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Say hello to Chadwick.

Working on some filler pieces in a patchwork leg sleeve. Anybody else have a crab tattoo?

Annapolis is a well-known sailing town and every summer, it hosts one of the more unique sailing regattas in the country: The Olivia Team Race Invitational held at the Severn Sailing Association.

Before we get into the specifics of the regatta, a quick primer on Team Racing, one of the most popular disciplines of sailboat racing (and one that the Annapolis area has a reputation for being pretty good at).

In a sense, team racing is exactly what it sounds like - teams made of 2 or 3 boats race against other teams with the same number of boats. Unlike other types of sailing, there's more multi-boat coordination. Boats on my team can block boats from your team and allow me to pass. Boats can set picks, trapping their opponents from advancing, and two boats can team up on one boat to slow it down. It's super fun and very different from the types of sailboat racing where you're only worried about what's happening inside your own boat.

For some, an introduction to team racing can start as young as 8 years old and there are well known avid team racers who are well past retirement age. Again, beyond making your own boat sail fast, you have to be able to execute different team maneuvers to help your team win the race - it's something you can literally spend a lifetime working on.. Most teams for team racing sail together a lot, practice often, and work on these elements of team coordination - as with most team sports, the teams with the strongest team cohesion are often among the best teams.

The Olivia, hosted by the Severn Sailing Association each year, does something a little different.

For the Olivia, sailors sign up individually, instead of as a team. For every individual race, sailors are paired with new teammates and against new opponents. There's some math involved, but the end result is essentially that the better you do throughout the day, as an individual, the worse your team gets (and vice versa - the worse your individual performance is, the better teammates you end up with). The format lends to a situation where, across a huge range of skill levels, the teams usually end up relatively fair.

A former college All-American could feasibly end up with a local high school sailor and some brand new junior sailors as teammates. Former Olympians end up with the eight-year-olds who are still learning how to sail. College coaches end up getting paired with college sailing hopefuls. The whole vibe is collaborative, fun-loving, super cool and it's a terrific mix of some of the top sailors in the country getting paired with local kids just starting out.

The regatta is called "The Olivia" after a junior sailor who died tragically while sailing in Annapolis nearly 20 years ago. Olivia would have been 30 this year. The regatta, and its unique format, are a testament to her fun-loving spirit and competitive drive. Among the crowd of different burgee stickers that you'll see on the cars of Annapolis' sailing crowd, you absolutely cannot miss the pink triangle pennant with "Olivia" written script. You can't buy them anywhere - the only way to get one is to sail in this regatta and share a weekend on the water with friends.

If you're on (or near) the water this weekend, we'll see you out there! If you missed us this year, mark your calendar for next year. It's always the third weekend in July and absolutely anyone can come through.