Living with our new Buccaneer Cruiser

We are pretty new to caravanning. Until 4 years ago we had a narrowboat. ‘Hey Jude’ was our pride and joy, our island away from commuting and work. My wife Rowena worked for the Nationwide, I for Airbus Industrie. We retired as planned in our mid-fifties and became dog-walkers. Our life could not be more removed from our working corporate life. We were and remain very happy having been married for 30 years in 2016.

It was my sister who badgered us into caravanning. “That’s for old people” we would say. “But you are old” she would say. Nothing could be farther from what we thought. We felt 18. We kept our weight in check, were pretty fit. I’ve always been a long distance runner and cyclist. Rowena a horse woman.

Well we met with other caravan owners and finally attended the NEC caravan and motorhome show. Our life changed.

To know us is to understand all our best decisions have been on impulse. Hey Jude sold we purchased a Bailey Unicorn Valencia. Weekends and weeks away in CL’s all over the UK and the annual longer trip to France. We even purchased a new Discovery 4 to replace our Freelander as tug.

The Valencia always had its limitations. The bed for one, we hated having to climb over each other to visit the bathroom. Fridge too small and the tech, well was not 2016 vintage. So the seed of an idea to upgrade our van to what would more closely suit our needs was sewn.

Having had careers in banking and aviation we tend to be detailed people. So after a very detailed web investigation into caravan manufacturers and suppliers we visited the NEC show once again, this time booking a whole afternoon with a particular supplier.

We purchased a brand new Buccaneer Cruiser from Catterick Caravans, trading in our Bailey and ordering twin TV portals and a 4x4 mover. It was a good deal with a clear 10% off list price, a realistic and knowledgeable salesman, plus we agreed to drive up to Catterick from our Letchworth home for handover day. Well a couple of days of Yorkshire beer and hospitality can’t be sniffed at. For information: Catterick Caravans are located close to Richmond on the Coast to Coast walk.

Once home we had a couple of ‘shake-down’ weekends away attempting to get to grips with the new systems. Our salesman was patient and detailed but you can’t beat actually living and working with a system to understand it. We had joined the Buccaneers Owners Club recently so it was a phone call to Alan Green and David Goddard which finally helped us once and for all understand just how the water system INT / EXT actually worked.

Why is it that caravan manufacturers can’t produce a simple simplified English, detailed operators manual? Have they not heard of technical authors? After all we are parting with £30k for a prestigious piece of rolling stock.

Other than the above we had a couple of cupboard locks u/s, bathroom door not adjusted correctly and ….would you believe it … every O ring missing from the shower assembly. Our van had obviously been ‘Christmas Treed’ within the production / sales cycle.

I had mentioned it was our pearl wedding anniversary year , so in June 2016 we set off into Europe for a 7-week tour. It is from there that I write this essay. “Are you still awake”? … “I hope so “!

Our trip stared from the Euro-Tunnel on June 18^th stopping at:

• Lac D’Orient – Champagne / Ardennes

• L’Escale – Le Grand Bornand – Rhone /Alps

• L’Hippocampe – Provence

• Domaine de Massereau – Camargue

• Le Moulin – Midi Pyrenees

• Domaine De Mathervies – Dordogne

• Chantepie – Loire

• Le Clos Cacheleux – Picardie

I’d be happy to give you details on the above sites on another occasion. But in light of keeping Dear Reader awake I will continue with the operation in hand.

We totally ‘Love’ this van, and taking into consideration the amount of interest it generates everywhere we go, so do many others. It’s a big piece of kit. With the Disco in tow we are some 14 meters long and closing in on 3.5 tonnes. I have learnt to treat the whole rig with a measure of respect, take that extra look in the wing mirrors and give myself that extra second in time and foot of space whenever I manoeuvre.

The only way to really describe it is that you have your personal apartment in tow. You have space, lots of space. A big fridge freezer, usable worktop, spacious bathroom and a ‘real’ double bed. Oh, the bed … One word …….. Fantastic. Only one thing it needed to improve it was a Duvalay Gold Topper. A real bonus.

The internal water system is actually space age. Lots of measured water at high pressure and the auto-levelling system is a joy. If one has to manually level, it’s quite easy and you soon get used to knowing the Cruiser likes to rest a little nose down to drain away perfectly. Those of you who may be aircraft lovers will find that interesting as almost all aircraft have a mean cord line flying angle of 2 degrees.

I should say also that it tows magnificently. Very straight and stable at all times. We tend to cruise on the auto-routes at between 55 and 65 mph and she has never put a foot wrong with the Disco returning 22/24 mpg.

So those are the likes. I just can’t think of any real dislikes as yet. There are a few design and manufacture improvements that I will list below. It would be interesting to hear if any other Buccaneer owners agree, disagree or would like to add any points to the list. Perhaps we could start a discussion with Elldis on the matter.

• 240 volt plugs should all have individual isolation switches.

• All outside lockers should have push button locks.

• 3-pin 240 volt sockets required on ‘both’ sides of the front under-window lounge.

• Separate switch for overhead lounge compartment roof lights.

• Remove front lounge window strip light and replace with full length strip bead light.

• Remove near side outside locker aerial socket and replace with additional sat socket.

• Separate light switch for drinks cabinet.

• Change bathroom sink to more useable ‘Belfast’ design.

• Bathroom sink tap requires position redesign to prevent foul.

• Toilet flush button should be offset to allow manual flush whilst seat is up.

• Stable entrance door? Jury is out. More useful but can be security risk.

One thing we do intend to have fitted upon our UK return is a motor-drive satellite dish. Oh and possibly an air-conditioning system. We will see.

In conclusion we are so pleased with our new Buccaneer Cruiser caravan. It ticks all our personal boxes and we look forward to many more tours both at home and abroad towing her.

Roland Talbot