September 18, 2025
2 minutes reading time
Fourth edition of Dutch Water Week 2025 with Sailing Grand Slam final as highlight
From Wednesday 17 to Sunday 21 September, Almere will host the fourth edition of Dutch Water Week.
This international water sports event brings together elite sport, innovation, and the public on and around the water in the heart of Almere. The highlight of the program is the Sailing Grand Slam Final Invitational, where the world’s best compete in four Olympic classes for the title.
A Final with Only the World’s Best
The Sailing Grand Slam (SGS) is a series of five leading Olympic class regattas. The pilot final in Almere will feature a new format.
The top five athletes from the Sailing Grand Slam ranking per class are invited. In addition, the international class organisation may nominate three sailors, while Dutch Water Week has two wildcards. The result: compact, high-level fields with local favorites and ten competitors.
This edition serves as a pilot for the Sailing Grand Slam Final. The format of ten athletes and new race formats will be tested and evaluated in Almere, with the aim of rolling out the SGS Final structurally in the coming years at an international location yet to be determined.
Classes and Competitors
Competition takes place in four of the 10 Olympic disciplines:
- ILCA 6 – including Maxime van de Werken (NED), newly crowned U21 World Champion Roos Wind (NED), Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medalist Line Flem Høst (FIN), Agata Barwinska (POL), and Irish talent Eve McMahon.
- ILCA 7 – strong fields from the Netherlands, Ireland, and Great Britain, including World Champion Willem Wiersema (NED), Duko Bos (NED), and Michael Beckett (GBR).
- iQFOiL Men – featuring triple World Champion and Tokyo Olympic Champion Kiran Badloe (NED) and training partner Joost Vink (NED), competing against France’s Tom Arnoux, Louis Pignolet, Clément Bourgeois, and Spain’s Nacho Baltasar.
- 49er – 10 national top teams compete over the weekend, including triple World Champions Bart Lambriex & Floris van de Werken.
Program Overview
- Wednesday 17 – Friday 19 September: ILCA 6, ILCA 7, and iQFOiL Men races from Marina Muiderzand.
- Saturday 20 – Sunday 21 September: Finals on the Weerwater, including the 49er fleet.
Looking Ahead to 2026
Dutch Water Week will return in full scale in spring 2026: from 30 May to 7 June in Almere, as part of the Sailing Grand Slam. The 2026 SGS season for the Olympic sailing and windsurfing elite starts with a Southern European block (Trofeo Sofía in Palma and Semaine Olympique in Hyères), followed by a Northern European block with Dutch Water Week in Almere and Kieler Woche in Kiel. The season will conclude at the Olympic venue in Los Angeles, possibly followed by a final in autumn at a location yet to be determined.
Text and images courtesy of Dutch Water Week. Read more here.