Safety Features

As I planned to sail in high latitudes, before Aventura III was built I had put a lot of thought into safety and devised a series of backup systems in all those areas where, from past experience, I knew that things could go wrong. In line with my belt and braces philosophy, everything on Aventura that can possibly have a backup has one.

Many engine failures on cruising boats seem to be caused by dirty fuel and on many production boats the fuel supply and filtering systems are often woefully inadequate. As on both my previous boats, Aventura has a ten gallon day tank mounted in the port cockpit locker about one metre higher than the engine so that the fuel is gravity fed to the engine. The tank is topped up every four or five hours by manually activating a fuel transfer pump. I have deliberately avoided having an automatic filling system so that the person who fills the tank needs to actually look at what is happening. The switch is placed in such a position that one can see a glass water separator while doing it thus making sure that the fuel that enters the day tank is always clean. Apart from this pre-filter, there are two more filters before the fuel reaches the engine. Every time I buy fuel, especially in tropical countries, I make sure to add a small amount of biocide. 

I would also like to mention some of those little things that make life easier, such as the foot operated sea water pump for the galley which has a dual installation so it can be switched over to draw fresh water from the tanks should the electric fresh water pump fail. The folding mast steps are also a great bonus as they may have saved the mast when one of the spreaders collapsed on the way to the Falklands as it was easy to quickly climb the mast and secure the rig. The mast steps are also very useful for eyeball navigation in the tropics. The Walder boom brake is another useful feature as it ensures that even involuntary gybes do not get out of control.  Finally, the stern arch, which is standard on every OVNI, fulfils a multitude of functions and also serves as a ready-made davit for the dinghy, which is a great help on short cruises when the larger Avon dinghy is kept permanently inflated.