The Dane made the claim in a letter to the “sailing family” to coincide with the start of voting in an election in which he is being challenged by three rivals.

The first round of voting in the four-way battle between Andersen and World Sailing vice-presidents Quanhai Li from China and Scott Perry from Uruguay, and Spain’s Gerardo Seeliger officially begun today.

The election has already been overshadowed by claims made by Andersen that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have been trying unfairly to influence the outcome.

insidethegames published details of an email sent by IOC vice-president Ng Ser Miang to a member of the Ethics Committee, which revealed concerns over Andersen and Perry's candidatures.

It led Andersen to report Ser Miang to the IOC Ethics Commission.

Andersen ignored the controversy in his letter, in which he tried to paint a positive picture of his four-years in charge, despite the recently-published 2019 accounts disclosing a deficit of just over £2.5 million ($3.2 million/€2.8 million).

In fact, in his letter Andersen claimed he had developed "strong relations with the IOC".

"We have done a lot to bring our sport forward in building a stronger platform for World Sailing connecting to the surrounding development in the worldwide society," Andersen, elected as President at the World Sailing Congress in Barcelona in 2016, wrote.

"Focusing on diversity in every aspect of our sport, focusing on gender equality, connecting to youth and making World Sailing a trend setter within sustainability.

"We need clearly to use these great achievements as a platform for increasing the focus on development and participation going forward.

"We also need to build on the new commercial platform we built during the last years, attracting new sponsors going forward and of course continuing the strong relations with the IOC adopting and aligning with IOC Agenda 2020 and the New Norm program (sic), which have already been recognised as an integrated part of our new Olympic Program.

"Now for the first time in a long time, World Sailing is in setting trends, leading other sports, offering new opportunities to members and sailors around the world."

The election, where a one-country, one-vote system is in operation, is being held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic and is set to be overseen by KPMG.

Member National associations have until October 16 to vote and if no candidate secures a majority in the first round, there would then be a run-off between the top two, with the winner scheduled to be announced at a virtual conference on November 1.

"My hope is that this election will give me the opportunity to continue the work we have done together and create a better future for sailing," Andersen wrote in his letter.

"For that, I would like to just reiterate my last and final focus points in making a better future for sailing: to secure a stronger focus on participation and development, more sustainable funding and ensuring good governance practices."