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| Stapleton Walking Arm Trebuchet |
You would think that last year’s Heavyweight record of 792 feet was safe for several more years, but you would be wrong. The very first throw of the competition went a whopping 861 feet and landed in the bush outside of the field. Jonathan and his son Orion also easily won the Middleweight Open Division with a throw of 462 feet. This unique design was copied by 4 other teams in the competition. Of the remaining competitors, two had floating arm designs, one had a whipper configuration, one had a King Arthur design, and not a single competitor had a traditional trebuchet design. See below for details about each team’s results.
Trebuchet team results:
Lightweight Division (limited to 41” and 20 pounds and age 9 and under, the projectile must be over 3 ounces):
No lightweight trebuchets competed this year. One trebuchet was Lightweight size but we put him into the Middleweight Open category so he could compete.
Middleweight Junior Division (limited to 70” and 100 pounds and age 17 and under, the projectile must weigh over 1 pound):
Place: 1st place, received $100 cash
Team members: Tucker Farnham, Eli Shick, Isaac Blaisdale, Ethan Thompson, Miles O’Brien.
Trebuchet name: Pink Panthers (height=70” weight=100 lb)
Address: Colchester, VT
Best throw: actual = 216 feet, adjusted for height = 370 feet
Notes: High school team from Colchester, first-time contestants.
Middleweight Open Division (limited to 70” and 100 pounds, the projectile must weigh over 1 pound):
Place: 1st place, received $100 cash
Team members: Orion and Jonathan Stapleton
Trebuchet name: Dog Bark Extractor (height=70” weight=100 lb)
Address: Essex, VT
Best throw: actual = 462 feet, adjusted for height = 791 feet
Notes: Orion was a previous record holder in the Middleweight Division with an adjusted throw of 820 feet.
Place: 2nd place, received $50 cash
Team members: Tyler Barnard, Kate Komorowski
Trebuchet name: Just Keep Chuckin’ (height=70” weight=100 lb)
Address: Milton, VT
Best throw: actual = 309 feet, adjusted for height = 529 feet
Notes: The actual throw of 309 was less than Steven McCann’s throw of 327, but Steven’s trebuchet was 18 pounds heavy (118 lb) so when adjusted and scaled came to 441.
Place: 3rd place, received $25 cash
Team members: Steven McCann
Trebuchet name: MAX D 23 (height=70” weight=118 lb)
Address: West Paris, Maine
Best throw: actual = 327 feet, adjusted for height = 441 feet
Notes: Steven and his family are long-time competitors.
Place: 4th place
Team members: Steve McCann and Steven McCann
Trebuchet name: Pumpkin Axe (height=70” weight=103 lb)
Address: West Paris, Maine
Best throw: actual = 252 feet, adjusted for height = 413 feet
Notes: Steve McCann was not able to attend this year due to a social engagement so his dad set up and fired his trebuchet for him.
Place: 5th place
Team members: Michael Porzio, Anthony Stentado, Derek Geno, Tyler McNancy, Whitney McNancy, Gene Torvend
Trebuchet name: Printed Power (height=70’ weight=103 lb)
Address: Roxbury, VT
Best throw: actual = 246 feet, adjusted for height = 403 feet
Notes: Michael challenged his team to design, and 3D print a trebuchet, and compete in 5 days. Their 2 trebuchets looked beautiful and threw successfully.
Place: 6th place
Team members: Roger Duhamel
Trebuchet name: Old Man’s Bucket List (height=40” weight=22 lb)
Address: Milton, VT
Best throw: actual = 126 feet, adjusted for height = 320 feet
Notes: Roger at age 71 is too old to qualify for the Lightweight Division, so we added him to the Middleweight Open Division. His respectable throw of 126 feet scaled up to 320 feet; just enough to bump the event organizer to 7th place.
Place: 7th place
Team members: Dave Jordan
Trebuchet name: Bad Boomer (height=70” weight=109 lb)
Address: Morrisville, VT
Best throw: actual = 205 feet, adjusted for height = 310 feet
Notes: This trebuchet was made by the organizer of the event and author of this summary document. After 14 years of competing, I should have no problem getting a trebuchet to fire correctly. Unfortunately, that is not the case; at least it went forward this year, last year it went backward or straight up in the air.
Heavyweight Division (limited to 120” and 500 pounds, the projectile must weigh over 5 pounds):
Place: 1st place, received $100 cash
Team members: Jonathan Stapleton
Trebuchet name: Controlled Chaos (height=120” weight=500 lb)
Address: Essex, VT
Best throw: actual = 861 feet, adjusted for height = 861 feet
Notes: Jonathan was the previous record holder with 792 feet and broke his own record by 69 feet! I believe his design is the best in the world. No other design can throw a 5-pound pumpkin that far with a 10-foot-tall trebuchet that weighs only 500 pounds (total).
Place: 2nd place, received $50 cash
Team members: Nicolas Helms, Roderick Owens, Justice Holden, Bruce Penfield
Trebuchet name: Weapons of Medieval Destruction (height=120” weight=500 lb)
Address: Newport, VT
Best throw: actual = 315 feet, adjusted for height = 315 feet
Notes: Nick has been coming to this event for 12 years. He pulled his trebuchet out of the barn the day before the event and managed to get it to fire successfully! That is not an easy task to do.
Best Design:
Each year the winners of the Lightweight, Middleweight Junior, Middleweight Open, and Heavyweight divisions compete against each other for the title of Best Design. This is awarded to the trebuchet that throws the farthest for its height. The Lightweights are scaled up by the ratio of the heavyweight’s height divided by their height: 120” / 41” = 2.93. The Middleweights are scaled up by 120” / 70” = 1.71. The Heavyweights are not scaled at all since they are already 120” tall.
The winner of the Best Design goes to Jonathan Stapleton with a throw of 861 feet. He gets an extra $100 cash.
Throw for Show:
Place: 1st place
Team members: Steve Taylor, Zach Taylor, Alex Taylor, John Taylor
Onager (catapult) name: Chunker T
Address: Upton, MA
Best throw: actual = 693 feet
Notes: This team built a torsion catapult (I believe it is called an onager) which gets its power from the arm trapped inside a massive rope twisted up and then released. This was a weapon used back in the Roman days. I noticed the first few throws didn’t go nearly as far; probably with good reason because this type of machine can easily break with the amount of force generated. They must have cranked that rope up something fierce because their last throw was a line drive that came out like a cannon.
Chili Cook-Off Contest:
There were 9 entries in the chili cookoff. Attendees paid $5 to taste their choice of 5 chili and then voted for their best chili using a number code.
- First place and $100 cash went to #8 made by Evan Wisell.
- Second place and $50 cash went to #7 made by Carter Peck.
- Tied for third place and #25 cash went to #6 Deb’s Place. Also tied for third place and $25 cash went to #4 Rene Proteau.
The head of Green Mountain Volleyball, Bill Orleans promoted, ran, and competed in a volleyball tournament with eleven teams during the festival gathering the best players in Vermont and New York.
- First place went to: Taj Schottland, Lucy Drummond, Josh Bourdeau, and Bin.
- Second place went to: Dave Rapuano, Max Rooney, Charlie Beckerle, and Josh Nelson.
For the second year in a row, Kelly Carrick brought Dolores, her well-behaved 30-pound tortoise to enjoy the festival. And once again, Dolores was a crowd favorite! Check out Facebook to see some more pictures of Dolores at the festival.
Giant Robot:
Joshua Nye, the head of Nye Mechworks, again brought his giant robot and demonstrated it at the far corner of the field, out of range of most of the pumpkins. If you missed his demo, check out nyemechworks.com for videos and more information on building your own giant robot from cheap, easily found-parts.
Food trucks:
After three food trucks decided to cancel at the last minute, the remaining four vendors stepped up and worked non-stop to serve the large crowd. Thanks to Melted Cheeserie, Mediterranean Mix, Street Treats Ice Cream Truck, and Jenna’s Promise Roasting Company.
Craft Fair:
New to the event this year was a craft fair. Event attendees enjoyed shopping from 40 craft vendors selling a wide variety of products including pottery, jewelry, honey, clothing, maple products, woodworking, artwork, and much more. One vendor said this event was their most profitable event all year.
Two bands:
John Smyth (singer/songwriter) kicked off the festival with his original music while the teams set up their trebuchets and catapults. Then Kirkland the Band kept the ball rolling with excellent tunes to hurl with all day long.
Business Sponsors:
Thanks to our business sponsors -
Heavyweight: N.A. Manosh Corporation, Smugglers’ Notch Resort.
Middleweight: Coldwell Banker Carlson Real Estate, Commodities Natural Market, Community National Bank, In Company, Leaves of Change Vermont, Piecasso Family Pizzeria, Seldom Scene Interiors, 10 Railroad Street, The Blue Donkey, Union Bank.
Lightweight: Bourne’s Energy, BunyaBunya, Casella Waste Systems, Cork Restaurant, and Natural Wine Shop, Donald P. Blake Jr. Inc., Edward Jones – Caren Merson, Financial Advisor, Manufacturing Solutions, Inc., Nichols and Associates, P.C., Points North Physical Therapy, The Country Store on Main, The Melted Cheesiere, The Stowe UPS Store, Trombley and Day Group.
Volunteers:
This event would not be possible without the help of our volunteers. 50 volunteers helped to make this event a reality. Volunteers assisted with everything from setting up tents to cleaning up, parking cars, cleaning bathrooms, collecting entrance fees, staffing the kids’ activities, measuring chuckin’ distances, and more. A special thank you to our announcer, Sean Morrissey, and to the youth volunteers from Peoples Academy and Stowe HS and their coach Sampson Avery.
Please contact me with any suggestions for next year's festival or corrections to this document. Djordan@gmavt.net
We look forward to the next festival, tentatively on Sept. 29th, 2024 at the Mayo Field in Stowe. Check the blog when it gets close because we don’t always get the Sunday we ask for.
Dave Jordan
Festival organizer
