Yesterday turned ugly on the way home from fishing. First the wind picked up and we wound up fighting 35 to 45 mph winds and 2 to 3 foot rollers breaking. The rollers are not a concern since I have an Islander and it is a pretty deep hull and loves to plow through. I do only have the old 120 HP I/O so plowing through was all we could do. We got her back to the dock and managed to snap one dock line but my sons jumped into action and brought the boat back around to the dock and we doubled up all lines and then got the boat on the trailer. I had just gotten everything strapped down and ready to head home when I climbed in the boat to grab my cell phone off the dash. I noticed smoke coming from under my dash panel. I am taking a guess that the hard ride and 1976 wiring that something shorted out and proceeded to ignite the gauge to engine harness. None of my circuit breakers did their jobs. Cut the batteries immediately and then proceeded to spray my extinguisher up through the gunnel so I could get the fire out that was burning in an inaccessible area. Between the extinguisher and my oldest son running and filling buckets with water from the launch we kept her from burning up. Needless to say I will be installing a whole new breaker panel and new wires throughout. I am sure glad I kept up with my extinguisher to make sure it was good to go. I will be installing 2 in the boat now. Where the current one was mounted I had to go through the acrid smoke to the drivers compartment to grab it. I am going to keep one there and another back by the engine.