Austria is a country of mountains, where you can hike and ski in an unspoilt natural environment. But Austria is also a land of sailors, thanks to its mountain lakes where powerful thermals blow. These winds have given rise to a group of highly-skilled builders, such as Lago, which presented its Lago 26, a 26' designed by a Finn champion, at Grand Pavois 2024.

When Hans Spitzaeur, world and European champion, who has achieved numerous podium finishes and came close to winning the Olympics (4th) in Finn and Star, set about designing a daysailer, the Lago 26, you can be sure of one thing: it won't be a caravan!

Championship Yachting ‘s Lago 26 is a fun, easy-to-use sailboat designed for taking family and friends out for some fresh air. Lightweight (800kg), the Lago 26 doesn't need much of that air to get going. It is available with sail areas of between 28.5 and 35.5 m2, enough to make it a lively daysailer or a cannonball.

The boat is powered by an inboard or outboard electric motor, which is not uncommon in Austria, where exclusion zones for combustion-powered pleasure craft have been in place for decades, and particular care has been taken in its construction and design.

This is particularly true of the way in which the gunwales are fitted, with the blockers neatly positioned at the edge of a gunwale locker, on each side, under the bench seats.

The configurations are not limited to the rig: the Lago 26 is also available in a smart keelboat version, a dinghy version and a foiler version, which is thrilling just to see the images at sea (second image above)!

The three versions form three faces of this Lago 26, three, or rather four, with the very elegant Speedster version, a pure dayboat, pointing its bow at the catalogue.

Pierre-Thomas Boutet, from Unisailor, is the French distributor for lago.