SAILING’S global governing body is to move its headquarters from Southampton to London in yet another blow to the city’s maritime heritage.

World Sailing, formerly known as the International Sailing Federation, or ISAF, has been based in the city since February 1997.

But the directors of the organisation, which runs the world’s major dinghy racing events including the sailing element of the Olympics, voted to leave Southampton in favour of London, saying it was in the “best interests of the organisation and the sport”.

World Sailing will leave its base at Town Quay this summer in favour of a location in central London.

Twenty four full time members of staff are currently employed at the Southampton site, and the company’s intention is for “as many of our current workforce as is possible to transfer to our new offices in London”.

The decision to pull out of Southampton comes after an evaluation of potential places to base the organisation, which was instigated by new president Kim Andersen in November.

Mr Andersen said the location must be an international city, be easy to access for World Sailing members, be internationally diverse and allow for the retention of current staff.

World Sailing said it considered Southampton, Geneva, Lausanne, London, Winchester, Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia.

Southampton, London, Barcelona and Winchester were then shortlisted before the directors settled on Britain’s capital.

“As with all good leadership, the board and myself have looked into what is best for the World Sailing organisation and for our sport,” Mr Andersen said.

“We have taken into consideration the DNA of World Sailing as a whole, the technical skills we need to run the organisation, the aspect of being international and having options of multi-lingual competencies and accessibility.

“This has been weighed and reviewed, and we are pleased to announce that in the best interest of the organisation and the sport we have decided to move the headquarters to London.”

Southampton was once known as ‘the home of ocean yachting’ with events like the Volvo Ocean Race and the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race regularly starting and finishing there.

But it was forced to drop the tagline after both events made their UK homes elsewhere.

In 2014 Sir Ben Ainslie also chose to build the base for his America’s Cup team in Portsmouth over Southampton.