The Pumpkin Pitch Catapulting Contest - Mt Vernon, Washington 10/8/2005...
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The largest machine by far was this Trebuchet built by a team that called itself "Trebarbaric". This is what it looks like before loading |
| They begin cranking the arm down preparing for loading and launching. |
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The arm is almost down now. |
| Fully cocked, now. Notice the yellow safety strap around the arm to prevent premature launching. Note also that the crew is wearing safety hats. Sometimes the pumpkins would only make it part way before exploding and raining down in chunks on the crew. |
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This is just after launching. I missed catching the pumpkin in mid launch and it's about half-way down range at this point. Total distance on this toss was 1670 feet! |
Tossing was very hard on the pumpkins. |
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There were some other interesting designs in tossing machines. |
And another design to the right. |
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If you look closely in the upper right you'll see a pumpkin that was just launched on its journey by the red machine. It seems to be trailing debris that I think may have been used to pad the pumpkin during the launch. |
| There was a pretty good crowd out to watch. |  Supersize |
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After the pumpkin tossing was done all of the machines tossed a big bag of candy for the kids! |
And, of course, trophies for the winners and participants. |
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