A summer breeze poured in the Gate for the first day of racing in March. The only way you could tell it’s spring, and not summer: no fog. Oh wait, it’s still technically winter. Nevertheless, St. Francis YC’s spring season got underway this weekend, sharing surf with the last of next-door neighbor Golden Gate YC’s midwinters.

The weather service had predicted winds of 20-25 knots, and bands of such winds did indeed blow in through the Gate, ruffling up the surface of the ebbing Bay into a lively chop.

The Spring Keel Regatta had one design divisions for Express 27s, Moore 24s, Melges 24s, J/24s, Knarrs and Folkboats. This weekend’s event will be followed by next weekend’s Spring Dinghy Invitational for 5o5s, Lasers, Laser Radials, Laser 4.7s, Finns, Flying Dutchmen, Vanguard 15s and 29ers. The weekend after that, StFYC will host the Spring One Design Invitational, for 1D35s, J/105s, J/120s and Express 37s. For results and sign-ups, see www.stfyc.com.

The official name of the GGYC Midwinters is the Manuel Fagundes Memorial Seaweed Soup Regatta. Saturday’s race wrapped up the 37th edition of this popular series, followed in the clubhouse by division awards, and the presentation of the Perpetual Trophy to the boat with the best (lowest) score, this year Steve Waterloo’s Cal 40 Shaman.

Complete results of the Seaweed Soup Regatta are available at www.ggyc.com/raceresults.php.

Further south on the same day, Larry Westland reports that the South Bay Yacht Racing Association held their final Winter race, in conjunction with Sequoia YC’s next-to-last Winter race, in 15-21 knots of breeze south of the San Mateo Bridge. See http://sbyra.home.comcast.net/~sbyra and www.sequoiayc.org for more info on those series.