On cold Fridays during recent weeks, it was not uncommon to see a few older guys drilling and tapping on Lake Arthur's frozen surface.

They were neither crazy nor looking to crash their way through the ice into the Polar Bear Club. They're iceboaters. If they determined that the ice was thick enough and the winds were strong, by mid-morning Saturdays the frozen lake had attracted a small cadre of ice sailors hoping for the thrill of a few good runs.

Iceboats are light wooden sailboats with long metal runners on the bottoms that use the wind to glide across ice. They can move up to four times faster than the speed of the wind. Iceboats can reach speeds of up to 60-70 miles per hour and are used for competitive racing and casual joy rides.

In Southwest Pennsylvania, a small community of iceboaters formed an unofficial club of sailing enthusiasts who use Lake Arthur as home base. The club is actually more of an e-mail list that lets recipients know when and where boaters plan to sail each weekend. Retired iceboaters started the e-mail chain, testing the ice on Fridays and reporting the conditions to the rest of the sailors.

With about 20 dedicated iceboaters in the Pittsburgh region and one runner sharpener in the Tri-state area, the iceboating community is a tightly knit group.

"I think sailors are this way in the first place," said iceboater David Bishop, of Sewickley. "There's about 15 boats and 20 people total and you need them for safety. You need to know who is going where."

One reason the iceboating community is so small is because of the boats themselves. Pittsburgh ice boaters don't buy their boats -- they're all hand made by the boaters themselves from scrap lumber.

"There's no factory," Bishop said. "No individual has built more than 20 iceboats."

It takes hundreds of hours of labor to plan and build an iceboat. Most boaters in Western Pennsylvania follow the International DN class iceboating standards that dictate the length, height, weight and materials that can be used. But the rules of constructing the boats are far more complicated than directions to assemble a new dresser.

"In theory, you can build one with only the rules, but in practice you need someone's plans," said Bishop, who is in the process of building his second boat after wrecking his first on Mosquito Lake in Ohio last year. Hundreds of hours of effort were lost when his runner fell into a crack and smashed his boat, but Bishop said it's simply a part of the sport.

"Ultimately, it's a wooden boat going 60 mph," he said. "It's one of those things that you know is going to happen in the back of your head."

Bishop's not the only iceboater who's had problems. At the heart of the iceboating community is the common knowledge that there's safety in numbers.

"It's a sport. We know there's risk. There's no such thing as safe ice," said John Wargo, 53, of Columbus, Ohio. "We know there are risks and we try to minimize them."

A former member of the Ohio State Watercraft Patrol, Wargo knows the dangers of iceboating more than most. In 30 years of iceboating, he has fallen into the cold, icy waters three times.

Wargo took an icy plunge Jan. 13 into Alum Creek Lake, north of Columbus. After drilling the ice, which was at the 4-inch safety mark, he set out on a quick run. But light winds brought his boat to a halt and his right runner sank through a thin patch of ice. Wargo quickly followed and tried to fight his way out of the water with his ice pick until fellow iceboater Paul Cunningham pulled him out. Wargo was taken to the hospital and treated for hypothermia.

"I had just attended a seminar on boating safety and I knew I had one minute to control my breathing and 10 minutes to be rescued," Wargo said. "It was the first time I'd been the victim. I'd always been the rescuer before this."

But the chilly experience won't keep Wargo off the ice.

"The boat will sail again," he said. "The thrill of iceboating makes it worth it."

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