Monday, September 29, 2008

Rainy Day in New Hampshire September 29, 2008

Our second weekend of public trebuchet demos was a washout, in more ways than one!

Saturday was totally rained out by Hurricane Kyle. We tried to salvage part of the weekend (Sunday), and managed to get off six throws between rain showers. This was absolutely, positively the worst weekend ever for Yankee Siege! We couldn't do anything right. I hate to even post the results, but I have promised to post all results (good or bad) after each weekend of practice.
Of the six throws, four actually fell out of the sling. One went 1200 feet (a line drive), and one mediocre throw went 1650 feet.

We have been practicing with our eight foot aluminum cable-stayed extension and our new steel based arm with 10,300 pounds of counterweight. The new steel arm appears to flex a little more than our old throwing arm. Upon release of the trigger, the throwing arm springs back suddenly, creating a "hop" of the pumpkin and subsequent rolling out of the side of the pouch. (Yankee Siege has never used a trough). We hope that by using a trough we can cure the problem. Next weekend we will be practicing with a trough and our cable-stayed carbon fiber extension. Hopefully no more rainy days!

Steve Seigars, YS

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hope to see you throw a pumpkin or two this weekend. Happy chuckin'