We don’t worry about heavy weather, or hitting debris, but the concept of fire has always scared us. We do everything we can think of in the boat to mitigate the risks, and have yet to experience a problem. But this is still the one thing that really concerns us.

The engine rooms are, of course, fitted with fire suppression gear. There is a manually operated fire dampener in the air intake for the engine room, and this Morse cable controlled fuel shut off valve. The control handle for this, the fire dampener, and the manual trigger on the fire extinguisher are located next to the engine room door.

When the fuel supply valve is closed fuel is cut off to the diesel heater, genset, and main engine.