“Fantasma”
1959 19′ Sebino
Bill and Pam Hancock
September 18, 2018
Owners Story
Cantiere Sebino is located in Paratico, Italy and produced wooden runabouts during the 1950’s through the early 60’s. Fantasma is thought to be the only Sebino registered in the United States. The brand was built on Lago I’Selo in northern Italy, near Lake Como.
This particular boat is one-off example of their 6 Meter model, originally commissioned by the Braun family of Austria as their family ski boat which spent most of its life at their castle on Lake Attassee. Once acquired, Fantasma was shipped to Detroit in 1995 where the hull underwent a total restoration at the famed Mayea Boat works, while the engine was totally restored by Mike Murley.
Fantasma means Phantom in Italian. Since the boat took 12 years to restore, when it came time to name it, the name was picked because nobody in the family had ever seen the boat. Sebinos are often mistaken for Riva boats which share many of the smilar lines and were made literally across the lake in the village of Sarnico. Noted Riva Expert Alan Weinstein, the Riva Guru, was amazed to discover that the Sebino hardware, while visually similar to Riva, was totally unique to the Sebino.
While the hull underwent a total restoration at Mayea Boat works, Mike Murley painstakingly restored the unique small block Chevrolet marine engine originally designed and built for Cantiere Riva and sold through Riva to Sebino where it was reconfigured. The boat runs in excess of 40 mph and incorporates the classic Italian sun bed in place of a rear seat.
Today, Cantiere Sebino still exists but no longer manufactures wooden boats. They do however store and maintain a small fleet of the original Sebinos for a few prominent European customers.
