Branko Kresojević from Stockholm to Hamburg in a small boat – why determination matters more than the size of the hull
For Branko Kresojević, the sea has become a second stage. Born in Prijedor but raised and professionally rooted in Belgrade, a long-standing and accomplished member of Atelje 212’s technical team is now known in Serbia’s nautical circles as one of the few local seafarers to have crossed the Atlantic aboard his own boat. He built his 16 m steel yacht in Belgrade between 2003 and 2004, in an improvised shipyard, personally overseeing every welded seam. As early as 2004 he set off on his first major voyage along the Danube and the Black Sea, via the Sea of Azov to Rostov-on-Don, and in 2006 Nikola Tesla headed upstream along the Danube, Main, and Rhine toward the Netherlands, Belgium, and finally the Seine and Paris.
The biggest chapters of that story were written together with his wife, Verica. For years, the two of them formed the entire crew of Nikola Tesla, building long routes step by step: the boat reached Paris via the Seine, crossed the Atlantic and the Mediterranean via the Bay of Biscay, the coast of Portugal, Gibraltar, the Balearics, Sardinia, and Sicily back toward the Adriatic, visited Mount Athos and the waters of the Aegean, and then, across the North Atlantic via Scotland, Iceland, and Greenland, carried them all the way to North America. Through the Gulf and River St. Lawrence, the system of canals and rivers of the Great Lakes, then the Illinois and Mississippi, they reached the Gulf of Mexico and Florida. Over a series of long passages, they shared watches, fog, ice floes, and long nights, and their voyage is still regarded as one of the most remarkable contemporary nautical undertakings from our region.
Two decades later, the same restlessness and curiosity fit into a much smaller open boat bearing the same name – Nikola Tesla. In the summer of 2025, with this little Tesla, Branko traced a new Northern European route, once again connecting sea, rivers, and canals. He documented the journey on Facebook almost in real time. With his car and trailer he drove from Belgrade to Gdańsk, then took a ferry to the Swedish coast, and from Stockholm he continued by boat through the archipelago, the Göta Canal, and the lakes Vättern, Viken, and Vänern, then along the Trollhätte Canal to Gothenburg. From there he continued to Malmö and Copenhagen, passed through the Øresund Strait, then turned toward Kiel, transited the Kiel Canal, and finally headed upstream on the River Elbe to Hamburg – a city which, as he says, he “can hardly believe he entered by boat, 95 kilometers from the North sea.”
About this voyage, and everything that led up to it, we spoke with Branko Kresojević, a man whose routes are built on persistence, thorough preparation, and a willingness to look for a new story behind every lock.
At this year’s Belgrade Nautical Show you announced a clear plan: the Baltic, the Göta Canal, the Kiel Canal, and the River Elbe. What was the main goal of this route for you – a personal challenge, exploring new waters, or the desire to show what a small boat can do?
For me, both then and now, the biggest motivation is to see new places and new waterways. After sailing on European rivers, canals, and seas, and after crossing the Atlantic to North America, at this stage of my life I enjoy somewhat calmer cruising. That is why last year I chose to go north.
The North, however, is not unknown to me. In the past I have sailed the North Atlantic with my yacht, as far as the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland. Still, even on this route there were moments of uncertainty.
As for the small boat, everything worked perfectly, except for the attempt to cross Lake Vättern. Over a stretch of about 35 km, a strong headwind picked up, the waves grew, and I had to turn back to the town of Motala. When I later set off again, this time running with the wind and waves, I noticed that a water police boat was following me and constantly taking photos. In the marina they approached me with another man in civilian clothes who spoke to me in our language and explained that they had sent him a photo and asked whose flag was on the boat. It turned out that he owned a restaurant on the shore and that he was originally from Banja Luka. They advised me to wait another two days, until the wind calmed down.
How did the preparation look – from getting the boat and engine technically ready, through planning the route and locks, to paperwork and arranging the ferry from Gdańsk to Stockholm?
I spent more than a year planning this voyage. In Pančevo, I built a large canopy to shield me from rain and sun, and I made a foldable one-person tent that I pitch on the bow each evening and pack away in the morning. I also outfitted the boat with eight fenders (four per side) and new mooring lines, essential for the many locks along the route. For life on board, I packed food coolers and bedding for every forecast, from light layers to heavier options.
As for the engine, it has 300 operating hours, so I had no problems, except that I replaced the fuel filter once. I planned the route using available Google Maps data.
How did the preparation look – from getting the boat and engine technically ready, through planning the route and locks, to paperwork and arranging the ferry from Gdańsk to Stockholm?
I towed the boat on a trailer from Belgrade to Gdańsk, about 1,500 km, via Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Poland. Then we crossed about 320 km by ferry across the Baltic Sea, overnight to the Swedish port of Karlskrona, and from there drove roughly another 500 km to Stockholm.
The most exhausting part was driving through Poland – the highways are still not fully finished, and it rained on me almost all the way to Gdańsk. The most exciting moment was boarding the ferry and watching how they “pack” all of us below deck: more than 150 bikers, huge trucks, camper vans, and passenger cars. The crossing itself, despite the rain and small waves, was calm, and the cabin was very comfortable.
Do you remember the first moment in Stockholm when you saw your boat back in the water – was that when the full weight of how ambitious this plan is really hit you?
My arrival in Stockholm was rainy, but around noon the sky cleared and the sun came out just as I launched the boat. I was very excited and couldn’t wait to head toward the city center, in sunshine and light wind. I didn’t think about the rest of the voyage for a single moment – my only goal was to experience Stockholm from the water, with two flags on the stern: the Swedish and the Serbian.
Wherever I moored in the city, people on the docks and on neighboring boats were curious to ask who I was and how I had arrived, especially near the maritime museum and the National Museum, where I even spent two nights sleeping aboard, anchored directly across from them.
On social media you shared your passage through the Göta Canal, its locks, and the lakes Vättern, Viken, and Vänern. Which part of this “inner Sweden” left the strongest impression on you – in terms of beauty and of how demanding it was to navigate?
First I should say that I also sailed at sea, along Sweden’s east coast, for one day. The shoreline is full of rocky islands, small and quite unfriendly for navigation precisely because there are so many of them. There are no sandy beaches or anything similar – it is all rock and stone.
I entered the Göta Canal near a small village with barely twenty houses and one little hotel. Real wilderness, with no larger town anywhere nearby. That is where all the formalities are completed: you pay for the voyage to Gothenburg and receive a card to use toilets and electricity, which are available in every marina.
The first lock is in Mem, at sea level, because the canal is connected to the sea. From Mem to Lake Vättern there are 21 locks, and along that section we “climb” to about 92 m above sea level. From there the canal continues through, in my opinion, the most beautiful part of the entire route – sailing through a forested belt, completely calm and green.
After that comes a descent through 13 locks to Lake Vänern, at about 43 m above sea level. The passage across Lake Vänern is about 145 km long; I was lucky with the weather, there was no wind, and the crossing took around five hours. From the lake and the town of Vänersborg to Gothenburg there are six more large locks, which lower you back down to sea level.
When you arrived in Gothenburg and said you had completed the Stockholm leg through lakes and canals, it felt like a major turning point. At that moment, did you believe everything would go according to plan all the way to Hamburg, especially with the Malmö to Copenhagen stretch ahead, including passing under the Øresund Bridge and facing open-sea waves in a small boat?
The first two days in Gothenburg were rainy, and on the third day the weather finally turned beautiful and sunny, so I headed south along the coast toward Malmö, a leg of about 185 km. I reached Helsingborg, where the narrowest part of the strait between Sweden and Denmark begins, and the following day, around noon, I entered Malmö.
The first day in Malmö was clear, with no wind. I was very excited and kept thinking about the next day’s departure and the big crossing to Copenhagen, under one of the largest bridges in Europe, connecting two countries, Sweden and Denmark. I set off in the morning, steering exactly through the middle of the bridge, under the highest span, where the largest cruise ships also pass. The sun was behind me, I was sailing from east to west.
As I approached the bridge, the westerly wind started to build, blowing straight onto the bow, and the waves grew higher and higher. My cameras were running, but by the time I reached the middle of the bridge, the situation already felt serious, so I put away two cameras and my photo camera to protect them. After passing under the Øresund Bridge, I turned toward the artificial island where the bridge “lands” and where vehicles enter the tunnel that leads all the way to Copenhagen Airport.
In the end everything turned out well, but that transit under the bridge was one of my four biggest goals on this voyage: to sail the Göta Canal, pass under the Øresund Bridge, transit the Kiel Canal, and follow the Elbe to Hamburg.
From Copenhagen you continued toward Kiel and the Kiel Canal. How does that transition from the Scandinavian coast to the German coast feel, and at that point did you feel more tired or more driven by adrenaline as you drew closer to your goal?
The leg from Copenhagen was rather gloomy: overcast, no wind, with occasional rain. I kept almost a straight line, from shore to shore, and covered those 210 km in about seven hours, topping up fuel along the way from canisters I had filled in the marina in Copenhagen.
Every marina I visited has an unmanned fuel dock – you simply insert your card and pump as much as you need. Because I was sailing “from headland to headland,” I barely saw the coast; I was far more focused on course and fuel than on the landscape.
To everyone who dreams of distant voyages, my message is simple: if you have a boat, just cast off and go
How crucial were your knowledge of the tides and your departure timing in making sure everything went safely, and what did it feel like when you, 95 kilometers from the North Sea, entered Hamburg in a small boat and arrived at a marina full of large yachts and ships?
I spent the night in Kiel, on the waiting dock by the canal entrance. In the morning I bought a transit ticket at the machine – 10 euros – and entered the Kiel Canal together with many other boats, mostly sailing yachts. The canal passage was calm: sometimes sun, sometimes clouds, and towering above me the freighters carrying up to 500 containers – a sight to remember. I spent the night at the lock by the canal exit.
In the morning at ten we entered the lock, and there they informed us that high tide in the North Sea would begin at eleven – exactly when I was supposed to start up the Elbe toward Hamburg, 95 km upstream. Nature did the rest: technically I was going upriver, but the tide was carrying me toward Hamburg as if I were going downstream. That knowledge of tide and current, and the precise timing of my departure, were crucial for a safe, comfortable passage.
Entering the Port of Hamburg was a very special experience. It is one of the largest ports in Europe: huge cargo ships, cruise liners, tankers, container ships, small and large tour boats, yachts of all sizes glide past – and among all of them my 5.5 m boat, with two flags, German and Serbian.
After two days in Hamburg, I hauled the boat out at the same ramp where the tourist amphibious buses – the ones that both drive and sail through the city – enter and leave the water. From there I drove straight back to Belgrade in one stretch, about 24 hours on the road and roughly 1,550 km.
What does everyday life look like on a voyage like this when you are alone on board – the rhythm of the day, routine, solitude, encounters with people in the marinas?
In the morning I never cast off before breakfast. I don’t drink coffee and I don’t smoke, so breakfast is my only real ritual, and it is very important to me.
Solitude, honestly, doesn’t exist for me on voyages like this. I am constantly watching the shore, the water, and the sky. You can probably see that best from my videos and photos, because 80 percent of the time under way is exactly that: sailing and observing everything around you.
In the evening, when I tie up in a marina, people from nearby boats and passers-by are curious; they come over to ask who I am and where I come from, and I always have something to tell them about my other voyages.
What did you learn about yourself on this route that you perhaps didn’t know before – did anything surprise you in your own endurance, patience, or attitude toward risk?
With this small boat, not counting the larger yacht, I have truly sailed a lot: the lakes around Zlatibor, the River Uvac, the River Drina from Bajina Bašta to Višegrad, from Prijedor along the Rivers Sana, Una, and Sava to Belgrade, along the River Tisza to Csongrád in Hungary, along the River Tamiš to the Romanian border, and through all the canals in Vojvodina, from Ram to Bezdan.
Did anything surprise me? I would say no. Everything went without any major risk and more or less exactly as I had planned in advance.
What would you say to boaters on the Danube and the Adriatic who dream of a similar voyage, but believe it is possible only with large yachts?
My message would be that if they have a boat, whether smaller or larger, they should simply go and sail. When I decided to build Nikola Tesla, I told everyone that I was not building her to cruise from Ada Međica to the Hotel Jugoslavija, but to sail around the world. And that is exactly what happened, because I had a strong will to keep going.
Do you already have the next route mapped out in your head – continuing downstream toward the North Sea, returning to the Baltic, perhaps a completely new country, or is it time to let this voyage settle in first?
Yes, of course. I already have a plan. This August I am planning to sail with the small boat from Belgrade to Prague, and perhaps continue on, all the way to Berlin.
