Used Sunny Briggs Yachts For Sale

Like all North Carolina custom boatbuilders, Sunny Briggs (Thomas H Briggs III) born in 1943, got his start fishing with the legendary charter captains of that era in the mid 1950s. During the winter months, fishing shifted to boatbuilding and Sunny learned from some of the best, especially Omie Tillett and Sheldon Midgett. In those early days of sportfishing boat building, innovations were shared, and design features became regional traditions. Custom Carolina sportfish boats are famed for their rugged composite builds capable of taking on the rigors of North Carolina’s notorious Oregon Inlet and the challenging Outer Banks waters. 

Having built about 70 boats ranging from 35ft to 70ft in his years at the helm of Briggs Boatworks, located in in Wanchese, NC since its founding in 1985, he retired in 2021 to focus on fishing and duck hunting with grandkids. Built-to-order, the Sunny Briggs sportfish boats are customized to the owner’s preferences and fishing style—no two are exactly alike! But Sunny would never compromise the safety and performance or quality of build, which is why he preferred building the larger boats (50’ to 70’) that could accommodate much more.

Having built boats “the hard way” lofting jigs by hand for years, Sunny Briggs worked with Steve French of Applied Concepts during the 1990s and following decades to transition to computerized jigs, an idea suggested by his wife, Dee, who worked in the North Carolina furniture industry that used CNC jigs. Briggs Boatworks was the first in the Outer Banks region to construct a Steve French designed sportfish yacht using the Applied Concepts computerized jig system and advanced composite technology. Computer-aided design, advanced materials and the use of CNC jigs to build complex compound forms, have proven to be advantageous to the aesthetics, layouts and performance of modern sportfish yachts and is now prevalent in the boat-building industry.

Sunny Briggs convertible sportfish yachts are not only well-designed for serious offshore sport fishing, but beautifully finished and accommodating, taking advantage of the skilled craftsmen of the local North Carolina furniture trade. In an owner’s words, “…a Briggs 57ft…my favorite boat ever…flew across the water, gorgeous inside and out, had a fantastic fishing layout on the flybridge and cockpit, every nook and cranny was finished beautifully, and ate up a nasty head sea. Plus I love the rounded transom corners on Briggs boats.” And that summarizes why Sunny Briggs custom Carolina sportfish boats are so highly prized by their owners and in the brokerage market, especially the Briggs boats designed by Steve French since the mid 1990s.