Eight bells - Dr Des Cooper 1927-2008
Dr Des Cooper, a noted Hobart surgeon and ocean racing and cruising yachtsman, died at his home at Kettering yesterday after an extended illness, aged 81. 
'Dr Des Cooper'
Dr Cooper was Commodore of the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania from 1981 to 1984, with his wife Marion becoming the first woman Commodore of the Club from 2004-2007.
He gave great support to his wife in this unique role, with Past Commodore Marion Cooper still a member of the Board of the RYCT and chair of the marina committee.
An honorary surgeon at the Royal Hobart Hospital for many years as well as being in private practice, Dr Cooper was an examiner for the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and was highly regarded teacher of surgery to interns at the 'Royal Hobart'.
Dr Cooper had been a member of the RYCT since 1966, an active and popular sailor who owned a number of yachts before commissioning Msx Creese to build him the beautiful timber One Tonner, Maria, designed by the US naval architects Sparkman & Stephens, in 1969.
Maria was one of three Australian yachts that contested the World One Ton Cup in New Zealand in 1970, won by the Sydney yacht Stormy Petrel, and in December the following year Des Cooper and his crew sailed Maria in the Sydney Hobart. It proved to be a dramatic race.
The fleet was battered for 50 hours by a south-westerly gale, with a then record 14 boats retiring from the 61-boat fleet with hull and gear failure and injured crew.
Maria finished second in the One Ton Division and when Des Cooper stepped ashore at Constitution Dock his appearance told the story of the race and the courage of crews that battled through the storm to finish.
His head was swathed in a blood-stained bandage, he had two black eyes and cuts to his forehead. During the gale, the main boom on Maria had broken, with Dr Cooper thrown out of the cockpit against the boom. Below deck, the yacht's radio had been smashed.
"We were 15 miles east of Cape Lodi when we were hit," the battered skipper told "The Mercury" at the time.
"She rolled right over, putting the top of her mast into the sea and ripping free the masthead wind vane.
"Water flooded into her, but she righted herself and we sailed on to finish the race."
Maria and her skipper and crew backed up again for the 1971 race but this time they were forced to retire with broken rigging.
Dr Cooper subsequently sold Maria, electing more for cruising boats, including the converted fishing boats Isthmus Bay and Lotus Eater in which he cruised extensively around the coast of Tasmania, including many trips to the Mercury Passage inside Maria Island.
He made Lotus Eater available three times as radio relay vessel for the Melbourne to Hobart Race.
His last boat was Prelude, an Arends 35 cruiser/racer in which he circumnavigated Tasmania.
Des (and Marion) were both keen inland lake anglers, but Des also was an enthusiastic seawater fisherman. His last offshore fishing expedition was just fourth months ago aboard Dave Chaffey's Thylacine when he enjoyed some good catches of striped trumpeter.
He was Chairman of the Talls Ships Race Committee 1988 which saw the largest fleet of tall ships ever visit Tasmania and then race to Sydney to mark the Bi-Centenary Celebrations.
Following the sudden death of his first wife, Lesley, he was part of Don Calvert's shore-base team for Intrigue at the 1985 Admiral's Cup at Cowes, England.
Des Cooper was born and raised in Hobart, attending Hobart High School before continuing his education in Melbourne where he graduated in medicine at the University of Melbourne.
He continued his post-graduate studies in Britain, later working in Saudi Arabia and Darwin (where he owned his first yacht, Mercedes II) before returning to practice in Hobart in the 1960s where he continued sailing with the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania and having Maria built.
"He was a very competent general surgeon and an excellent teacher to the young intern and surgeons," Dr John Hunn, also a retired general surgeon, said in Hobart today.
Dr Des Cooper is survived his wife, Marion, and by five children by his first wife, Lesley, who died in 1985, Nicholas, Timothy, Maria, Tony and Jason.
by Peter Campbell 
Mermaid Waters, QLD
