Oct 20, 2026 · 13 min · 9 segments
What would it take for Croatia to become a serious force in global superyacht building? We chat to Antonio Ivanišević, founder of Tramontana Yachts, to discuss the ambition behind his Croatian yacht…
Sidney Bitter-LarkinHostWell, to be honest, no one was born in Krylo and raised there, basically.
And they developed it really quick from transportation of sand, olive oil, wine, to transporting tourists from island to island.
And when I started working young, I was a sailor, I was a barman, everything.
and everything was kind of done from our side not to be harsh but kind of bare minimum to meet standards and clients were happy but i always like to reach for the next level so i was like why should we do things bare minimum why should we be happy with this kind of like mid or low range quality yachts because we have historically we have some of the best welders in the world that work in fedship they work in lures and we have so much good people in our country for years already, it's a shame we're not doing something for the stage.
Well, when you started Tramontana, you talked about a gap in the market for quality built yachts coming out of Croatia.
The thing that was missing the most at that time was I'll pinpoint it as the mindset.
We come from an ex-country, so the mindset was always like, I have a feeling we felt less worthy.
And why are we less than them? Why couldn't we build it? There's more than enough reasons and historical reasons to prove so.
And did you always see Trail Montana as a yacht brand or did you see it as something that could eventually become much bigger?
If this is way past personal goals, I want to do something to unify my beautiful little village, my town, my city, and show the world the amazing talented people I know personally and bring it to the stage because I'm very confident since before we started and now more than ever that we're ready for the Monaco stage.
And you said that your great-grandfather, Don Frane, was a major inspiration.
So how much of what you're building today is actually connected to his philosophy?
And to be honest, when I was a young kid, I heard all these stories about great ancestors doing great things for the village.
Well, to be honest, no one was born in Krylo and raised there, basically.
And they developed it really quick from transportation of sand, olive oil, wine, to transporting tourists from island to island.
And when I started working young, I was a sailor, I was a barman, everything.
and everything was kind of done from our side not to be harsh but kind of bare minimum to meet standards and clients were happy but i always like to reach for the next level so i was like why should we do things bare minimum why should we be happy with this kind of like mid or low range quality yachts because we have historically we have some of the best welders in the world that work in fedship they work in lures and we have so much good people in our country for years already, it's a shame we're not doing something for the stage.
Well, when you started Tramontana, you talked about a gap in the market for quality built yachts coming out of Croatia.
The thing that was missing the most at that time was I'll pinpoint it as the mindset.
We come from an ex-country, so the mindset was always like, I have a feeling we felt less worthy.
And why are we less than them? Why couldn't we build it? There's more than enough reasons and historical reasons to prove so.
And did you always see Trail Montana as a yacht brand or did you see it as something that could eventually become much bigger?
If this is way past personal goals, I want to do something to unify my beautiful little village, my town, my city, and show the world the amazing talented people I know personally and bring it to the stage because I'm very confident since before we started and now more than ever that we're ready for the Monaco stage.
And you said that your great-grandfather, Don Frane, was a major inspiration.
So how much of what you're building today is actually connected to his philosophy?
And to be honest, when I was a young kid, I heard all these stories about great ancestors doing great things for the village.
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