KITTERY (AP) – A Vermont man took home the top prize in a lobster-eating contest by devouring 19 of the crustaceans in 35 minutes.

Barry “Tink” Giddings of Chester, Vt., won the Weathervane Seafood Restaurant’s third annual lobster-eating competition.

As the newly crowned Lobster Maniac of the year, Giddings, 50, won a trip aboard a working lobster boat out of Kittery and up to 100 pounds of the day’s catch. He said the only previous speed-eating experience he had was when he won a watermelon-eating contest when he was 8.

“When it comes to eating lobsters, I knew I was a winner,” Giddings said Saturday as he loosened his belt after the contest.

Thirteen contestants participated in this year’s contest after qualifying at preliminary lobster-eating events. Giddings qualified at the Weathervane restaurant in Rutland, Vt. The rules required that the tail, both claws and knuckle meat of every lobster be eaten to be included in the total count.

“That’s my husband,” Giddings’ wife, Linda, cried out when the announcer proclaimed Giddings as the leader with only minutes to go.

Carolyn Cope, 22, of Westford, Mass., was the only woman in the event. A recent University of New Hampshire graduate, she ate 15 lobsters to come in third.

“I don’t know what possessed me to do this,” said Cope, who said that she had eaten lobster only once previously when she qualified for the finals.

Cope vowed to return next year.

“But I don’t think I’ll be eating much lobster before then,” she said.

AP-ES-11-08-04 1552EST