The Clan MacDude
Proudly Presents
The 1 st Annual
Siege Engine Competition

Leave it to Larry...

It started as a simple question: can you fling a can of Fizzbeer half a mile or more? According to some quick and dirty (back-of-the-napkin style) calculations, our dear Larry (Vas MacDeferens) MacDude has concluded that, at least in theory, it can be done.

How did Larry's quick calculations and sketch of a slingshot the size of a Buick Roadmaster turn into a competition?

We're glad you asked that.

The Clan has a surprising number of Engineering types and other loonies in its midst. Now, most of us Engineering types ran into all sorts of bizare competitions when we were in school. Jumping robots, streamlined bicycles, popsicle stick structures, that sort of thing. Now it's time for some serious competition.

The challenge:

Build a siege engine capable of lofting a standard issue can of Fizzbeer (12 oz aluminum can of cheap beer) one half mile. The competition is primarily for distance - longest shot wins. However, like all MacDude events, Style counts for a lot. Ties go to the coolest Siege Engine.

The limits:

Siege engines must be safe and cheap. Safe, in this respect, is for the people operating the engine and the spectators. Downrange, well, who cares? Cheap implies a cost under $500 for a TEAM entry.

Now, there are a LOT of way to build a Siege Engine, so we're actually going to break them into three classes for the competition. Just because people have threatened to bring rocket launchers and smll bore howitzers, one of the three classes is "Unlimited" which tosses out the $500 limit, but they still have to be safe!

The scope:

We intend for this to be a Team competition. To that end, teams can come from academic institutions, companies, Cub Scout troops, hostile foreign governments, and the military. (Sorry, guys, your 105mm is going to end up in the Unlimited class whether you want it to or not...)

The story so far:

We've been thinking about this project for a long time now. While we still haven't found a venue, we've got several teams and individuals building launchers, and the rules are almost finished. Will the competition take place in 1997? We sure hope so. We still need to find a place where we can fling beer cans across the country side with impunity, and w still need to send invitations to all the Engineering schools - but it's gonna happen!

The Rules:

After several (mostly pointless) discussions, we can come up with a set of quasi-official rules for the Competition. If'you're a real die-hard who still thinks this is a good idea, use this link to the Table of Contents for the complete rules. These rules are pretty close to final, but, like everything else, they are subject to change with almost no notice.

Still interested? Send email to our Rangemaster for more information. At some point, we will have a form here (actually, we'll probably put it on the rules page...) for team submissions, but until then just send us some mail and we'll get back to you as soon as we can....

Links to other Siege Engine related stuff...

Bob Simon was kind enough to direct us to several interesting places on the Web with Siege Engine (and Gerbilator) related information. You can check Bob's home page (Actually, this is his Backyard Ballistics page) for some really neat stuff. If you're looking for something a little more serious...