Skip to main content

Story: Engineering

Jack Brooke

Image
Jack Brooke

Jack Brooke (left) sits with a friend in an Auckland boatyard. Brooke’s designs included the Sunburst yacht (also known as the Sunburst training dinghy) which was used in inter-secondary school competition for many years. As well as designing and building yachts from the 1920s to the 1960s, During the Second World War, Brooke was chief engineer at the Physical Testing Laboratory, leading a team that reduced the high failure rate of bullets. After the war he set up the Auckland branch of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, which worked with manufacturers to solve technical problems.

Image courtesy of the New Zealand Herald

Using this item

Mike O'Sullivan

This item has been provided for private study purposes (such as school projects, family and local history research) and any published reproduction (print or electronic) may infringe copyright law. It is the responsibility of the user of any material to obtain clearance from the copyright holder.

All images & media in this story

How to cite this page

Matthew Wright, Engineering – Engineering, 1900–1945, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/21610/jack-brooke (accessed 24 June 2026).

Story by Matthew Wright, published 26 February 2010.