Cruise
the continental waterways in luxury and
save over 50% on charter rates
Bon Viveur I - 2 shares/weeks available
Bon Viveur II - 2 shares/weeks available
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Each share in these syndicates
confers actual ownership of 1/36 of the boat
(1/29 in the case of Bon Viveur II)
and entitles the shareholder to a week's cruising
every year for the life of the boat. The price of
a share generally varies from £3,750 to £6,950,
according to where in the season the cruising weeks
occur.
Cruising weeks do not have to
be consecutive and shares can be sold or exchanged
at any time. One popular approach is to have a week
in Burgundy in the summer and another week on the
Midi in spring or autumn.
The boat can, however, be sold
after ten years and the net proceeds distributed proportionately
among shareholders. Syndicate members also contribute
proportionately to the Bon Viveur's
running costs (estimated at around £350 per
share per year and covering such things as insurance,
licences, moorings, servicing, transport and craneage).
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Bon Viveur - wheelhouse with view of galley |
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Given
that it could cost upwards of £2,400 just to
charter a boat of this quality for a week (for example,
Burgundy Cruisers' EuroClassic 149), you can see that
you don't have to keep your shares for very long before
the unique pleasures of boating in France become more
and more affordable. Furthermore, since the life of
the Bon Viveur is conservatively predicted
to be over 30 years and since charter rates will inevitably
rise during that period, the value of your shares
should actually be quite stable in the medium to long
term.
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Bon Viveur on the Rhône au Rhin canal |
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The cruising season
The cruising season starts at
the beginning of March on the Canal du Midi where the boats will
be based until the end of May when they will be transported by
road to Burgundy. They will then operate out of St. Jean de Losne
(near Dijon with its motorway and TGV l
inks) which is at the
junction of the River Saône, the Canal de Bourgogne and
the Canal du Rhône au Rhin and within easy reach of at
least four other rivers/canals providing access to some of the
prettiest waterways in France.
In September the boats will be
moved back to the Midi, where, after the worst of the heat and
the tourists have gone, they will be available for cruising or
simply as 'floating gîtes' until just after the New Year
when they will undergo their annual maintenance ready for the
next season.
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Marseillan on the Etang de Thau
where Bon Viveur has a winter mooring |
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Apart from being just a cycle
ride away from the classic vineyards of Nuits-St. Georges, Gevrey
Chambertin and Clos de Vougeot, St. Jean de Losne is a veritable
hub of the Burgundy waterways, with all the facilities that you
would expect from a major boating centre.
So, although you could probably
spend a couple of weeks a year for ten years cruising from St.
Jean de Losne and rarely see the same scenery twice, you are
unlikely ever to be much more than an hour or two by road away
from technical back-up which is on call to deal with any mechanical
glitches that may occur. There are mobile phones on board with
all the necessary names and numbers in their memories.
Similarly, wherever the boats
might be on the Canal du Midi, there are mobile mechanics covering
each stretch. The Bon Viveur's basic engineering,
however, is straightforward enough to be tackled by any village
garage and a comprehensive set of spares is carried on board,
not just for the engine but for things like toilets and pumps
as well.
The Bon Viveur's design
The Bon Viveur has
been specifically designed for French cruising conditions
and built for our syndicate by Classic Boat Builders on the basis
of their 15 years of experience and with the more discerning,
mature clients in mind who will appreciate her exceptionally
high level of comfort and spaciousness and her impressive ease
of handling - even in the hands of a complete novice.
Her 90 BHP engine is barely ticking
over at normal canal speeds while the extremely powerful bow
and stern thrusters and hydraulic steering allow fingertip
control even in the most inauspicious of weather and cruising
conditions and provide a level of manoeuvrability that is jaw-droppingly
awesome.
Her ability to creep forward
or backward while simultaneously steering by the bow or the stern
or both, to move sideways, even in severe cross-winds, to stop
in her own length from maximum legal canal speed and to turn
through 360 degrees in her own length - without even touching
a steering wheel - transforms even complicated berthing and locking
manoeuvres into child's play thus enhancing even further the
stress-free nature of cruising the continental waterways.
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Bon Viveur - owners' cabin |
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Built from immensely tough
fibre-reinforced epoxy composite (that won't rot, rust or suffer
from osmosis), extremely well insulated and panelled throughout
in oak with solid oak trim, the boat has a sumptuously appointed
double berth 'owner's' cabin aft of the wheelhouse with en suite
shower and WC.
There is a second double-berth
'guest' cabin at the opposite end of the boat with separate shower
and WC rooms adjacent. The sofa in the saloon converts to a third
double bed, if required, and the seating in the wheelhouse -
normally arranged as an
'L'-shaped dinette on a raised plinth
for maximum visibility through the panoramic windows - can also
be arranged to provide sleeping accommodation for two.
Although the wheelhouse has a
large sliding sunroof, there is a second 'fly bridge' helm position
on the aft sun deck.
For cooler evenings at the ends
of the season - and particularly over Christmas and the New Year
- there is oil-fired central heating via domestic radiators throughout
the boat. There are two 65 litre insulated tanks supplying abundant
hot water and heated by the engine or the diesel boiler. A 2.0kW
inverter provides 230V AC power for such essential items as hair
driers in the absence of a shore-based power source, while a
fully equipped galley with four burner hob, grill and oven and
two refrigerators with freezer compartments should help to fill
the gaps between the many and varied eateries to be found along
the waterways.
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Bon Viveur - dining area in wheelhouse |
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