(From left) Steve Kramer, Brandon Krauch, Scott Wakeman and Trevor Blue of TreBarbaric with The Machine in the background celebrate their world record-breaking pumpkin pitch Saturday. The seven-member team who live in various communities in eastern Skagit County smashed the former record by 277 feet, setting 1,676 feet as the mark to beat. TreBarbaric held the record last year for 13 days.
Standing 58 1/2 feet tall, The Machine is a trebuchet, a siege engine similar to a catapult. But TreBarbaric’s trebuchet flings pumpkins, rather than stones.
On Saturday, TreBarbaric’s seven men, who hail from their castles in Lyman and Sedro-Woolley, were just one pumpkin pitch away from their mission: Take back the world record.
After their stick pony sally, the men got down to the serious business of pitching pumpkins. After the words “fire in the hole” and the warning blast of a handheld air siren, Frank pulled the pin holding his wooden war engine in check.
With a whoosh of wind and whorl of wood, The Machine flung a white pumpkin high above the grass field of Skagit River Park in southeast Burlington....
The tallest of the smaller trebuchets stood about 18 feet. The teams included a group of junior high boys working with one of their fathers, engineers from Boeing, machinists and auto mechanics.
“We have a nice cross between engineers and rednecks,” said Kevin Orcutt, a member of team Gourdinator.
I wish I could have seen this. I can picture the headline I'd have used:
The Great Pumpkin: No More Mister Nice Gourd!
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