The governing body’s chief executive Andy Hunt was among a delegation of senior officials to visit the Danish city for two days of meetings and a full site visit.

He was joined by World Sailing’s chief commercial officer Hugh Chambers, director of events Alastair Fox, events manager Alistair Dickson and Olympic classes representative Corinne McKenzie.

The meetings saw discussions take place on key issues, including management, supporting emerging nations, broadcasting, marketing and media, city activities and commercial operations.

 "The Aarhus 2018 organising committee have shown outstanding progress to date, outlining their ambitions to make the 2018 Worlds memorable for the competing sailors and the general public," said Hunt.

"Their vision and plan will ensure sailors compete on a world class field of play surrounded by exceptional facilities as they prepare for Tokyo 2020.

"Furthermore, their plans to engage spectators and the general public will ensure that the event is not only viewed with excellence in Aarhus and Denmark, but around the world."

The World Championships is scheduled to take place between July 30 and August 12 in 2018, with the event being organised in a collaboration between World Sailing, Dansk Sejlunion, Sailing Aarhus, Sport Event Denmark and the City of Aarhus.

Aarhus, the 2017 European City of Culture, has expressed that the development of the port area, which has been billed as a lasting legacy of the Championships, will be ready next year.

It has been claimed that the work will enable the city to cater for the world's best sailors for next year’s test event and the 2018 World Championships.

A total of 1,100 sailors from 82 nations attended the last World Championships, which took place in Santander in 2014.

World Sailing have expressed their confidence that the 2018 edition will build upon the success and set new standards for sailors and spectators.

"It was a great pleasure welcoming the World Sailing executive team and the Olympic Classes representative to Aarhus and we were delighted to show that the preparations of the Sailing World Championships 2018 are making good progress,” said Klaus Natorp, head of the Aarhus 2018.

"Our commitment is to make the 2018 Sailing World Championships the most spectacular sailing event ever, bringing world class Olympic sailing right into the heart of the city of Aarhus."

A formal visit will take place against in March 2017 as World Sailing aim to monitor progress ahead of the test event, with further visits expected to be held every six months in the build-up to the event.