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Seabrake Inventor and Designer Captain John Abernethy

John, an old Bass Strait skipper, grew up on a farm, moving to Port Fairy, a thriving commercial fishing centre on the rugged south-west coast of Victoria after active service with the Australian Defence Forces in Vietnam in 1970. It was hoped that the sea air would heal an injured lung attributed to his service which bought about his tansformation from the land to the sea.

For several years John crewed on local fishing boats, worked as a salvage diver and established his own Charter Boat Operation in 1973. He obtained his qualifications as a Ships Master and Marine Engineer (Commonwealth of Australia) and soon built an international reputation as a renowned charter skipper, experienced in sailing some of the roughest seas in the world. John’s game fishing clients included actor Lee Marvin and singer John Denver.

Now retired and living on the South Coast of NSW Australia, John attributes his idea for the revolutionary Seabrake to two key experiences – a stainless steel bucket on a rope that he threw over the back of his boat during a horrendous storm in Bass Straight and the clean lines of a 19 ft White Pointer shark (2,257.5 lbs)he captured and towed during a game fishing expedition. The bucket (slotted by a tomahawk) provided the turbulence and drag to hold the vessel back and the streamlined shape of the shark provided clean and easy movement through the water. In combining these two observations, John came up with the rudimentary principles for the Seabrake.

The Seabrake has been continuously tested and improved over the years and John now gives his time free of charge to act as chief technical consultant for quality assurance and improvement.

Burke Marine PTY Ltd

Burke Marine holds world-wide trademarks, patents and designs for Seabrake and worked closely with inventor John Abernethy. Burke Marine licences select organisations to distribute Seabrake within Australia and internationally. Distributor List >>

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