From the archives – Mooloolaba’s Little Drink

By Annie Brownlie, published in Ahoy, 1994

Some of you lucky members out there heard a whisper about the Mooloolaba Little Drink.

From what I heard though, it really shouldn’t have been called the Little Drink, because from all accounts, more beer was consumed in seven hours than the whole of the Sydney to Mooloolaba aftermath. Why wasn’t I there?

As you can tell there’s a story behind the Mooloolaba Little Drink and it begins with John Gleeson’s historic voyage in 1977 on his yacht Odyssey 2001. John and his crew steered the boat around Australia to complete the first non-stop circumnavigation.

In 1978 John formed the Eventide Yacht Club to get all those old (and young) sea dogs together that had competed in the Sydney to Mooloolaba race (and the yachtie mates that didn’t) to talk about tall stories and wins gone by.

As the host club, our members were also invited to the party held at John’s house after the race had finished.

The Eventide Yacht Club is quite peculiar, with all the ‘members’ being on the committee and John being the only real member. Talk about lots of chiefs and no Indians! And to top it all off, Prince Phillip is the patron. Yes, the Prince Phillip!

As part of the Sydney to Mooloolaba festivities, this most exclusive yacht club provides one of the more unusual trophies (mind you, it’s never given out at the presentation night) in the form of the ‘U Beaut, how ya goin’, hang in there’ t-shirts for the crew of the last boat to cross the finish line.

To continue the tradition started in 1978, a few committee members of the Eventide Yacht Club decided that they should, in the absence of John Gleeson this year, put on a party. So, the Mooloolaba Little Drink at the yacht club was conceived.

All of that wonderful beer (and rum) that you lucky recipients drank it was generously provided by the directors of Buderim Forest Estate and Enterprise Industrial Estate.

So, you know who they are, to give them a big thank you, and to make sure you know about it next year, here is the honour roll: Laurie Gubb, Ken Neil, Garry Appleby, Chris Illingworth.

Thanks heaps guys!