Welcome to BVI Yacht Guide and our first issue as we move forward into 2010. Happy New Year, and if you are sailing in the Sweethearts Regatta in Tortola’s West End, good luck and good racing to you. Since the beginning of Yacht Guide, we have diversified into many aspects of the yachting world we know. I am delighted that we can now place “Women on the Water” as a cover feature. We are also pleased that we can encompass most aspects of sailing from as many viewpoints as we can find. In this issue, you will read tips on hauling out, cooking afloat, the America's Cup and information about our reefs. Recently, those of us who are completely mobile competed in a Royal BVI Yacht Club race on our favored sailing crafts—an IC24 for Nick and Colin and a windsurfer for me. It was good to see the racing scene come to life again. I am pleased to introduce our IT column to give more scope to the modern day challenges of living and working aboard. Our editor David can vouch for constant problems whilst out there—on two occasions I feared assignments coming in via messages in a bottle, and as we prayed for wind and current to reach the deadline, his laptop suddenly righted itself.

We are well into the season, and as Colin and I drove down from Road Town one afternoon to venture on a surf experiment in Virgin Gorda, we counted 60 charter boats in the view from Prospect Reef to Nanny Cay. That is a lot of round-the-island fun and also business, which spells good news for our yachting industry and economy.

Whether you are visiting, returning or heading out on the water for the day, enjoy each moment, and we hope you enjoy our magazine whether you are at sea or want to be. A big thank you to our sponsors and our readers. This month, I am pleased to tell you our Guide is also available over the internet globally in an electronic-view format with ever-increasing hits. In the next couple months, we are looking forward to the regatta season and the jazzed mix-up of kite jam, windsurfing and sailing in the BVI Spring Regatta and more information about our two oceans above and below and various adventures in between.

See you on the water.

Owen Waters