Europe's best-known regattas and the future Olympic hosts are making a new attempt to create a common and strong basis for Olympic sailing. Following the failure of the World Cup series idea, the leading event organisers in Europe and the USA have now joined forces for the new Sailing Grand Slam (SGS). The Kieler Woche organisers are among the driving forces. The ambitious project - in co-operation with the World Sailing Federation - is intended to create a global platform for the best Olympic sailing athletes on the LA28 course.
Sailing Grand Slam: five regattas, one goal
The future series is to include five major regattas: the Spanish classic Trofeo SAR Princesa Sofia (Mallorca), France's Semaine Olympique Française off Hyères, the Dutch Water Week in Almere, Kieler Woche and the Olympic Class Regatta in Long Beach in the USA, where the medals will be contested in 2028.
The organisers of Kiel Week co-initiated the restart of the series for Olympic sailing. The model for this determined attempt to join forces was provided by tennis with its Grand Slam. Kiel Week organiser Dirk Ramhorst experienced it during a visit to Wimbledon and says: "In tennis, the big and well-known tournaments successfully demonstrate how you can preserve your own identity and still establish a common platform."
"We will start the new series in 2025, even if that will still be a transitional year. We won't have everything yet, but we will have a lot. Starting with a standardised Notice of Race at the beginning of December and a registration portal. You can register there and say with one click that you want to play the events. For example, if you play all the events in 2025, you can receive an incentive in 2026," says Dirk Ramhorst, explaining the principle.
Olympic classes support the Sailing Grand Slam
Kiel's interest in the Sailing Grand Slam is clear. "The task is central for us: How can Kiel Week remain relevant in terms of quantity and quality? In my opinion, the key to maintaining this relevance lies in the Olympic classes," says Dirk Ramhorst. The Grand Slam team also had good discussions with the Olympic classes at the annual meeting of the World Sailing Federation last week.
"The Olympic classes rate the Sailing Grand Prix very, very favourably towards their members, i.e. the sailors in the Olympic classes. If they make a recommendation for the Tour schedule, then it is the Grand Slam events," explains Dirk Ramhorst. This is reflected, for example, in the fact that the 470 World Championship will take place in Poland in 2025, around a week and a half before Kiel Week. The class association will recommend that its members come to Kiel afterwards.
The iQFOiL Worlds taking place after Kiel Week, for example, are to be absorbed by the North German organisers with Pre-Worlds during Kiel Week as part of the new Sailing Grand Slam. Unlike the once overly restricted World Cup series, which ultimately failed due to unfulfillable demands and a lack of commitment from the World Sailing Federation, the Sailing Grand Slam will also be held in cooperation with World Sailing, but will reflect the characteristics and interests of the individual regattas under the joint umbrella.
Kiel Week: Quality and quantity count
"Unlike the overly limited World Cup concept at the time, we regatta organisers and our participants thrive on large fields," says Dirk Ramhorst. He continues: "We want these large fields and therefore relevance for the classes. And we want to remain a test bed for new formats or new technologies. 'Do it like in Kiel' was always a slogan. Now you can perhaps say: 'Do it like in the Sailing Grand Slam'."
Dirk Ramhorst also gave an example of the work of the organisers with reference to the feedback from the active participants. "We have often heard that the beginning of Kiel Week is too confusing with random combinations of fleets. There is no selection until a gold fleet has formed on the third day after a number of races. We always want to start with a gold fleet after the corresponding ranking list. This means that the top sailors meet from day one. It mixes at the edge because new ones are still coming in, but we have a higher level right from the start."
Sailing Grand Slam final in sight
In this respect, the regatta organisers also have demands on the World Sailing Federation, where the world ranking system is not working properly, says Dirk Ramhorst. "We are also working towards the Grand Slam having a proper final, just like in tennis. Probably not in the first year, but in the future," says Ramhorst, explaining the future direction. Such a final could have its own venue and, for example, bring together the top ten players in the Olympic classes at the end of a Grand Slam season for a showdown with provided equipment.
The common goals of the participating regatta organisations over the four years leading up to the 2028 Olympic sailing regatta:
- a central website for information and updates
- a standardised registration platform and event documentation, including a common Notice of Race and sailing instructions
- a comprehensive media and communication strategy to raise the global profile of Olympic sailing
- Sustainability goals that emphasise responsible practices at all events
The Sailing Grand Slam as a test platform
As part of the cooperation between the regatta organisers and World Sailing, the series will also set up a training programme for race officers. The co-operation between events, the World Sailing Federation and the Olympic classes will help to introduce the best technical solutions for the sailors and their race officers. The organisers want to offer World Sailing and the Olympic classes versatile, active and dynamic platforms for new formats and testing of new equipment.
The joint invitation to tender with detailed conditions of participation and event specifications should be available at the beginning of December. A press release on the new start states: "Together with the Olympic classes and World Sailing, the Sailing Grand Slam aims to deliver an unrivalled competition experience that will strengthen the visibility, integrity and accessibility of Olympic sailing worldwide." The task is and remains extremely challenging. The new beginning is a first step that should - and must - be followed by many others.
