weeks of air in between. The venue for the 2026 final has not yet been decided. The group is currently in talks with potential partners and organisers. The success of these talks will also determine the future success of the Sailing Grand Slam.

At the end of the test year, a medium-term calendar for the Sailing Grand Slam of the future is to be finalised. "We can then publish a calendar up to 2028," said Ed Russo. This should also lead to more consideration being given to the regatta classics when planning continental and world championships, so that there are no more clashes of dates.

The new Sailing Grad Slam can make a big difference for Olympic sailing and its protagonists if it develops in line with the goals of its organisers. "Tennis is a good example. We want to develop Olympic sailing in the same way, making it understandable and attractive. 2025 was and is there to develop the corresponding processes. The goals remain the establishment of a common platform, common communication, less administration, more support for the events and the sailing athletes as heroes," says Ferrán Muniésa.

Sailing Grand Slam open at departure

Kiel Week, the "mother and father of all regatta weeks", as the former Canadian Sailing Federation President Paul Henderson once called it, also wants to make this offer as its own event and as part of the Sailing Grand Slam. "We are here. We can also act as a qualifying series for the Olympic Games. We can be a role model for something that might be a World Cup again later. We are happy to open up the Grand Slam series to other events. We are not fixed, but are also offering our help to World Sailing to fill the gap that has arisen."

The Ramhorst reference concerns the World Sailing World Cup once initiated by the World Sailing Federation, which was cancelled in 2019 without much fanfare. Kiel Week had seen its last World Cup final in 2012. Attempts to revive the event in 2023 also failed. Many changes of personnel in the World Sailing Federation were one reason for the lack of World Cup leadership and appreciation on the part of World Sailing. The regatta organisers now involved in the Sailing Grand Slam initiative agree that this world stage should be rebuilt.