Design and Construction
The hull and deck are solid fibreglass with wood trim, a raked stem, and a plumb transom. The defining structural feature is the lifting keel — a vertical-drop iron ballast foil that extends to 5.25 feet and retracts to 3.11 feet, letting the 26 be trailered with the keel up and tucked into shallow marinas at a loaded draft of roughly 3.1 to 3.4 feet. An internally mounted spade rudder is controlled by a tiller. The builder's double-skin foam-injected construction made the marque unsinkable, and period testers noted she is designed to right herself with the keel fully up. The beamy 2.82 length-to-beam ratio places her among the roomier quarter of similar designs, and the 29 percent ballast ratio sits above only about 12 percent of comparable boats — a modest figure explained by the lifting-iron keel rather than a bolted lead shoe.
Rig and Handling
She carries a deck-stepped 7/8 fractional rig with sweptback spreaders and an adjustable backstay, and every sail control is led aft to the cockpit. Testers found her fast and commendably stiff under sail, able to go well to windward on a tacking angle of 75 to 80 degrees, though she needs to be sailed fairly flat to avoid weather helm. The theoretical displacement hull speed is about 6.2 knots, while the capsize screening value of 2.08 would bar her from ocean racing; the Motion Comfort Ratio of 18.2 to 18.8 makes her more comfortable than half of similar designs, and the displacement-length ratio of 227 classes her among moderate racers, with half of peer designs heavier. Under a 10-horsepower inboard with saildrive the calculated maximum under power is 4.8 knots, and the fuel tank holds seven US gallons.
Accommodations
The cabin plan is unusual, dictated by the large lifting keel that occupies the centerline below. There is sleeping space for five: a double V-berth in the bow cabin, two straight settee quarter berths in the main saloon, and a drop-leaf table that converts one settee to a double. Testers counted four sea-going berths, or five at anchor. The head sits just aft of the bow cabin, while the L-shaped galley to port just forward of the companionway ladder holds a two-burner stove, icebox, and sink. The chart table lies at the forward end of the saloon to starboard, where the navigator is obliged to work sitting sideways-on — a quirk of the keel-dominated layout rather than a conventional amidships station.
Known Issues
The manual keel-lifting mechanism is the design's principal service burden. Because the ballast is a large iron foil raised vertically through the hull, winching it up by hand at the foot of the mast takes a good 15 minutes of steady grinding. Some owners specified an electric servo motor to relieve that labor, but on boats without it the routine is slow and physically demanding, and the trunk and pivot hardware deserve scrutiny for wear from repeated cycling.
The Verdict
The ETAP 26 is a clever small cruiser that trades offshore-race eligibility for trailerable flexibility and a genuinely roomy interior wrapped around a lifting iron keel. She sails stiffly and windward competently for her size, but the manual keel lift is a real ownership tax and the sideways nav station is an acquired taste.
Pros
- Retracting keel enables trailering and shallow-water access
- Beam-driven interior volume unusual for a 26-foot design
- Stiff, quick handling with cockpit-led sail controls
Cons
- Manual keel lift requires roughly 15 minutes of mastfoot winching
- Capsize screening value of 2.08 bars her from ocean racing
- Navigator works sideways at a fore-saloon chart table
