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Mark Stephens puts the finishing touches on the Hokie Hurler, a pumpkin-launching device.
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Mark Stephens works on the Hokie Hurler for the World Punkin Chunkin Championships in Delaware on Halloween. |
BY JONAS BEALS
Most people haven't had the pleasure, but one of the most triumphant sounds has to be the distant smack and splash of an 8-pound pumpkin hitting Accokeek Creek at 150 mph.
Mark and Barbara Stephens of Stafford heard that sound yesterday. It's likely no one could be happier hearing the splash.
They managed a successful test of their homemade Hokie Hurler--a 22-foot-tall pumpkin-throwing trebuchet they will enter in the World Championship Punkin Chunkin in Nassau, Del., this weekend.
Yes, there is a world-championship pumpkin-launching contest. It started in 1986 as a friendly challenge among friends, and has expanded into an annual celebration of recreational engineering that draws thousands.
There are a number of divisions in the competition, including air cannons, catapults and centrifugal launchers. Mr. Stephens was initially attracted to the event by the massive air cannons. He had maxed out the capability of his own potato gun, and was looking to take the next step, vegetable-wise.
He found the monster launchers at the Punkin Chunkin to be almost too good--they shot the pumpkins so fast and so far that they were nearly impossible to see. He was, however, fascinated by the mechanical launchers. The trebuchet was exactly what he was looking for.
A trebuchet, the type of machine Stephens built, is an ancient long-range weapon similar to a catapult. A counterweight swings a long arm in a circular motion, releasing a projectile from a sling. If constructed properly, the trebuchet can have a significant range.
"I fell in love with the catapults and the trebuchets," he said. "People were coming up with these incredible, crazy designs. I'm always tinkering with something, so I was impressed."
That was four years ago. Last year, the Hokie Hurler officially threw a pumpkin 429.26 feet at the Punkin Chunkin. It wasn't a winning throw, but it was the mark of an obsession run amok.
"The name of the game is distance," Mr. Stephens said. "But we were just thrilled that it threw."
"As long as it goes forward, it's a success," his wife added.
Not satisfied with the result, Mr. Stephens went back to the drawing board. With the help of some sophisticated design software and a revolutionary idea from a young Massachusetts Institute of Technology student, he rebuilt the trebuchet as a "whipper." The idea is the same, but an additional swinging arm increases the leverage, and potential projectile speed. On paper, the new Hokie Hurler can achieve a distance of 1200 feet.
Although he had spent a year conceiving and building the trebuchet, it wasn't until yesterday that he was able to test it for real. On Wednesday, he will dismantle the contraption and move it from his backyard on the banks of the Accokeek.
As he removed various safety devices from the machine, he ran down a laundry list of potential disaster scenarios. It could collapse and implode on itself. It could launch the pumpkin straight up. It could launch the pumpkin backward--which explained the netting set up between the hurler and his neighbor's house. He mentioned a friend who was cut by pumpkin shrapnel after a misfire last year. Still, he was grinning from ear to ear when he picked up the rope attached to the trigger.
"It's stupid, the amount of time I spend on this," he said.
He pulled the rope and sent the big orange gourd on a perfect long-distance flight to the bottom of the creek. Everything worked exactly as he had planned. Unofficially, it was the best throw of the Stephenses' life.
This year, a top-three finish might be within their sights.
"I'm tickled to death," he said. "That was beyond my wildest expectations."
To reach Jonas Beals: 540/368-5036
Email: jbeals@freelancestar.com
