Snohomish 2015
Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2015 7:13 pm
I was there for the first half of the Saturday competition. I didn't get all the numbers written down but it was an eventful one.
As before I had the privilege of being with Bob P. and his several machines, including an onager and the orange King Arthur, Mixed Nuts. The latter did nicely as I recall, but we fear the onager has met its end. Due to unprecedented tensioning, part of the frame broke, and while a friend worked valiantly to repair it, it might not be seen again. He had some friends and relatives helping with Mixed Nuts, so I got to relax and watch the others.
The onager was not the only casualty of the day. Logcraft was back, after being absent a couple years or so, and everything was going fine until it made an unusually high throw and its arm snapped like a dry twig. Someone caught this on their camera but I don't know if it will be uploaded. Unfazed, the crew hauled out a tree branch they happened to have handy and after the necessary drilling and so on, fitted this up with the prong assembly and bolted it into place. It looked kind of funny but it worked. When I left, they were shortening it and I suppose someone will provide news of the succeeding throws. Hurray for resourcefulness!
RTB's nifty "Balllisticraft" [not sure of spelling] was there doing its usual awesome job, but neither Squash-o'-fire nor the Gourdinator were visible. The crew of the former say it is just not feasible to maintain, transport and operate any more. I mourn this and TreBarbaric and T-Wrecks, and deplore whatever socioeconomic or other conditions deprive such fine machines of their function.
A 4-H group had a treb which was supposed to be like a King Arthur, with hanger pinned high, but its geometry was that of a 45-degree-cocked HCW. I don't have the stats for its performance. Squash-o'-fire's people had brought a peashooter I mean air cannon, and launched apples and potatoes. Whatever else happened, we got that field fertilized. And the weather was beautiful.
There were some smaller trebs which I did not see in action; someone else can tell of their performance. Sonthi, my desktop FAT, came along for the ride, but I accipurpodentally forgot to bring ammo. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to fill the ground with 1/4" ball-bearings anyway, but some people I showed it to seemed to think it looked nice. I then had to leave due to other obligations, but I had a fine time except for that food-truck being out of meat pies.
I was going to add pix of Logcraft but they were too big, and my photoedit programs are being fractious.
I hope that somewhere online we will find the statistics of each machine's performance. I would say the human beings did a fine job. One final note--if you approach that region from Seattle next year, don't do it on a Friday afternoon. The traffic was unutterable.
As before I had the privilege of being with Bob P. and his several machines, including an onager and the orange King Arthur, Mixed Nuts. The latter did nicely as I recall, but we fear the onager has met its end. Due to unprecedented tensioning, part of the frame broke, and while a friend worked valiantly to repair it, it might not be seen again. He had some friends and relatives helping with Mixed Nuts, so I got to relax and watch the others.
The onager was not the only casualty of the day. Logcraft was back, after being absent a couple years or so, and everything was going fine until it made an unusually high throw and its arm snapped like a dry twig. Someone caught this on their camera but I don't know if it will be uploaded. Unfazed, the crew hauled out a tree branch they happened to have handy and after the necessary drilling and so on, fitted this up with the prong assembly and bolted it into place. It looked kind of funny but it worked. When I left, they were shortening it and I suppose someone will provide news of the succeeding throws. Hurray for resourcefulness!
RTB's nifty "Balllisticraft" [not sure of spelling] was there doing its usual awesome job, but neither Squash-o'-fire nor the Gourdinator were visible. The crew of the former say it is just not feasible to maintain, transport and operate any more. I mourn this and TreBarbaric and T-Wrecks, and deplore whatever socioeconomic or other conditions deprive such fine machines of their function.
A 4-H group had a treb which was supposed to be like a King Arthur, with hanger pinned high, but its geometry was that of a 45-degree-cocked HCW. I don't have the stats for its performance. Squash-o'-fire's people had brought a peashooter I mean air cannon, and launched apples and potatoes. Whatever else happened, we got that field fertilized. And the weather was beautiful.
There were some smaller trebs which I did not see in action; someone else can tell of their performance. Sonthi, my desktop FAT, came along for the ride, but I accipurpodentally forgot to bring ammo. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to fill the ground with 1/4" ball-bearings anyway, but some people I showed it to seemed to think it looked nice. I then had to leave due to other obligations, but I had a fine time except for that food-truck being out of meat pies.
I was going to add pix of Logcraft but they were too big, and my photoedit programs are being fractious.
I hope that somewhere online we will find the statistics of each machine's performance. I would say the human beings did a fine job. One final note--if you approach that region from Seattle next year, don't do it on a Friday afternoon. The traffic was unutterable.
Sounds like you guys are still having fun though!