A Party On The Water 





The highly anticipated SAIL Amsterdam Festival is due to take place on 20-24 August in 2025. From botters to barquetine’s, an armada of monumental sailing ships will gather from all over the world in the capital. 





Over 800+ ships are expected to draw more than 2,300,000 visitors to take advantage of the rare opportunity to marvel. Each of these luxury traditional sailing ships is steeped in history, with a unique story to tell. Tall Ships, naval vessels, Dutch fleet, Sailing Heritage and modern, innovative ships will gather their crew from all over the world. 





SAIL was first organized by the Port of Amsterdam as a celebration of the 700th anniversary of the capital. Due to its success, it was decided to repeat this once every five years. In 2025, the rare maritime event marks the 750 years of the city of Amsterdam and the 50th anniversary of SAIL. Since the 2020 event was canceled it is the first one since 2015. It will be the tenth festival hosted. 





Here are some of the historical tall ships that you can watch the towering ruffles of ivy sails and rich woods being sailed into the North Sea Canal to dock in Amsterdam’s IJ haven near the city center. 







Aboe: Find out more about what SAIL stands for by watching this video.




Netherlands Amsterdam buildings houses architecture canal Holland river
Above: Netherlands Amsterdam buildings houses architecture canal Holland river. Image via Pond5.




Extraordinary Boats Exhibiting





A Four-Masted Barque





Schooners 





A schooner. Photo: Talbot Wilson/PPL




Sailing Ships 





Motor Sailing Clippers 





Four Masted Barquentine





Botters 





Experience SAIL From the Water





The rivers IJ and Amstel, along with its historic canals, played a major role in its unique urban development over the centuries. Amsterdam has also made a substantial contribution to international maritime history. During SAIL, the IJ-Haven is lite up orange. The Orange Ocean is the heart of SAIL, where the international Tall Ships are moored. 





You can buy tickets for official SAIL cruises directly on SAIL Amsterdam’s official website and cruise around the city where you can see the historical ships by water. 





SAIL Amsterdam





Piet Heinkade





1019 BR Amsterdam





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Written by: Emma Coady
Emma Coady is a freelance writer and marine journalist who creates content for many household names in the boating industry, including YachtWorld, Boat Trader and boats.com. She also writes for several boat builders as well as charter and rental companies and regularly contributes to Greenline Hybrid yachts, TJB Super Yachts and Superyachts Monaco. Emma is the founder of Cloud Copy and enjoys traveling around Europe, spending as much of her spare time as possible in or on the water.