During the depths of the great depression in the 1930s, two well-renowned boat builders in Morehead City, NC, Charles Riley Willis and Micajah Adams, began work on a wooden fishing boat. Designed for the shallow fishing grounds of the core and bogue sounds, Sylvia II was built as a classic North Carolina "deadrise "sink netter - by design a "quarter boat," whose beam of 9 feet was exactly 1/4 her length of 36 feet. With a wide, open aft deck and a distinctive rounded stern in order to allow her nets to be hauled up by the forward mast and boom arrangement without getting "hung up" on the sharp transom corners of traditional boats, it was a design descended from the New England sharpies, oyster boats brought south after the Civil War.

With the advent of WWII in 1941, the US Navy conscripted Sylvia II for 'U-boat patrols" off the NC coast and running supplies to remote coastal outposts. When the war was over, she returned to her fishing grounds and for a time, also did double duty as a waterborne "school bus," ferrying children from remote fishing villages along bogue sound and the Shackleford banks to schools in Morehead City and Beaufort.

February of 1976, in what became known as the "Great Groundhog Day Gale," Sylvia II was thrown up on the pilings in her berth at the Sanitary Restaurant and sank at her dock.

Purchased 'in the water 'for $300 by resident Bob Simpson and his wife Mary, who became her second owners, Sylvia II was hauled up, pumped out, patched up, and taken to the Simpsons home on Peltier Creek in Morehead City. Now over 50 years old and having outlasted her contemporaries, she began her third life as a private vessel. Captained by Bob - a columnist for the Raleigh News and Observer- she became a well-known presence along the NC coast, as chronicled in his book "When the Water Smokes" and was the subject of several paintings by renowned maritime artist Robert Dance.

After her purchase in Morehead City, at 81 years old and counting, Sylvia was moved to Wilmington, NC, by Overland Transport. Upon her arrival and blocking up in Wilmington, the complete picture of her condition became apparent. 

Bob Graham decided to approach the restoration to renew Sylvia II to her original integrity instead of attempting to save and repair her original material, much of which was beyond saving. The next challenge was to convert her interior and new systems and power into a usable and functional "family cruiser" while not sacrificing any of her distinctive "Carolina flare" and long sweeping sheer profile that made her such a historic icon of the North Carolina coast

Throughout her ensuing six-year restoration, every piece of Sylvia II was included. The primary challenge facing rebuilding her to her original lines was that there were none - having been built by Charles Riley. Willis and Micaijah Adams -as were most workboats of their day - by "rack o' the eye” i.e., if it looks right then it is" - there were no plans or even simple line drawings to work from in her restoration. And so began the laborious, time-consuming and sometimes daunting task of "rebuilding" sylvia from the inside out - removing each and every piece of framing, planking, and supporting structure one at a time, replicating it and replacing it before moving on to the next piece. This process allowed Sylvia II to remain faithful to her period design and aesthetics while ensuring her longevity for decades by using modern materials and methods to rebuild her

Sylvia's backbone was beyond repair and required replacement. Restoration crews built her new keel, stem, and forefoot of Angelique, a South American hardwood renowned for its strength and resistance to rot and marine organisms. All her original frames were replaced one at a time by building up 21 layers of 1/8" Angelique laminations set in epoxy for maximum strength. Floor timbers were recreated from sawn heart pine and bolted with silicon bronze bolts. Woodworkers replaced her deck with 3/4' marine grade plywood with transverse Angelique frames, covered in epoxy-impregnated Dynel sheathing. Overlaid on this is 1/2" Angelique decking set in epoxy and fastened with silicon bronze screws with Teakdecking Systems (TDS) payed seams.

All of Sylvia's hull planking was removed and replaced with her original planking material of Atlantic White Cedar, silicon bronze fastened with cotton, and filler seam putty fitted between planks for filling.

Throughout her restoration, the compromises necessary for a balance between installing modern and safe systems and maintaining Sylvia's 1930's aesthetic were always taken into consideration. The result is a modern, seaworthy and ruggedly constructed new vessel which still turns heads wherever she goes … with the first comment usually being , "that's a beautiful boat - what year is she?"

Sylvia II was initially built with little expectation of her lasting more than ten years, much less almost a century. Bob Graham and his crews completed her six-year restoration with the intent of Sylvia II eventually being passed on to new custodians of one of North Carolina's most historic and iconic vessels as she moves into her second century of use. Through the efforts of all her owners, she has been saved from the fate of virtually all her contemporaries.