Easter’s Manly to Mooloolaba Hart Cup race celebrates its 17th anniversary this year with a growing fleet of boats planning to contest the coastal race.

The annual Good Friday event is normally a pleasant full-day race, with the fleet of monohulls and multihulls snaking their way north through the shipping channels and along the picturesque coastline before turning left into Mooloolaba. 

The race is started by Wynnum Manly Yacht Club (WMYC) on Moreton Bay and then finished by Mooloolaba Yacht Club at Point Cartwright. 

The Hart Cup trophy started its life in 1912 when the silver cup was presented by JH Hart, then President of the Wynnum and Manly Sailing Club (W&MSC), to Mr Dalzell of the yacht Nonpariel.  

Then in 1914 The Manly Yacht Club was founded and the trophy used to celebrate the results of the friendly rivalry between the two clubs. With the financial assistance of Mr Hart the two clubs cooperated to develop Green Island in 1917 complete with garden, shelter sheds, bathing boxes and a T-head jetty. 

During the depression both W&MSC and The Manly Sailing clubs closed.  It was not until 1962 that WMYC was formed. 

In 1994 ex-club Commodore Dudley Young obtained the old silver cup and presented it back to WMYC. When the first Good Friday passage race to Mooloolaba was organised in 1996, the trophy was renamed in honour of Mr Hart. Its first winner was the Van Lunteren family’s yacht, Six Pack.

WMYC’s Sailing Chair, Greg Doolan, expects over a dozen Brisbane boats to line up against a similar number of Mooloolaba-based boats for the traditional race. 

To enter the Hart Cup, enter online with WMYC (www.wmyc.com.au/index.php?page=hart_cup) 
or with MYC (www.mooloolaba.yachting.org.au/event.asp?ID=47523&;format=popup).

For more Easter Regatta and Hart Cup information, go www.wmyc.com.au and www.mooloolaba.yachting.org.au