The Rolex SailGP 2025 now has a new owner, and given the way the season has gone, it can be none other than Great Britain. Dylan Fletcher’s F50 was the most powerful of the year. The winner was reached in the regular stage … Abu Dhabi is the preferred brand… and it did not fail. In the Grand Final, against New Zealand and Australia, he ruled the roost again, receiving $2 million for the final win and another $200,000 for dominating the season. Smooth display.
At the event held in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, partial victory went to Denmark, which took home a fair amount of spoils: $800,000. But the focus, inevitably, was referring to the great struggle for the title… and also to Spain, which arrived with real options to defend the crown it won in 2024, but never found its place in the Abu Dhabi estuary.
Spain was in hand
Everything was open. The Spain SailGP team relied on itself. Just sailing at their usual level, Spain covered a foot and a half in the grand final. But sometimes, when you have to win, the pressure is higher.
With the exception of the last test – third place – Diego Botín’s team never showed the confidence that characterized the beginning of the season above all else. Under pressure from Australia, which knew, without brilliance, how to play so as not to lose. Dylan Fletcher and Peter Burling were insured on the ticket barring catastrophe. The real fight was another fight: Diego Botín vs. Tom Slingsby.
And Slingsby, once he stayed there, did the right thing. Neither he nor Spain sailed smoothly, but it was enough for the Australian to stay in the same group of points as the Spaniards. It was a battle within a battle. And he won it.
A sweet farewell…and bitter at the same time
The result, fourth place, is objectively good. Being in the top four at a circuit as wild as SailGP is not a failure. But the feeling is different: Spain witnessed the final up close, and perhaps that is why the result leaves an inevitable bittersweet aftertaste.
With this victory, Great Britain succeeds Spain as Rolex SailGP World Champion. Beyond that, there are the three successive titles for an Australia that has gone, undisguised, from absolute dominant to ground-breaking team.
The Spanish team includes Diego Botin, Florian Trittel, Joel Rodriguez and Nicole van der Velden
2026: 13 events and the Spanish headquarters in the air
The next season will start in Perth (Australia), on the weekend of January 17-18, 2026, with a long calendar – 13 events – that will end again in Abu Dhabi on November 28-29.
There is still one hotspot to be resolved: which Spanish city will host the September event: Cadiz and Valencia are fighting over it.