Results of the 10th annual Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin Festival

Results of the 10th annual Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin' Festival (Sept. 30, 2018):

We had a beautiful day at the Stoweflake Resort and Spa for the 10th annual Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin Festival with 16 trebuchet teams competing and one spring-loaded catapult in the “throw for show” category. We also had 6 teams competing in the Chili Cookoff, two bands playing, and plenty of free kid activities like face-painting and tic-tac-toe. All the money raised went towards the Clarina Howard Nichols Center which aims to prevent domestic and sexual violence. This was the Clarina Howard Center’s first time running the event and they did an excellent job.

Father/Son sweep!

Two years ago we had a Father/Son sweep when Dave Jordan won the Grand Champion Best Design with a record-breaking throw of 689 feet and his dad, Don Jordan won the hyper-competitive Middleweight Open Division. This year, Jonathan Stapleton’s “walking arm” trebuchet threw a record-breaking 700 feet (we still haven’t found the pumpkin yet) and his son Orion, threw an ever more amazing 780 feet (scaled up) in the Lightweight division (also a new record). This is the first time in the history of the festival that a Lightweight competitor won the Grand Prize. Both competitors used a unique design which is described as a stick falling over with a huge counterweight on top of the stick. When the “stick” falls about halfway down, it lands on the triangular frame which causes the other end of the stick to violently jerk upwards. The pumpkin starts UNDER the stick in the sling and when the stick jerks up the pumpkin is slung like a soccer player doing a flip before a throw in.

Results:

All distances are scaled up to what they would throw if they were 10 feet tall (the Heavyweight max height). If any of the trebuchets are over-height or overweight, there is a penalty proportional to the amount they are over. For example, if a trebuchet is 5% overweight or over-height, they are penalized roughly 5% to make it fair for all the competitors.

Lightweight Division: Limited to kids 10 and under, trebuchet must be under 41” and 20 pounds, they throw a gourd that weighs at least 3 ounces:

1. First place: Demolisher, Orion Stapleton, 266 feet, scaled up to 780 feet ($100 cash and first place Lightweight trophy) 
2. Second place: Elephant 1, Theresa, 86 feet, scaled up to 251 feet (second place Lightweight trophy) 
3. Third place: Draft 1, Gwendolyn Johnson, 96 feet, scaled up to 212 feet (penalty for over-height or overweight) (third place Lightweight trophy) 
4. Fourth place: Elephant 2, Theresa, 69 feet, scaled up to 202 feet 
5. Fifth place: Kitty, Theresa, 46 feet, scaled up to 135 feet

Middleweight Junior Division: Limited to kids 17 and under, trebuchet must be under 70” and 100 pounds, they throw a pumpkin that weighs at least 1 pound:

1. First place: Girls Rock, Tom Knight, 199 feet, scaled up to 341 feet ($50 cash and first place Middleweight Junior trophy) 
2. Second place: Max D 23, Steven McCann, 174 feet, scaled up to 299 feet (second place Middleweight Junior trophy) 
3. Third place: Tamed Lightning, Ethan Garrison, 168 feet, scaled up to 183 feet (penalty for overheight or overweight) (third place Middleweight Junior trophy) 

Middleweight Open Division: Open to all ages, trebuchet must be under 70” and 100 pounds, they throw a pumpkin that weighs at least 1 pound:

1. First place: Max D 23, Steven McCann, 172 feet, scaled up to 295 feet ($50 cash and first place Middleweight Open trophy) 
2. Second place: Team Jordan, Don Jordan, 90 feet, scaled up to 154 feet (second place Middleweight Open trophy) 
3. Third place: Welands Sword, Barclay Johnson, 80 feet, scaled up to 132 feet (third place Middleweight Open trophy)

Heavyweight Division: Open to all ages, trebuchet must be under 10 feet and 500 pounds, they throw a pumpkin that weighs at least 5 pounds:

1. First place: Controlled Chaos, Jonathan Stapleton, 700 feet, scaled to 700 feet (new world record in the heavyweight division) ($50 cash and first place Heavyweight trophy)
2. Second place: Weapons of Medieval Destruction, Nick Helms, 381 feet, scaled up to 293 (penalty for overheight or overweight) (second place Heavyweight trophy)
3. Third place: Yankee Light, Kathy Sieger, 69 feet, scaled to 63 feet (penalty for overheight or overweight) (third place Heavyweight trophy)
4. Fourth place: Redneck Wreckers, Ryan Brown, 43 feet, scaled up to 43 feet
5. Fifth place: Boomer, Dave Jordan, 0 feet, scaled up to 0 feet

Grand Champion Best Design: Demolisher, Orion Stapleton, 266 feet, scaled up to 780 feet (a new world record in the competition and lightweight division)

Throw for show category:
We allow other types of catapults (as long as they are safe) and Xander brought his spring-loaded catapult and restricted his springs to throw within the field for our spectator’s enjoyment and safety. Thanks Xander!

Chili Cookoff results:

We had six competitors in the chili cookoff with the spectators voting with their stomachs. Thanks to Deb’s Place for volunteering to run the cookoff.

1. First prize: Sweet Kicken Chicken Chili, $100 cash and first place trophy
2. Second prize: Deb’s Place, $50 cash and second place trophy
3. Third prize: Sunset Grill, $25 cash and third place trophy 

Music:
John Smyth played his original music while the competitors set up and then House Dunn (Mike Dunn, Isabela Dunn and Jocelyn Dunn) took over and rocked the festival until the end. House Dunn also provided the sound system for the festival so our Master of Ceremonies could be heard throughout the field.

Thanks to our sponsors:
A big thanks to our main sponsor, the Stoweflake Mountain Resort and Spa for letting us use their beautiful event field for free. Thanks to the other sponsors:

Heavyweight category:

• North Country Federal Credit Union 

Middleweight category:

• Casella
• Community National Bank
• Union Bank 

Lightweight category:

• MSI Group
• Donald Blake Junior, Inc.
• Community Health Services of Lamoille Valley
• Edward Jones
• Stowe UPS store
• Alchemist
• Stowe Soaring
• Umiak
• Stowe Motel
• Deb’s Place
• PP&D Brochure Distribution

Volunteers:

Thanks to our Master of Ceremonies, Bruce Wallace and his family who has come up the last 8 years from Connecticut; John Prittie who also came up from Connecticut to help run things, spot pumpkins and set up safety lines, Tom Wachtler and Nikki Williams for doing the record keeping and registration; Bob Gross for weighing and measuring the trebuchets; Dan McLaughlin for helping transport, setup and break down the music tent; Richard Spreda for repairing Don Jordan’s trebuchet so he could compete; Kevin and Philana Armstrong for preparing to run the cornhole tournament, even though it was cancelled.

And a special thanks to Becky Gonyea the executive director of the Clarina Howard Nichols Center for helping run, plan and execute the event with the help of her twenty volunteers. They were responsible for parking, collecting money, selling T-shirts, providing free kid events and probably a lot of other things that I was not aware of.

We look forward to the next festival planned for September 29, 2019!

Dave Jordan
Festival organizer
161 Henway Road
Morrisville, VT 05661

Let's Get Ready to Hurl - Trebuchets On Your Mark

It is now less than 24 hours to go until our 10th Annual Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin' Festival kicks off Sunday, Sept. 30th, at Stoweflake Mountain Resort (11am - 4pm).

Just a reminder now of how much work goes into building a quality trebuchet. Here is a high level trebuchet build in four videos by tech Youtuber Tom Stanton (124,782 subscribers) that was posted over on the hackaday.com website, enjoy:

Trebucheting Tennis Balls at 124 MPH

A trebuchet is one of the older machines of war. It’s basically a sling on a frame, with a weight that you can lift up high and which pulls the sling arm over on release. Making one opens up the doors to backyard mayhem, but optimizing one opens up the wonders of physics.

[Tom Stanton] covers just about everything you need to know about trebuchet building in his four-part video series. Indeed, he sums it up in video two: you’ve got some potential energy in the weight, and you want to transfer as much of that as possible to the ball. This implies that the optimal path for the weight would be straight down, but then there’s the axle in the way. The rest, as they say, is mechanical engineering...

Video three was the most interesting... [Tom] already had some strange arm design that intends to get the weight partially around the axle, but he’s still getting low efficiencies, so he builds a trebuchet on wheels — the classic solution. Along the way, he takes a ton of measurements with Physlets Tracker, which does video analysis to extract physical measurements. That tip alone is worth the price of admission, but when the ball tops out at 124 mph, you gotta cheer.

In video four, [Tom] plays around with the weight of the projectile and discovers that he’s putting spin on his tennis ball, making it curve in flight. Who knew? 

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A picture of a War Machine getting loaded up to come to our 10th Annual Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin' Festival:

Countdown to 10th Annual Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin' Festival

Only 5 days to our 10th Annual Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin' Festival on Sunday, September 30th, at Stoweflake Mountain Resort (11am - 4pm).

Hope everyone is enjoying the start of the fall season. We are ready to hurl some pumpkins. However, some last minute testing, fine tuning, and yes, repairing of the pumpkin chuckin' trebuchets is probably in order. Here's one trebuchet that had a serious misfire during testing that will require some major patching up.

Hope your pumpkin hurling machine is faring better.

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By the way, here's a nice write-up of the festival:

Natalie Clunan / OnlyInOurState.com:

If You Attend One Pumpkin Festival In Vermont This Fall Make It This One -- Autumn is brimming with exciting activities. Apple picking, trick or treating, and leaf peeping are just a few ways to celebrate the season. But if you are looking for something a bit more out of the ordinary, this Vermont pumpkin festival has you covered. For an afternoon full of exciting fall fun, take in the Pumpkin Chuckin’ Festival in Stowe...

10th Annual Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin' Festival Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact Person: Dave Jordan

Charity Name: Clarina Howard Nichols Center, Morrisville, Vermont

Phone: 603-630-4800

E-mail: Djordan@gmavt.net

Website: VTPumpkinChuckin.blogspot.com 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/VermontPumpkin/

10th Annual Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin’ Festival

Stoweflake Mountain Resort & Spa to Host 2018 Festival

Proceeds of September 30th event to benefit Clarina Howard Nichols Center

Stowe, Vermont, Aug. 19, 2018 – This year marks 10 years of the Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin’ (VTPC) Festival. This festival celebrates the sport of “chuckin’” pumpkins, for distance, using a do-it-yourself constructed trebuchet or gravity-powered catapult. Festival founder, Dave Jordan, describes the event as a cross between a Soap Box Derby (amateur building/engineering) and a shot put contest (throwing for distance). The event is a great opportunity for kids and adults of all ages to build something with their hands and engage in some family friendly competition. Records have been broken almost every year; the current record is 689 feet! Cash, prizes, trophies and bragging rights are awarded to 3 best teams in each of 4 divisions as well as the 3 best chilis and 3 best cornhole teams.

The VTPC Festival is one-day event and has grown every year. This event is sponsored by the Stoweflake Resort and Spa and many other local sponsors. The event benefits the Clarina Howard Nichols Center. Founded in 1981, the Center works to end domestic and sexual violence in Lamoille County.

Mark your calendar for Sunday, September 30th, 2018. The Festival runs from 11am to 4pm and features three rounds of competitive pumpkin chuckin’ at 12:30pm, 1:30pm and 2:30pm with awards shortly after the last round. No dogs or outside food or beverage are allowed at the event. Food, beer and wine will be sold by Stoweflake.

Along with the pumpkin chuckin’ contest there will be music, a chili cook-off, cornhole tournament and kids activities; all creating an enjoyable fall day. Music for this year's festival will be provided by two bands; House Dunn and John Smyth. No preregistration is required for the trebuchet contest, chili cookoff or cornhole tournament. Plenty of time to build a fine trebuchet, prepare your chili or practice your cornhole skills.

It costs $10 to enter the festival whether you are a spectator or trebuchet competitor; an extra $10/person to enter the cornhole tournament; the chili cookoff is totally free, but you must make 2 gallons of your finest chili. Parking is free.

INFO: Specifications, rules, and entry information can be found on the festival's website at www.VTPumpkinChuckin.blogspot.com or contact the festival organizer Dave Jordan, Djordan@GMAVT.net. 

Building a better trebuchet / Cornhole Anyone?

So we are now only 41 days away from this year's 10th Annual Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin' Festival on Sunday, September 30, 2018, at Stoweflake Mountain Resort, Stowe, Vermont.

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New truss-based throwing arm for Boomer Trebuchet

One of the key engineering decisions regarding building a trebuchet for the Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin' competition is now much weigh to allocate to the throwing arm, versus the counter-weight.

If you over engineer your arm, and give it too much weight, you will be sacrificing weight that could be used on the counter-weight to give you more force in the thrown. Throw force is proportional to the weight of the counter-weight and the distance that it is dropping.

Here above is a picture from Dave Jordan's newly designed heavyweight trebuchet throwing arm (heavyweights have a maximum weight limit of 500 lbs). Dave is cutting down the weight of the throwing arm by building it more like a truss bridge. A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements forming triangular units. The connected elements (typically straight) may be stressed from tension, compression, or sometimes both in response to dynamic loads.

By building a truss trebuchet arm, the goal is to make the arm as light as possible without failing. Dave is running tests to see at what force the arm fails, he then adds back just a little more strength to his truss arm so that it won't fail under his projected throw force.

Understanding the math behind bearing loads on a truss structure is a core skill for any engineering student.

Example of engineering truss force diagram for a bridge

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Cornhole Anyone?

This year along with the Pumpkin Chuckin', Chili Cook-off contest, live music, food, etc.we are also planning on having a doubles Cornhole Tournament. We like the idea of adding another form of throwing organic farm produce through the air to our festival. More info will be provide shortly about the tournament. We are in the process of getting a tournament director on board.

Cornhole: throwing farm produce for pleasure

One of the fun things will be coming up with a good name for your doubles cornhole team. Some of our favorites: Men of the Husk, Boss of the Toss, or Driving Miss Maizey.

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Reminder:

All proceeds from the 10th Annual Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin' Festival will go to benefit the non-profit Clarina Howard Nichols Center.

Clarina Howard Nichols Center

Founded in 1981, the Clarina Howard Nichols Center works to end domestic and sexual violence in Lamoille County. Clarina provides advocacy programs, emergency shelter, support and direct services to survivors of domestic and sexual violence as well as community outreach programs to affect social change.

You are not alone! Call our Free and Confidential 24 hour hotline (802) 888-5256

Results of 9th Annual Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin' Festival (Sept. 24, 2017)

We had a heatwave at the Stoweflake Resort and Spa for the Ninth Annual Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin Festival with 11 teams competing in the chuck, 1 throw for show, 5 teams in the Chili Cook-Off, 43 volunteers and over 1300 spectators enjoying the chuckin', chili, beer, wine, food, raffles, two bands, face-painting, balloon animals, games and volleyball. Over $5,000 was raised for the Lamoille Restorative Center (Hyde Park) whose staff and volunteers did an amazing job running the festival. LRC is doing great work and it was a pleasure to work with them.

Moosilauke Hurlers sweep the event!

The Chamberlain brothers from New Hampshire have been coming to the festival for six years, arriving early with their trailer of two trebuchets in the middleweight open division. This year Ray Chamberlain won the Middleweight Open division *and* overall Best Design by throwing 326 feet. His brother Ed was slightly behind at 276 feet and way ahead of the rest of the field.

Results of the trebuchet contest:

Lightweight Division (age 10 and under, trebuchet limited to 20 lbs. and 41”)

• 1st place trophy plus $50 cash: Steven Mccann from VT (Max D.23)
• 2nd place trophy: Theresa Tipper from VT (Elephant)
• 3rd place trophy: Owen Christman from VT (Extreme Pie Face Two)
• 4th place: Barclay Johnson from VT (Wheland Sword)
• 5th place: Theresa Tipper from VT (Kitty)

Middleweight Junior Division (age 17 and under, trebuchet limited to 100 lbs. and 70”)

• 1st place trophy plus $50 cash: Keiser Nesbitt from VT (Elastic X)

Middleweight Open Division: (any age, trebuchet limited to 100 lbs. and 70”)

• 1st place trophy plus $50 cash: Ray Chamberlain from NH (Moosilauke Hurlers)
• 2nd place trophy: Ed Chamberlin from NH (Ooh-Rah)
• 3rd place trophy: John Christman from VT (Extreme Pie Face)
• 4th place: Nick Helms from VT (Weapons of Medieval Destruction) 

Heavyweight Division: (any age, trebuchet limited to 500 lbs. and 120”)

• 1st place trophy plus $50 cash: Troop 271

Grand Prize Best Design trophy plus $50 cash: Ray Chamberlain (Moosilauke Hurlers)

Scaling, height, weight limitations and penalties:

I often get asked why the scaling, height and weight limitations and penalties are so complicated. The answer is, they need to be that complicated to make it fair for all competitors. If a trebuchet design is made twice as tall, it will throw twice as far. This allows us to directly compare the design of a lightweight, middleweight and heavyweight by scaling up the smaller trebuchets so they compete on equal footing with the heavyweights. By comparing their relative heights, the magic number is roughly 2.9 for the lightweight and 1.7 for the middleweights. This is how we select the Best Design Grand Prize. The four winners of each division are scaled up to Heavyweight size. The Lightweight winner is scaled up by 2.9, both Middlweight winners are scaled up by 1.71 and the Heavyweight winner is not scaled. The best “scaled” distance wins the Grand Prize. In nine years, it has gone to the Heavyweights 3 times and to the Middlweight Open 6 times.

A trebuchet must be powered only by gravity, so by limiting the height and weight, we ensure each competitor starts with the same amount of energy. If they choose to make their frame very light, they can use more weight in the counterweight, at the risk of breaking something. It takes more energy to throw a heavier pumpkin, so the pumpkins must be at, or over, the specified weight to be legal.

If a trebuchet is over-height or over-weight, we don't kick them out of the festival; we allow them to compete with a penalty roughly proportional to how much they are out of spec. The penalty isn't really so much a penalty as a proportional offset to correct for the weight or height advantage beyond the “legal” limits.

The following summary of each division will show the adjusted distance, after scaling up including any penalty. If you want the actual distance, just divide by the appropriate scaling.

Summary of all competitors (all distances adjusted and scaled up to Heavyweight)

Lightweight Division: (scaling 2.9268)

• 1st place: Steven Mccann, 276 feet
• 2nd place: Theresa Tipper, 228 feet
• 3rd place: Owen Christman, 218 feet
• 4th place: Barclay Johnson, 185 feet
• 5th place: Theresa Tipper, 172 feet

Middleweight Junior Division: (scaling 1.7142)

• 1st place: Keiser Nesbitt, 282 feet

Middleweight Open Division: (scaling 1.7142

• 1st place: Ray Chamberlain, 509 feet
• 2nd place: Ed Chamberlin, 456 feet
• 3rd place: John Christman, 330 feet
• 4th place: Nick Helms, 63 feet

Heavyweight Division: (no scaling)

• 1st place: Troop 271, 83 feet

Throw for show:

• Dave Jordan, 185 feet

Chili Cook-Off champions:

The chili cook-off was a great success with three competitors and running out of chili before the end of the festival. Thanks for Keith Thompson running the show. In the feel-good hit of the festival, all of the winners donated their cash prize back to the Lamoille Restorative Center, in Hyde Park, Vermont. Here are the winners:

• 1st place certificate and $100 cash: Keith Thompson (Thompson's Flour Shop)
• 2nd place certificate and $50 cash: Bobbi Blanchard-Lewis (LRC)
• 3rd place certificate and $25 cash: Jennifer Isabell (El Toro)

A big thank you to all our chili cook-off competitors.

A special thanks to our main sponsor, Stoweflake Mountain Resort and Spa for letting us use their beautiful field for free, as well as all the other sponsors:

• North Country Federal Credit Union
• Alpine Snowguards
• The Alchemist
• H.A. Manosh
• Community National Bank
• Smugglers Notch Resort
• Stowe Country Club
• Stowe Beverage
• Union Bank
• People's United Bank
• MSI
• El Toro
• Thompson's Flour Shop
• Laraway Youth and Family Services
• The UPS Store - Stowe
• Donald Blake Jr, Inc.
• Ideltyme
• Power Play Sports
• Turtle Fur
  
• Elmore Lakeview Farmstead
• Stowe Motel
• Stowe Soaring
• PP&D

Special thanks to Bruce Wallace and his family for being the Master of Ceremonies and helping for the last 7 years, to Nick Pizzutti and Alyssa Gagne for registration and calculating the winners, to Gunner McCain for quick, cheery distance readings, to Mike Dunn for excellent sound system and House Dunn and John Smyth for great music, to Bob Gross and Russell Baum for helping out with safety and setup for the last 9 years.

We look forward to the next festival, Sept. 30th, 2018 at the Stoweflake.

Dave Jordan
Festival organizer
161 Henway Road
Morrisville, VT 05661