Hazards

Elise is a non smoking boat. Period.

When you look at it, and because it is such a small confined space, we have some unhealthy little bits of interior designs.

Basically, you are carrying a small power plant with you since you go off the grid.

There are three batteries up forward, roughly where the mast is. Batteries are nasty chemical machines that store electricity. They are an environmental threat if not stored and treated correctly. You'll regret any leak.

You certainly don't want to see them go up in flames...

Right above one of the battery is a gimble stove with a propane gas cylinder. That's also a hazard. Propane releases carbon monoxide when it burns which is a lethal gas which also happens to be a) without odor, b) without color, thus undetectable by human means. That is, unless you have inhaled enough that you are dead.

Right above the other battery and across the alley from the gimble stove is a charge controller which the fuel cell, solar panel, etc... are connected to. If all the panels are there and it is bright daylight, more than 15 amps DC can flow through this controller. In the real world, a few amps through your body and you're a shriveled set of burned skin.

Also, flat current is forbidden in most installation because that is most likely to stop your heart. Alternative current at least has some kind of ups and downs which may at some point coincide with a heart beat and not give you a huge heart attack. Defibrillators are typically needed after your heart has stopped.

Now, clearly, if you carry a stove so you can make hot food and beverages you want to be able to light that stove. So you do carry a bunch of lighter. And if they fail and the gas contained in them is gone, there are a few storm matches which when they first light up look like mini flares.

Speaking of flares, right by where the storm matches are stored, there is a bunch of flares. Highly flammable pieces of equipment, and in fact, the whole point is that they are highly flammable so that they can be highly visible. Elise is a floating pyrotechnic house with hand held flares, smoke flares, parachute flares, etc...These flares are stored in sealed containers and with lighting mechanisms that are designed to prevent accidental set off but they are still a pile of explosives in a box.

Elise also carries, just a few feet away from that pile of explosive an outboard motor that uses regular gas to operate. It has a little gas in its tank as I use it as an emergency tool in the ocean - say there is absolutely no wind and a ship coming and they are not responding to my radio hails. I might need to get out of its way quick and without wind and waves, sails are not very effective power tools. I just want to have to mount the engine, start it and have it go off. Then I can top off the gas. Plenty of time. For the trip, there is also 8 gallons of gas I need to store (on deck actually so they don't leak into the bilge nor have bad fumes in the cabin in the event they leak). On the Bay, I store about a gallon down below...right next to the battery and two feet forward of the pyrotechnic house.

Now, right next to the engine is the fuel cell which burn methanol to produce electricity. This is great when the solar panels don't get solar power for instance because it is way too cloudy, or because it is night time. Yet, say that your batteries are depleted and you need to run the autopilot. Or the batteries would be fine for just navigation lights but definitely light for the autopilot and you really want to get some sleep. This system is super super light (the alternative is a gas generator) and once set up is super easy to operate (it can even turn itself on automatically when needed as it has a sensor line to monitor the charge levels of the batteries that it is charging and a built-in charge controller). It is also highly toxic. You don't want to touch methanol nor breathe methanol and the fuel containers are completely sealed up.
Methanol is also highly flammable so you need a ventilated area ideally -in a boat that also ideally is very watertight...Methanol can ignite even with overheating. And it is stored right where the engine sits which means that I will have to make sure that the engine has had time to cool down before I take it off its mount after use and put it down below...
Fortunately, the methanol will be either stored down below by the fuel cell it is being used and is cooled down by water flowing around the hull, a great place to be or it is stored above deck and if it leaks, the vapor will just dissipate in the atmosphere and won't cause concerns for anyone.

The fuel cell rejects water and CO2 - as well as warm air (perfect for a Hawaii race...) which you want to take away from the methanol. The exhaust for the CO2 is out in the cockpit and there is water that will be taken to the bilge. Clearly water inside a boat is not a good idea when floating around freely. So this does require a bit of pumping. Not a big deal because the quantities are negligible but thought I'd mention it :)

I won't mention the spare batteries like AA or AAA as they sound pretty insignificant compared to the rest.

And then on deck, right next to where the fuel is stored, there is a bunch of solar panels with high current input connected through waterproof connectors to the electrical system. This is the heart of the power of the boat when the fuel cells don't take over temporarily because the batteries are low (and the batteries have been selected to meet the need of the power budget of Elise so the fuel cells should not be firing all night). Any shortcircuit, spark, etc... will be right next to gas :)

So carrying two fire extinguishers sounds fairly pointless frankly :) Elise may not go down in flames but it sure could go up in a beautiful ball of fire.

In any case, this is why I asked a professional to install the fuel cell, a professional to insulate the electrical installation so that corrosion doesn't create short circuits, this is why the batteries and the fuel cells are so well attached that everything else would fall apart on the boat before they moved on inch in any direction. This is why gas will be stored on deck.

It is also why Elise should be a rocket ship as I should be able to run the autopilot (s) 24/7 if I want to, focusing on sleeping and trimming the sails for top performance.