Team Urban Siege Joins the 2000-foot Club!
Posted Nov 04, 2011 by Matt | Tags: launches, WCPC
You heard it here! Team Urban Siege's new mystery trebuchet shot a nearly 9-pound pumpkin a whopping 2017 feet today! With a trebuchet field littered with misfires and pies, that placed us in second place after day 1. American Chucker edged us out with a 2032' shot, 2 feet shy of Yankee Siege's "World Record" mark of 2034'. Congratulations to those guys indeed. Our shot was somewhat high in trajectory, but nevertheless we became only the 3rd trebuchet IN THE WORLD to clear 2000 feet in competition. We have more in the tank, and we are gunning for a bigger mark tomorrow!
As mentioned there was a lot of goose eggs on day 1 on the trebuchet line. Yankee Siege II led off with a misfire when their sling came off of the release pin way too early. Merlin shot the highest pop up we've ever seen, it had a solid 20 seconds of hang time before landing just over the fence into the spectator area. First in Fright also had tough luck when their sling line broke and disqualified them. Bayesian Experiment did not fire after massive damage during a failed test shot Thursday night, but they are making modifications to hopefully at least get a shot off, but they won't be a factor in the top standings. Launch-Ness Monster pied their pumpkin. Pumpkin Hammer had issues getting their trigger to release and did not get their shot off before their time elapsed. When they finally did fire, the shot was forward and decently, but something hit hard inside their machine and bent their throwing arm, hanger, and some other things it appeared. By the end of the day however they had made some repairs. It remains to be seen if they will still be competitive.
On the bright side there were a few decent shots. Obviously ours and American Chucker's were the top shots of the day, but Tired Iron shot well over 1700 feet. Shenanigans shot in the mid-1400s, a very nice start for them. Hokie Hurler, after extensive reworking of their machine from damage suffered two years ago, cleared 1000 feet despite having not fired in nearly a year. And Great Gourd Experiment cleared 900 feet and are well on their way to 1000!
We shall see what Saturday brings.
On a related note, the Torsion Line had a nice day. At least 4 machines shot personal bests, with Ethos at over 2600', Onager over 2400, and Roman Revenge hit 3056! Then Chucky III continued to rule with a monstrous 3636'! That's right, OVER 3600 FEET!!! Congratulations to all of them!
