Buccaneer Schooner

The Buccaneer Schooner closes its own rooflight when it rains; its technology is amazing, and so is its level of equipment and luxury

“Buccaneer is the most luxurious touring caravan in the UK. The opulent Buccaneer range has more features as standard than any other caravan.” It’s not often that we begin a caravan review with a quote from the manufacturer’s website but this time we felt the words merited inclusion here because they seemed to sum up our first impressions of the caravan, when we stepped inside at the start of our analysis.
We’ll examine the quote bit-by-bit: Luxurious? Opulent? These are big statements; a caravan has to be very luxurious indeed to be described as opulent. Not that we are doubting in any way the accuracy of Explorer’s description; more, we are determined to take our time to decide if we would also reach for a word that has a dictionary definition of “ostentatiously rich and luxurious or lavish”.
More features as standard? That’s where to start. Take a deep breath, it’s a long list: offside light, solar panel, television, ceramic toilet, external shower, waterline for direct connection to a mains supply, 40-litre water tank, extractor fan … Now we get to the interesting techy bits. A motorised, remotely-controlled rain-sensing automatic roof light that closes itself when rain starts, an Alde heating system that you can turn on and off remotely, by using your mobile phone… and Whales’ intelligent control unit that turn off your pump if the water runs out… The list goes on and by now we are well on board with the quote about more features…
Then there’s the construction. GRP underskin to protect the caravan from road-moisture. A construction method called SoLiD, involving bonding, designed to eliminate the possibility of water ingress.
We continue to peruse the equipment, in no particular order. Two small but bright lights, at floor level, that you can leave on at night to illuminate your first footsteps as your return to the caravan after dark, a light that comes on automatically in the wardrobe, a roof-mounted 65-watt solar panel, IDC intelligent drive control anti-snaking device, Thatcham-approved tracker with 12-month subscription, alarm system, external cold water shower (that’s for the dog and the welly boots!)…
 

Showering

Time to investigate the showering department for humans, though. We’ve been so awe-struck by taking in the level of equipment that, until now, we’d taken in the Schooner’s fixed-bed, rear shower room layout without noticing it. The walls of the shower are tile-effect, in mid-grey. No other caravan shower looks like this. And there’s a feature in the shower that’s much more important than looks. A rail for four towels pulls out from high up on the shower wall; you retract it when it’s not in use. So simple and so brilliantly practical. In addition, there’s a towel bar above the Alde heating outlet, on the rear wall, and a twin-hook on the wall alongside the shower. That’s more towel provision than any other caravan we’ve yet seen.
The basin is grey granite-look, and sits up above its cabinet. The shower measures 66cm x 78cm. The floor space is 1.12m at its deepest point; it's angled to give space for the bed but still gives you a shower room that’s plenty large enough.
It’s in the shower room that the Buccaneer’s embossed texture wall boarding is most noticeable simply because there’s so much of it visible; it's pure white and the ridges in the pattern catch the light from the three LED clusters.
 

Sleeping

Buccaneers have memory foam mattresses with Coolmax technology which is designed to keep you at an even temperature. It’s deep, at 18cm, and feels exceptionally firm when you sit and lie on it. This bed is also exceptionally large, at 1.8m wide and 2.08 long, with one of the smallest corridor cut-off areas in any caravan; you only lose 20cm of width at the foot of the bed.
At the front, two single beds can be made; they’re 70cm wide and 1.8m long. That puts the Schooner firmly into the bracket of fixed-bed caravans that are well up to family capability. A slatted central base rolls out from within the four-drawer unit when you make up the double bed here.

Storage

The Alde unit is under the offside settee but you won’t notice the space it occupies; there’s a vast amount of storage space in this long lounge. The water tank is under the bed but, again, there’s so much space here that you won’t notice that it takes up a little of it. Six top lockers around the lounge and three more over the bed and a cabinet under the dresser alongside the bed take care of all small foldable items. And the wardrobe? That’s a star! It has a light which comes on when you open the doors, and three rails which give you, in total, more than 120cm of hanging space.
And there’s a cabinet and drawer alongside the fridge, on the nearside, which won’t be needed for kitchen stuff because the kitchen is enormous… We think the storage element of the Schooner is well up into the luxury class.
 

Dining

The dining table hides away in is own cabinet on the forward end of the kitchen. When just two are dining, you’d probably leave the table stowed away, because the pull-out section of the chest of drawers gives you an area measuring 81cm x 65; that’s plenty of space for two place-settings.
 

Lounging

An Avtex television with DVD player comes as standard; you can fix it to a bracket facing the lounge or one in the bedroom.
We sit down in the lounge and analyse its ambience, within the frame of those words “luxury” and “opulence”. Curtains hang on chrome poles. They’re subtly green with a light-reflective sheen, and exquisitely made, with panels across the top of a different green fabric. There’s a pattern going on here but that’s the only pattern you’ll see in the Schooner. (If you imagined Buccaneers to be traditional in looks, think again, for the look is very modern; the predominant colour in the seating is white, teamed, on the backrests, with pale brown for the seat cushions which precisely match the (very close pile, very high quality) carpet.
A very bright strip of light runs under the front top lockers, more white light comes from above the lockers; the general level of lighting in the lounge and elsewhere is excellent. That’s another tick in the luxury box, then. And opulence? We remind ourselves of the definition, which refers to “ostentatiously rich and lavish” and can’t help thinking this is over the top, and actually doesn’t do it justice, for the Schooner’s look is essentially modern, rather than lavish. It’s gorgeous in its simplicity and, importantly, will appeal to most tastes.

Kitchen

The kitchen is 1.75m long. Its dual-fuel hob and sink with recessed (proper!) drainer is finished in gloss enamel. Four lights create excellent illumination where you need it. And a strip of LED lights is concealed under the front edge of the work surface top, running the whole length of the kitchen. (Lavish? Luxury? Ostentatious? No, just awesomely nice.
The surface area forward of the drainer is about 53cm side (it curves, depending on precisely where you measure it – any which way, it's enough.
Three drawers, each 57cm wide, and a full-height, two-shelf cabinet give storage capacity, even before you’ve factored in the top cabinet run. The microwave, set above the 155-litre fridge-freezer, is at chest-height for people of average stature, which is fine.
 

Towing

The journey from the Marquis Lancashire branch at Preston to Little Orchard Caravan Park at Weeton is only about 10 miles but that, with stretches up to 50, and a short spaghetti of narrow lanes, is enough to judge the Schooner’s road manners. The stability enhancement provided by twin axles makes for relaxed open-road towing and greater predictability when precision corner positioning, and reversing is required. The Schooner was a joy to tow – and it has the safety asset of iDC anti-snaking control.
 

The Buccaneer Schooner is a top-luxury option for couples or families of four who love gadgetry (rain-sensing roof light, phone control of the heating system) and who appreciate the finest caravanning can offer. That’s not just about a high level of equipment. It’s about quality fabrics and finesse, everywhere in the Schooner looks and feels simply superb. Excellence by design and simply one of the best-equipped caravans you can buy.