Salt to Fresh

Both of the heads on Britannia, my Downeast 45 schooner, are Raritan Elegance electric models that I installed nearly four years ago. They have performed flawlessly, and one of the reasons for that is that for about 90 percent of the time, they are flushed with clean freshwater.

When I bought the Raritans they were raw (sea) water models, but I devised a modification that allows them to be easily interchangeable between freshwater and salt. Raritan also offers a kit that converts an Elegance raw water flush toilet into freshwater flush at the press of a button. It operates in a very similar way to my method, but does not have a second one-way check valve or a shutoff valve. The Raritan kit costs $190. My method cost me $80.

Unlike the factory system, which is specific to the Elegance head, my method will work with any marine head, whether electric