I don't think I know enough about ships and storms to do that.
How about the Romance contest? Fred the Gormless is trying to attract the beautiful Princess Belinda? I won't bother with exact ability levels or rolls, as I'd only get them wrong and confuse us all. He's trying to increase her "in love with Fred" ability, or at least her "has noticed Fred" ability (it can get renamed later). Starting resistances are in the table of samples.
So, round 1, and Fred tries his best chat-up line at a party, using his "sweet-talk anything female" ability. Sadly he suffers a marginal defeat. So we look up the consequences chart on p270, and note that he takes a -1 to something. On the whole, I think I'd apply it to the skill he just used: he's had a blow to his confidence in that area. You could equally well apply it to her "likes Fred" ability if you felt that way inclined. One option will apply to all opponents but only this ability, the other to just this one opponent but to all aspects of this contest. Your call.
Round 2, he decides to buy her an expensive present. He'll use his wealth plus some abilities relating to taste, and knowing what she likes, plus his "sweet talk" ability as he presents it (yes, the ability that just took a -1). Minor victory! Yay! Take another look at that table, we find that if this had been a minor *defeat*, we'd be dealing with a loss of 10% of the relevant ability. This is victory not defeat, so he takes a +10% to something: probably the relationship he was trying to increase. If he'd had a defeat, we could say his wealth had dropped, or the relationship had.
Round 3, and he's trying to impress her with a Daring Deed, using his "climb" ability (don't ask), augmented by various things including his love for her. Alas, poor Fred fumbles! A major defeat, and he is Injured. In this case we probably go with the idea of physical injury. He's fallen off the roof he was dancing on while playing the violin (look, I said don't ask!) and broken various bones. 50% to ALL physical actions :(
But, Fred may be Gormless, his player is not. The princess comes to visit him as he lies there being nursed back to health, and he plays the "tragic misunderstood hero" card, using his injury as a *positive* augment to his natural charm and ability to lie through his teeth ("I was only up there trying to stop a friend doing anything so stupid, honest!") This time, thanks to some good rolls and expenditure of a HP, he manages a complete victory. Belinda believes every word, and spends the rest of the day peeling grapes for the injured hero.
And at this point Fred's player and the GM probably agree that that's quite enough of that. The end results get written in on the character sheet. Intermediate results generally "heal" before the next contest, the final one (Belinda adores me) does not.
I hope that helps at least a bit? If there's any silly mistakes in there, put it down to either me being a Bear of Little Brain, or the effects of this cold :(
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