WCPC 2010 - Day 1
Posted Nov 05, 2010 by Matt | Tags: launches, WCPC
A windy by rain-free day helped to slightly dry out a very messy cornfield today in Delaware as the 25th annual World Championships of Punkin' Chunkin' kicked off. Another long day of waiting in the wind for the air cannons to finish saw the firing end at 6PM, shortly before all light was gone in the sky.
A good first day for the trebuchet division overall saw American Chucker start off with a throw over 1700 feet, soon followed up by a personal best from Pumpkin Hammer at over 1970! We shot a respectable official personal best of 1088.88', beating out last year's 1074', despite a somewhat stiff headwind. The new Launch-Ness Monster finished set-up in time to get off a shot today with no counterweight, their first shot with the machine EVER. Well, they hit 1092! As they add some weight, likely tomorrow, look for them to move up the standings significantly. Shenanigans 3 shot in the 1100s, Hokie Hurler in the 800s. The new First in Fright machine blasted a shot out there over 1600 feet! The new beast from the Yankee Siege crew, Tired Iron, hit 1333' with their monstrous FAT. Merlin had a major malfunction and only managed a spike into the ground perhaps 2-300 feet out.
Great Gourd Experiment shot in the 700s. Prawn, the backup machine from Masters of Mayhem instead of their new machine, had their pumpkin fall out of the pouch, so no distance today.
So as things stand, Pumpkin Hammer is in first, American Chucker in second, and First in Fright in third. Everyone else is far short of that, but look for a few to possibly move up tomorrow, including Launch-Ness and Tired Iron. Team Urban Siege with our Medieval Postal Service, in its third year of competition, sits roughly 2/3 of the way down the field, we will know more tomorrow when Pumpkin Hammer puts up their famous scoreboard.
The torsion division had an interesting first day, with defending champion Ethos not getting a shot off due to triggering issues, and Onager busting an arm. Roman Revenge got off a solid shot in the 1700s if memory serves correctly, and Gaul Buster shot over 1400 feet. Chucky 3 followed up last year's disappointing performace with a whopping 2480 or so, proving that the new machine well may be able to take out the air cannons. We shall see.
