Engine room air intake

I'm thinking that the "guard box" fell off and a prior owner just discarded it? Mike, is there evidence of a prior attachment to the hull vent on that side?

My thought was along the lines of a corroded hardware related fault.
It's just a wild guess, anyway, since fire flaps are very rare, from my observations.

Did we lose the OP?

If any of you are still available I have an E/R air vent question: We have owned our 1999 OA 510 Classico about a year. It has engine room blowers and associated air intake vents along both p & s hulls, about 4’ long. We recently noticed a toggle switch at the forward end and inside the vent, accessible from outside. Any thoughts on what that is?

Potential fire shut down system to close the vents in the event of fire??

We don’t see any “dampers” that close when activated.

Hm … that does sound wild, and a bit paranoid; I don’t think he was that sort, but one never knows what lurks in the hearts of men. It isn’t a remote E/R blower shut off - we checked that.