Catapult Competition Time Again

Once again my local Cub Scout Pack is coming upon our annual catapult competition.

Originally this was developed to help us eventual build a bigger fully functioning catapult to be used at our local Orange County Council's Scout-O-Rama.

PVC Teamwork Trebuchet

It was also a way for me to wear my Kilt.  I have few opportunities that seem appropriate to use my kilt and especially my semi-formal Argyll Jacket.  So this annual competition was developed.

In the beginning it was decided to also use this event as a possible recruiting vehicle.  All the teams had to have one current cub scout and someone else (usually ended up being a parent or sibling).

This year there are no restrictions on how many if any have to be on the team.  I've also had some size restrictions to make sure we don't have someone with an over sized catapult and win the distance portion hands down.  However, when I put :

"wLauncher(s)  MUST  be 1 ½ cubic feet max"   I got an interesting result.  One

astute father got me on the cubic feet term.  He got me on the no more

then 1 1/2 foot in the height/width/length (the original idea).  In reality he

was a little longer in one area then I expected.  But he was 1 1/2 foot

cubic since the others were shortened accordingly.   So this year it is

very clear the only restriction is the length of 1 foot minimum.

I also decided to have them include a certain part supplied by me.  I
gave no specification on how to use the part and even that it has to be an intricate part of the catapult.  For all I care it can be just tied or glued to the side.


It shall be fun how the "rules" are interpreted.  I'm always thrown for a curve but, it is not all that bad.   


To make things fair in some respects we end up doing two parts to our competition.  One is for distance.  The highly powerful engines are great at this part.  Our first year we had one that was flinging to the far side of the hall (well over 30 feet) and hitting the wall.  He was way ahead of everyone by points since most people were not even getting close to his throwing distance.   However, as we no if you have an overly powerful engine how in the heck are you going to actually hit the castle wall you need to demolish?


So that is why we also put in as our second part a piece on accuracy.  What this means is the way you get more points is by hitting a target, landing a certain distance, or making  your shot do something specific.  The first year due to some high point targets that had randomly been place on the tables we had a near upset.  One of the weaker but, more controlled engines hit on high point target.  It may have been a near fluke, coincidence or some good planning but, with that point addition they sat within 50 points of the leader.  Now the leader was the wall hitting high powered uncontrollable engine.  But, it helped to prove a point.   You need more then just power to be successful.  However, due to the over powering of the distance point system the power guy still won.

Last I felt like I had time and decide to get out some of my old Playmobil toys and build a Tower House and included some of the figures.  I made this for the accuracy portion of the event.  I even included some invading viking like my ancestors would have had to deal with.  You lost points if you hit them instead of the building.  You also got more points if you hit the defenders or the high tower.
This proved to be very challenging as few if any hit the tower house.  One team lost points due to hitting their attacking squad.




So what benefits has this competition provided to our Pack.

1. Chance for Webelos to complete a requirement for the Engineer Activity Badge
2. Chance for boys to work with their adult partner (even had a surrogate father get involved)
3. Helps to teach the principles of planning and strategies
4. Helps to show how one can be a winner at one thing and no another (IE. accuracy not distance; visa versa)
5. Helps to have a goal to strive for.
6. Helps learning to follow the rules.
7. Winners and losers (To many school don't want to have any losers.  Life is not that way!  We all have set backs)
8. What boy would not want to build his own catapult?

 And one last note - Stay tuned for updates about the Racing4research event associated with 24 Hours of Daytona coming up at the end of the month.

Buaidh - NO - Bas