I had the very unpleasant experience of an engine electrical 'fire' due to a failure of my voltage regulator. I was in the middle of Lake Huron with 30 knot winds motor sailing in high seas and smoke started pouring out of my engine room vent. We shut down everything electric and motored on as we had no choice. Shutting down the engine would have resulted in us not being able to restart it.
The fire was more gases from a 'boiled' battery than flames although my wife and I had every fire extinguisher on board brought up to the cockpit until we made safe harbour in Tobbermory Ontario
We have found -so far- that almost every inline fuse was blown, the Raymarine multi functional will not start, some lights will not turn off (wierd) and all red wires in the engine room are now purple (not burned by heat). My Link system seems OK i think. This is now an insurance claim!
Does anyone have any comments as to cause (why regulartor failed) and secondly any thing I should have checked before signing off? I am having all electrical circuits checked and batteries replaced.