The torsion division is still small, with four machines entering. Everyone had something new to share.

Chucky I and II

To our left, Chucky II returned. With a new arm, less rope in his bundle, and a better torsion beam, he improved his distances over last year. You can see Mista Ballista in the background in this image.

This year they also changed their winch. The main winch body is the same as last year, however an improved gear-down system lets them use a simple drill as the power source. While it certainly took a lot of time to pull the arm down, it took much less human effort than last year.

Unfortunately, while pulling down their last shot, the extra twist they put into their bundle was enough to snap their arm into three pieces. That effectively ended their adventures for that particular day.

In this picture taken by Steve Wittiam, you can see the break, and the fibreglass that had once tried feebly to hold the arm together. Despite this, they captured 2nd place with a chunk of 846 feet.

Chucky II was accompanied by Chucky I as well. This smaller onager was previously seen throwing cabbage, and had a hard time flinging pumpkins over 8 lbs in weight

Picture by Stephen Whittam.

Onager and Team Carbo

The mighty Onager was there as well. Changes here were a little more subtle. Well, except for the new winch and motor mount that is.

It certainly took a bit of study before I figured out what all those chains and do-dads were supposed to do.

But it does seem to work. Bob Carbo was dressed in his finest protective gear for his launches, which got him first place in the Torsion division with a 1341ft chunk.

Picture by Stephen Whittam.

Bob couldn't resist competing with the littlest torsion machine on the line, Minime. It had a bit of trouble with the 8 lb pumpkins. It liked flinging the little gourds though.

Picture by Stephen Whittam.

Scores

The writing was on the wall when the chunk wound down. Mista Ballista was the only torsion machine to successfully chunk all three times! Huzzah!

Picture by Stephen Whittam.

Additional Pages for Punkin Chunk 2003
Punkin Chunk 2003	The 2003 World Championship Punkin Chunk was a great year for Team Tormentum, and Mista Ballista, our competition Pumpkin throwing machine. After last year's tragic defeat at the hands equipment failure, our goals were simple, Shoot a pumpkin intact, and forward. In this, we succeeded, and the machine exceeded our expectations.
Punkin Chunk 2003: Mista Ballista's Story	Operating Mista Ballista this year was exciting beyond our expectations. Some things worked great. Some things broke, and pumpkins flew!
Punkin Chunk 2003: The Torsion Machines	The torsion division is still small, with four machines entering. Everyone had something new to share.
Punkin Chunk 2003: Other Catapults	There were 75 machines at this years chunk, and lots of nifty catapults were there to impress. We were pretty busy trying to get Mista Ballista to work right, so we don't have many pictures of cannons.