As Tahoe Sailing Charter's newest edition to its fleet cuts through the endless deep blue of Lake Tahoe, heeled over almost dipping her rails into the water, either captain might ask you if you want to put down your Corona and take the helm.

As you grab the four-foot wheel, you won't feel the boat pulling against you in the wind. In fact, you won't feel anything at all. The boat is smooth as she cuts through Tahoe's choppy azure with surgical precision.

"She's like a Cadillac," Jim Courcier says of Tahoe Cruz, his new Santa Cruz class 50-foot sloop. Courcier owns Tahoe Sailing Charters with partner Mike Pavel.

Courcier, who has been a member of the Tahoe City Yacht club since 1984, sold his previous business, Tahoe Parasailing, last year. Pavel and Courcier had been partners for quite some time after Pavel approached Courcier, who had the proper leases needed to start a charter company. Selling Tahoe Parasailing allowed the partners to purchase Tahoe Cruz and increase their ability to carry passengers.

Previously, Tahoe Sailing Charters conducted their operations on Avalanche, their 35-foot J-105. Avalanche, under Coast Guard regulations, can carry six passengers at a time.

Tahoe Cruz is rated to host 25 customers at a time.

Despite this impressive capacity, Pavel or Courcier can sail the boat with just one other crew member, although they often get help from their customers.

Pavel and Courcier say a lot of the people who charter trips on the boat are sailors. However, most of them have never piloted a boat that big before.

Rich Marshall of Newhart, Conn. was just such a customer.

Marshall, his wife Patty and her sister Joyce Sherokow were all visiting Tahoe for a week. Patty said they had been doing a lot of biking and hiking, and were talked into the cruise by Pavel.

"I came down (to the marina) at 11 a.m. and inquired about the sunset cruise," Marshall said.

The Marshalls sail a small sunfish back in Connecticut, and Pavel told them there was no sunset cruise that day because they were going to be sailing to Emerald Bay for a brochure photoshoot.

The sail was longer, but Pavel told Marshall that he "really ought to think about it."

It was the Marshalls first time visiting Lake Tahoe and Rich looked very happy at the helm. Smiling non-stop from Rubicon Bay to Tahoe City, Marshall was whooping and hollering as he effortlessly held Tahoe Cruz under a 15-knot wind in a nice steady heel.

With Marshall at the helm, Courcier and Pavel were free to sit back and relax. Cutting through the deep blue of Tahoe's water, the two talked about their boat.

Designed to race from California to Hawaii, Courcier said it could make 15 to 20 knots in the ocean with her spinnaker up.

"We've got the biggest, fastest sailboat on the North Shore," Pavel boasted.

While the Coast Guard requires charter vessels to undergo a stability test, the boat still cooks right along, even though they are not allowed to keep a spinnaker on board and have a maximum square footage requirement for their sails.

With a travel time of around two hours to sail from Emerald Bay to Tahoe City, and every single person smiling while perched on the high side of the boat, Tahoe Cruz doesn't need any more sail.

As Pavel piloted the yacht closer to Tahoe City, he tried to talk his partner into racing in the Tahoe Yacht Club's Wednesday evening races.

In this life, it's always nice to love what you do for a living. It was pretty obvious that Pavel was nuts about his job. After five hours of sailing, he still wanted to race.

With smiles on everyone's faces, Courcier piloted the crowd to the pier in his zodiac. Since Tahoe Cruz drafts seven feet, they need the zodiac to ferry customers out to her since the marina is not deep enough.

With the clouds finally parting this week - hopefully for good - sailing enthusiasts who just want to see what it's like to sail the biggest and fastest Tahoe has to offer, or folks who have never boated under the power of the wind, can find something exciting at Tahoe Sailing Charters.

For more information, contact Tahoe Sailing Charters at 583-6200.