Dr Gordon Baron-Hay

It's a year since event organiser Dr Gordon Baron-Hay passed away, so Doc of The Swan remains a celebratory sail in his memory and two new landmarks to remember him by.

The Gordon Baron-Hay Grant

In celebration of Gordon’s working life as a paediatric surgeon, the Doc of The Swan charity sail raised $10,000 to kick-start the Gordon Baron-Hay Grant, presented through the Princess Margaret Hospital for Children Foundation. The PMH Foundation will generously fund and award this Grant annually for the next nine years, awarding it to a worthy recipient who:

• Is involved in an endeavour that is closely related to paediatric surgery;
• Is involved directly in patient care as Gordon was;
• Is a member of clinical staff, doctor or otherwise; and
• Can demonstrate that the money will be used to benefit patients.

The Grant is to acknowledge the outstanding work of Gordon as a paediatric surgeon who built an unequalled reputation during his nearly 30 years at the hospital.

Gordon Baron-Hay Perpetual Trophy

Last year's Baron-Hay Trophy winner Sled powers through the fleet at the start.

Gordon was a major organiser of Doc of The Swan and a keen sailor. It is his wish that Doc of The Swan continue as a landmark charitable sailing event each year. The organisers will again present a perpetual trophy in honour of both Gordon’s involvement with the event and the generosity of the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club. It goes to the yacht with the fastest event time. The 2011 winner was Sled owned by Tony Mitchell.

Last year, the main event was preceded by an Etchell class sail past that included Gordon’s brother John Baron-Hay on Screaming Plum and Gordon’s yacht Z-ipi, now bequeathed to his previous crew in Dr Ric Bergesio, Gus McBriar and Anthony Vlachou.

Doctor-owners whose boats entered the event were Drs David Roberts (Norsk), Helga Weaving (Tamatea), Brian Galton-Fenzi (Take Time), John Wheeler (Darling Do), Ian Hewitt (Red Fever), Malcolm Thompson (Smoke on the Water), Warren Pavey (Javelin) and nurse owner was Kieran Byrne (Quasheba).

Thanks go to these people and the other generous owners from RFBYC who made up the 24 yacht entries that accommodated the 90 or so doctors who were “skippers for a day” or crew in this light-hearted, protest-free charity event. This includes the two spectator boats Nikomis (Craig Grundmann) and Ardesea II (Geoff Bingemann).

Medical Forum WA magazine and VenosanWA remain proud major sponsors of Doc of the Swan.

< Click Here > to scroll through the year's photo gallery.