Buccaneer Fluyt

If twin beds are your choice and you also want the rooflight to close if it rains and heating you can switch on from your phone, a Buccaneer Fluyt might be a caravan to consider

There’s something aspirational about a Buccaneer. Some would say this range sits at the pinnacle of caravan quality; whatever your opinion, it’s certainly up there among the best.
It’s surely one of a handful of caravans about which discerning caravanners, veterans of many purchases down many years, would say: “I’ve always wanted a Buccaneer.”
Three of the Buccaneer range sit on twin axles. One of them, the Clipper, follows the current swing in popularity towards twin-bed layouts. But if you prefer your twin beds on two wheels rather than four, until now, there’s not been a Buccaneer to answer that desire.
Enter the Fluyt, to join the fleet of Buccaneers all named after traditional sailing vessels; Fluyts are 15^th century Dutch cargo vessels. And if “cargo” sounds unglamorous, this Fluyt will change your mind…
At £24,299 it’s nearing the top bracket in its class. But look what you get for your money. There’s a 40-litre on-board tank with an automatic fill system. Suretrack tracker security is installed and you get the first year’s subscription free. The jockey wheel has a nose weight gauge built into the structure. You can switch on your Alde heating from your mobile phone. The lounge rooflight has a sensor that detects rain and closes the aperture electronically. And this caravan has two showers…
 

Showering

There’s one shower for you, and a second one for the dog – or your muddy boots… On the offside, a small hatch opens to reveal a shower rose. Here’s your place to rinse the mud off the dog’s fur, or your boots, after a rainy walk.
The indoor shower is on the nearside of the full-width shower room. Its walls are grey tile-effect. There’s a soap dish attached to the riser bar. And something we’ve only seen in one other caravan: an expanding towel drying rack. When not in use it’s close to the shower wall. You pull it forwards to open up four rails.
There’s another wide towel rail over the vent through which warmth rises from the Alde system – and a hook for another towel (or your dressing gown?) on the opposite wall.
And if you think the close resemblance to a domestic en-suite room ends there, consider this: the Fluyt’s toilet has a ceramic bowl.
There’s a traditional, dependable air about the Fluyt’s features and décor – except for one item. That’s the gorgeously modern washbasin, made to look like rock and standing up above its cabinet. We love it!
 

Sleeping

If twin beds are your choice of sleeping arrangement and you like to feel the warmth rising, between the beds and the walls, from the Alde heat-radiating fins below your bed, you’ll find the Fluyt’s bedroom a cosy delight.
These beds are higher than many, which means the depth of the storage areas beneath is greater.
Bed heads are upholstered in a fabric that matches the lounge and a padded top section is the same high quality satin as the curtains. Little shelves in each corner have metal borders to make sure you don’t knock stuff off. And there’s a subtle floor-level LED cluster of light that you can leave on during the night if you wish.
A power point is at the base of the nearside bed, within hairdryer cable reach of the mirror in the centre of the shower room.
You can make a double bed across the lounge if you wish, by extracting slats from the drawers unit, or you can create single beds for children – ideal if grandchildren sometimes join you.
 

Storage

The storage areas under the beds both have exterior hatches. Those under the lounge have full-length apertures.
The wardrobe is in the centre, between the nearside bed and the door. A light comes on automatically when you open the doors. Three drawers and a cabinet are beneath.
There’s the usual array of four lockers over the lounge, plus three more on each side of the bedroom. In total, this amounts to more space than a couple would usually need.
 

Dining

A small table pulls out from below the top of the front central cabinet and the top drops down to become level with it, which means you have almost a meter of dining space. No need to use the main table for meals for two, then. When four are dining, you’ll find extracting the folding freestanding table from its own cabinet by the door is an easy task.
 

Lounging

We love the firmness of the Fluyt’s seating, backrests and armrests. And the four scatter cushions are plumper and firmer than average, so comfort is guaranteed, we quickly found during our test.
Satin curtains hang from chunky metal loops around shiny domestic-type poles.
And there’s an Avtex television mounted on a bracket on the side of the wardrobe. You can take it off this bracket and fix it to a second bracket in the bedroom; that, we envisage, brings the bedroom into the realms of second lounge, for feet-up comfort when you’re watching television during the day. Some say fixed beds intrude on your living space; they don’t if you use them like lounge settees during the day!
It’s while examining the finer detail of the lounge that we noticed a second floor-level light, identical to the one in the bedroom. If you leave this one on when you go out in the evening, it will illuminate your first steps inside even before you’ve switched on the lights. Very thoughtful!
 

Kitchen

There are two outstanding features of the Fluyt’s kitchen – and both of them are well hidden – until you switch on the lights.
A strip of LEDs runs the length of the kitchen surface, just under the edge, sending a cascade of light downwards. The second hidden feature only becomes noticeable when you switch on the light in the drinks cabinet that backs onto the bedroom television port. It’s a wooden rack for four bottles of wine, behind the brown acrylic fronted wine glass cabinet.
There’s a third hidden feature of the Fluyt’s kitchen. It’s a small section of extra work surface that you can pull out when needed, to the right of the kitchen. Underneath this area, two metal shelves; they’re of much more chunky construction than the wire basket shelves we usually find in caravans. There’s a small space beneath them. But this cabinet is the only lower storage apart from the compartment for pans beneath the oven.
The microwave is flush-set into the cabinetry alongside the cupboard that’s fitted for plates and mugs.
The hob has a mains hotplate and three burners. And both the hob and sink have hinged Chinchilla glass covers. They’re designed to be used as cutting boards and will withstand hot pans or even roasting dishes. We have to say we’ve never put Chinchilla glass to these tests but we’ll take Elddis’s word for it!
 

Towing

We’ve all had it ingrained into our caravan psyche over many years of Buccaneer evolution that these are heavy caravans. Popular perception isn’t always correct- and all weights are comparative anyway. At 1750kg MTPLM the new Fluyt is by no means a lightweight. But it doesn’t compete in that territory. It’s nonetheless well within range of a lot of popular tow vehicles, including our Kia Sorento that takes most of our caravans out for tests. And its road manners proved to be uneventful, in a positive sort of way, following without a hint of nodding that you sometimes get with a heavyish single axle. It’s equipped with chassis manufacturer BPW’s iDC (Intelligent Drive Control) anti-snaking device; something that’s really important when you’re towing a single-axle caravan of this weight. If the system detects the start of a sway it electronically activates the caravan’s brakes, to pull it back into correct alignment.
Fluyts – indeed, all Buccaneers – have nose weight gauges built into the jockey wheel assembly.

If you revel in caravan quality, and you can’t resist technological equipment like a rain-sensing rooflight, you’ll like Buccaneers. This is surely one of the most luxurious and most comprehensively equipped twin-bed caravans you can buy.