The ETAP 26 is a Belgian trailerable sailboat that was designed by E. G. van de Stadt as a cruiser and first built in 1982.
It has a fractional sloop rig, a raked stem, plumb transom, an internally mounted spade-type rudder controlled by a tiller and a lifting keel.
[6] A 2009 review in Yachting Monthly stated, "the largest of the lifting-keel Etaps, launched in 1981, the 26 manages a proper heads compartment amidships and an inboard engine powering a saildrive.
She is designed to right herself with the keel fully up, but many owners tend to sail with it permanently down, because the mechanism for lifting this large chunk of ballast manually requires a good 15 minutes of winch-grinding at the foot of the mast.
She has four sea-going berths, or potentially five at anchor: two straight settees in the saloon, one of which converts to a double, and a vee-berth in the forepeak.