Three time first-place winner Dan (Dano) Quinn won the Stories of the Sea contest yet again last night.

Held at Conor Byrne Pub on Ballard Avenue, the Stories of the Sea contest is part of the Seattle Maritime Festival and challenges story tellers, poets and musicians to tell the funniest, heart-warming, or harrowing tale about life at sea.

Each performer was given a 10 minutes to perform and their performance was based on creativity, presentation, imagery and poetic design. The six guest judges were representatives of the media and the maritime industry.
 
"It's my favorite event of all the Seattle Maritime Festival," said Ken Saunders, Festival coordinator.

The event drew out a decent crowd and musician and fisherman Knut Bell was emcee for the night.

Quinn's winning story was a funny rhyme about two schooner boys getting in all sorts of trouble in Hawaii. Quinn quickly won over the crowd and the judges -- representatives of the maritime industry and local media -- and set the bar high for the contestants to follow.

While Quinn walked away with the $300 first price, the runner up gave him stiff competition. Pat Dixon's story about "the bucket" and bowel movements at sea was an unusual but highly entertaining tale that had the crowd bursting out laughing and screaming "ewww, gross" at the same time. Dixon's ral-life story earned him the $200 second prize.

Judges had a difficult time choosing the third-place winner but finally decided that John Pfaff's a cappella ode to a bottle of booze was the worthy winner.

Charlie Shelton received an honorable mention.

The Maritime Festival Family Fun Day is Saturday, May 14, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and features the world’s largest tugboat races, workboat parade, waterfront chowder cook-off, survival suit races, a boat building competition and a container ship full of family fun.  Activities on Family Fun Day are held at Pier 66 and Bell Harbor Marina.  The full schedule is available at www.SeattlePropellerClub.org.