BENI-MAG the Magazine of the Benimar Owners Club

BENI-MAG The Magazine of the Benimar Owners Club

Issue 73 APRIL 2020 1 Benimar Owners' Club

Honorary President - Ron Smith

YOUR COMMITTEE 2019 - 2020

Chairman - David Pilbeam Tel: 07716 735988 email: [email protected]

Secretary - Carol Beach Tel: 01388 607705 email: [email protected]

Membership Secretary - Honor Hewitt Little Radfield Orchard, London Road, Teynham, Sittingbourne, Kent, ME9 9PS Tel: 01795 522239 email: [email protected]

Treasurer - Honor Hewitt as above Tel: 01795 522239 email: [email protected]

Magazine Editor - Graham Baines Tel: 0774 070 4140 email: [email protected]

Events Co-ordinator - David Reader 6 Home Close, Histon, Cambridge, CB24 9JL Tel: 01223 561388 email: [email protected]

Press Officer - Graham Baines Tel: 0774 070 4140 email: [email protected]

Chief Marshal - David Reader 6 Home Close, Histon, Cambridge, CB24 9JL Tel: 01223 561388 email: [email protected]

Webmaster - Andy Smith

Website - www.benimarownersclub.co.uk

Auditors - Carol Beach and Colin Florey

2 In This Issue p 2 Who's Who. P 3 Diary Dates for 2020 p 4 Editor's Piece p 5 Honours List + Pics. p 6 Chairman's Update p 7 Letters p 8 Notices p 9 AGM Minutes p 20 Misc Pictures p 21 Go to Spain for the Winter Sun! p 22-23 Tech tips & Travel p 24 Wales 'Secret Beach' Guide p 25 Watch that Payload + Insurance p 27 Trusted Dealers. p28 Aires & Graces.

Rally Dates for 2020

April 16th - 20th PETERBOROUGH SHOW RALLY & BOC AGM Marshals Ray & Carol Beach 07958 116378. * Book direct with MMM as BOC member.

May 14th - 18th NEWBURY The Southern Motorhome Show Rally Marshals Joan/David Reader 01223 561388 * Book direct with MMM as BOC member.

June 18th - 22nd STONELEIGH Midsummer Motorhome Show Marshals Ray & Carol Beach 07958 116378 * Book direct with MMM as BOC member.

July 3rd-6th EDINBURGH Scottish Motorhome Show Marshals Colin & Meryl Campbell 07817 983902 * Book direct with MMM as BOC member.

23 – 27th July NORFOLK ~ Motorhome & Campervan Show Marshals Graham & Chris Baines 0774 070 4140 * Book direct with MMM as BOC member.

13th - 17th Aug MALVERN ~ The Western Motorhome Show Marshals Robin & Jean Asher 07931 360101 * Book direct with MMM as BOC member.

20th – 25th Aug THE LAWNS ~ Fleet, Spalding. Members Rally. Open stay 1-7 days. Marshals Francesca/Colin Varley 07832327584 * Book direct with Marshal ASAP.

27th–1st Sep Aug CAR COLSTON ~ Nr Newark. Members Rally. Open stay 1-7 days. Marshals Francesca/Colin Varley 07832327584 * Book direct with Marshal ASAP.

Sept 10th – 14th SHEPTON MALLET ~ The South Western Show Marshals Honor/Tim Hewitt 07793 584101 * Book direct with MMM as BOC member.

24th – 28th Sept LINCOLN SHOWGROUND ~ Season's Finale Marshals Christine/David Bilbeam 07716 735988 *Book direct with MMM as BOC member.

3 EDITORS PIECE SPRING may well have sprung by March 20th but it's Easter on April 12th and, the following week of April 19th we're looking forward to the Peterborough Motorhome Show and the BENIMAR OWNERS CLUB AGM. Please bring this magazine along for reference as it includes the minutes of last years AGM. Chris and I did our usual trip down to Denia in Spain though rather later this year after spending Christmas at home so thankfully missing most of the bad weather in both countries. (STOP PRESS or so we thought !!!) Spanish campsites were full to overflowing this year with a noticeable increase in German and French visitors. I suspect more advertising is being focused there with the uncertainty brought by that unsettling period of the 'B' word, though down here in Spain apart from the News it's not mentioned. I read that much work was being done while we were away by the MPs from manufacturing areas most affected by the dreadful decision to group Motorhomes as luxury cars, thereby increasing the 1st years VED nearly 10 fold, and as we go to press it seems they didn't get very far. Surely a naive idea of the government to assume increasing the tax would reduce sales and thereby pollution. In fact a reduction of around 7% new sales meant keeping more older polluting vans on the road. New Benimars are obviously being appreciated by the buying public as during our trip there appeared another at nearly every turn. Jockeying for position at Portsmouth ferry, no less than 3 took it in turn to arrive in front of us. I also note from new 'Benimar Owners Club membership application forms' that a goodly portion were introduced by MARQUIS LEISURE, thank you Marquis, long may the growth continue. Although it was overwhelmingly voted to continue this magazine at the last AGM I have to say that input from members is still frugal and yet the activity on our Benimar Owners Club Facebook Pages is blossoming. It all goes to prove the power and popularity of Social Media and gives us a new source of relevant information for the Magazine for those who still prefer the printed word. Horses for courses as they say. So until next time: *** Happy Motorhoming. *** Graham.

4 HONOURS LIST 2020

It took me by surprise when I received an email from Chairman David Pilbeam which I thought read “HONOURS LIST”. Of course it referred to our Membership Secretary Honor, it was a request for a Membership list 'FINAL REMINDER'. She has asked me to publish a notice in the magazine to remind you all that membership fees for 2020 are now well overdue. If you have forgotten, you can contact her by phone on 01795 522239, or please email her at the following address [email protected] asap. If you have decided not to renew. Please drop her a short note/message to that effect and perhaps why. Many Thanks Ed.. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BENIMAR FACTORY VISIT? If only !

Sue & Kevin Foster attempted an unsuccessful break-in while passing the Benimar factory in Peniscola which is situated between Benicarlo to the North & Torreblanca to the South. Well that Oozy Woozy feeling does come all over you when you take your baby to see where it was born.

0061 KEV at the factory gates.

5 Keeping you up to date from the Chair.

Hello and welcome to 2020 and the beginning of a brand new touring season. Whilst most of you have been either curled up in front of the telly or sunning yourselves in winter sunshine in southern Spain:- Honor has been busy processing new member applications and beavering away with the accounts. There will be quite a few new names and faces at our rallies during the coming months, and I'm sure you will all join me in wishing them a warm welcome and look forward to their full participation in the club. Carol has been busy writing the minutes of last years AGM, and Graham has put together yet another stunning magazine. For my part I have been focusing on how we can make best use of the top grade website that Andy Smith (Ron's son-in-law) has kindly put in place for the club, and for which we pay a comparatively modest fee to operate. There are a number of issues that have raised their head during the course of the year which have caught my attention and have steered the direction of my actions and thoughts. Almost every individual who has approached me during the year has indicated that they expected the club to have an online membership process as many other clubs do. Only one person in the club has access to our current membership list and I have found this very frustrating particularly when it involves anything to do with new members. Our current system is contained upon a single CD which is potentially vulnerable to damage or corruption and as such lacks both protection and security. In the event of the membership secretary being absent or incapacitated there is no back up plan, and distances and access could cause major problems for the running of the club. We have established during the course of the year that a surprising amount of information on the database was incorrect as a result of changes to members personal details.

6 Given that we hold a state of the art encrypted secure website it was only a small step to realise that we already potentially hold the answer to all of these problems and with a little bit of research have been able to locate free open source plug ins available through our website designer that will convert our currently underused site to a simple but fully functional membership site that will resolve all of the above issues and provide members the opportunity to access and update their own personal data remotely. At the time of writing most of the building blocks have been put in place and hopefully the system will be ready to go live around the time of the AGM. On a much sadder note, our long standing member Dawn Bottle passed away earlier this year and I know you will all join me in offering Michael our heart felt condolences for his loss.

Letter from Honor Hewitt;

A very dear friend of Tim and I was Dawn Bottle, she died just after Xmas. We had been friends for about twenty years and they have been in the Benimar Owners Club more or less from the start. They often used to spend two to three months in their motor home on our drive down in Spain. This happened most every year and Dawn and I would cook, mainly cake, she was a brilliant dressmaker and knitter but best of all cake maker. She made lovely wedding cakes and she was one of the nicest and most kindest people you could meet and was such a very dear friend. It's going to be very hard especially for Mike, though he has got the support of his two daughters and four grand-kids and, of coarse we live near-by. We will be here when needed, so cheers to you Dawn, can't believe you've gone, loved you loads.

Honor & Tim Hewitt.

7 More Condolences Another name that will bring back memories is Ian Tilley, Ian died on Xmas day. A very active and helpful member of the Club in its infancy, Ian was always on hand to sort out ones problems. Ian and Sylvia were some of our earliest members and attended most events. Never happy sitting down, Ian would spend most of his time routing out members mechanical and electrical problems to cure, which he usually did. In fact without a problem to solve he was like a fish out of water. I once remember a member turning up at a Show Rally with a badly damaged door after an attempted break-in. Within minutes Ian had the door lining off, lock out and repaired and was panel beating the door back into shape ready for the lock to be refitted, such was the nature of this very knowledgable and fiercely independent demure Scot. A friend and fellow BOC member Nichol Thompson, having recently studied the Roman Legions, aptly named him Tillius Maximus. We first met shortly after joining the BOC in 2001 and were considering doing the forthcoming BOC rally to Spain including a Benimar factory visit. We had not taken the van abroad before, but Ian and Sylvia quickly convinced us to accompany them, such is club life. It was on that trip that Nichol, a fellow Scot and with a sense of humour not unlike that of Scottish comedian Chic Murray, told us of his meeting with a German Motor Home Owner who commented, “Ah zeez are ze Benimars Ife been hearink abowt. Zay are ver cheep!” What he meant of course was they were fully loaded and great value for money, Nichol with Ian looking on soon put the Germans understanding of English to rights. This took the form of secretly pressing a button on the 'Steadies' remote control which was in his pocket and uttering in a perfect German accent RICHTIG – NIEDER to which the Right Hand Side steady came down. Ian grinned mischievously as the German, after looking amazed commented “Iz Gud zat it understands ze langvage yar?” We never knew who was pulling who's leg and Ian never tired of telling the story. Our Condolences to Sylvia. Stop Press. We have sadly just heard of Nichol also passing away, in mid February. Our Condolences to Lorna.

8 MINUTES OF THE 18th AGM OF THE BENIMAR OWNERS CLUB Held on Sunday 28th April 2019 at the National Motorhome Show Peterborough.

IN ATTENDANCE: Ray & Carol Beach, Ron & Judy Smith, David & Joan Reader, Graham & Chris Baines, Dave & Chris Pilbeam, Brian & Ann Swanson, Mel & Barb Jones, Robin & Jean Asher, Don & Ann Clark, Chris & Marlene Wade, Michael & Dawn Bottle, Bruce & Janet Lawson, Tim & Honor Hewitt, Kevin & Sue Foster, Caroline Masters & Hoil Thompson, David & Hazel Atkinson, Mary Pennington & Meryl & Colin Thompson.

1. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE Apologies for absence were received from: Dave & Evelyn Hill, Kath & Tony Greese-Smith, Colin & Lizzie Sanders, John & Jean Porter, Frances & Colin Varley, Dick & Jackie Parker, Helen & Roger Foster, Colin & Sally Floury, Peter & Pam Pettit, Brian & Biddy Baggot. 2. MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING The minutes of the 17th AGM, which was held on the 28th April 2018, were read and the Vote for acceptance was Unanimous. 3. MATTERS ARISING Kevin Foster raised an issue regarding some problems in last years minutes, one regarding the question of Andy Camper. We were advised that this issue was dealt with last year. and that it was too complicated to speak about it now but would discuss with him after the AGM. 4. PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS Ron Smith reported: Morning everybody, this is mine and Judy’s 21st consecutive time at this show, the last nineteen years have been with the Benimar Owners Club. It’s now fifteen years since your President owned a Benimar model and now

9 we're back to our old roots and a caravan. In 2004 the club changed the constitution to allow members who now owned other marques to remain in the club, we did this to keep valued hard working members in the club. I think Honor was the first one and its a good job we did make that decision, because if we hadn’t I don’t think the club would be here. Unfortunately all the Benimar owners don’t seem to want to contribute, and that position has declined over the years. No Benimar’s were available over a ten year period, but Marquis were starting to import Benimar’s and we thought we’d see an increase in new membership and the club will become what it was before. However it didn’t happen, we got lots of new members but not attendance. I’m very disappointed that here at the AGM the biggest rally of the year we have a total of five Benimars attending. Three of them have been with us for many years, and we have two new Benimar owners Dave & Chris and Kevin & Sue. I was hoping, as was Kevin to meet lots of people with new Benimars because he’s got some stuff he wants to unload and its very disappointing as I thought this would be a good time to change back to the committee being Benimar owners. We’ll see what happens later as there are four committee posts coming up. My usual thanks and appreciation to the committee for their work and also thanks to all the marshals who run the various rallies. That’s all I have to say and thank you for coming and hope to see you during the next twelve months. REPORTS 5.1 CHAIRMANS REPORT: Ray Beach Reported Moving on to my report, I don’t have a lot to report as it's been very quiet for me this year. I’ve received several emails from owners who have recently purchased Benimars with queries regarding their new vans and I have forwarded them on to the best contact to deal with these query’s. I even had a person ring me who purchased a very old 2001 Benimar and wanted to know where he could get a manual for it. Only to discover there is one on our website but that only for one model. There was an issue that I had to deal with and that was to inform you all about the clubs Privacy Statement. The Benimar Owners Club has had to fall in line with the 2018 Data Protection Act, some of you may have already seen it? Basically it means that all businesses that deal with storing a persons

10 personal data on computers, and the running of the clubs business must insure that said data is stored in a correct and safe manner. The club statement says how we will deal with the data and how we will deal with its security. The statement also shows that we have an appointed Data Protection Officer (DPO) to which I have been temporarily assigned. The club will have to appoint a member to the position of DPO on to the committee at the next AGM. The role of the DPO is to ensure that all personal data is being stored correctly as per Data Protection Act 2018, to deal with any unauthorised access and disclosures. He or She will also deal with any questions about your personal data should you have any. I would like to thank both Ron and Graham personally for the work they did in getting this process up and running as it was left to the last minute. I would also like to thank in their absence Lizzie and Colin Sanderson for their input in the requirements of our own clubs statement. I would also like to record my thanks to all committee members for their sterling efforts over the last twelve months. Thanks to those whom have volunteered to marshal rallies over the last year and those who have written reports for the magazine. Finally as some of you may know, this will be my last AGM as your Chairman and I would like to thank all for your support over the last four years. We have a proposal for someone who is willing to takeover and I’m going call his name out. Dave Pilbeam, has been with us a few years now and has owned two Benimars. I feel he is the ideal candidate for this job because I only took the role of chairman as a temporary measure when Roy Gill retired from the post. Nobody came forward right up to his last day as Chairman at the 2015 AGM, I asked him if I could step in for him and Roy said yes I’ll nominate you straight away. It is the Benimar Owners Club and I feel the chairmanship of the club should be held by by a Benimar owner. The majority of enquiries that come to me are to do with Benimars and I’ve had a Roadstar and two AutoTrails since owning my first Benimar, so there begs the question. So, I feel he is the ideal person to take over the reins. Dave has my full support as well as the rest of the committee and I hope you will show him your appreciation come election time. However he still has to be elected so if there is anyone else who would like to take on the post, please hold your hand up when it comes to the election. Report ends.

11 5.2. TREASURERS REPORT: Honor Hewitt Reported. Accounts year end 31st December 2018 Hello, to all of you. I am Honor, the Membership and Treasurer Secretary, for the new people who don’t know me. I took over last year when no one else would, not knowing anything about computers I soon learnt how to turn it on. All figures will be printed in the magazine, up and till the 31st December 2018, anything after that will be carried forward to the next year. The balance in the account is heathy at £2565.16p as of 31/12/2018. New membership and renewal was £922.50p. Raffles were £198.00p. In total £1120.50p. Expenditure was £1174.34p. Leaving an overspend of £53.84p. The overspend of £53.84p came out of the existing bank account. It’s a very heathy balance therefore no need for an increase in membership subs.

INCOME & EXPENDITURE ACCOUNTS 2018 The opening balance was £2,619.00 Membership Subscriptions £922.50 Donations/Raffle/Rally £198.00 Incoming £1,120.50 Less Expenses £1,174.34 Balance c/f £2,565.16 Excess of income over expenditure. - £53.84 5.3. MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY: Honor Hewitt report The figures are down on last years by £631.50p due to no help from Marquis. I find its a shame that they can’t support us as the average van is £50,000 and they can’t afford £14 to support the Owners Club!!! New members are 15 up to 31/12/2018. Members not renewing are 35 and nearly all of those were Marquis freebies. Total vans are 66, of which 40 are Benimars, total number of members are 123. Please if you change your van, can you let me know your registration and make and also if you move address. Thank you all.

12 5.4 MAGAZINE EDITOR: Graham Baines reported Hello, I hope you will bear with me having to use my iPad but we are still on our way home from Spain having spent the Winter there. This completes my third year as Editor. I would just like to say a few words about the magazine content. While I receive articles from the stalwarts of the club, it saddens me to report that there is little coming in from 'New Benimar' owners on their joys and thrills, or otherwise of Benimar ownership. Therefore the content of the magazine continues its trends towards general motor-homing matters, rally reports and my own reviews of items which may be of use to Motor-homers. Looking at items we do receive suggests members value the social side of the club more than the Benimars themselves. So come on New Beni owners give us something to think about and perhaps help with. If you so wish, I will be happy to continue with the magazine and will throw my full support behind our new Chairman for at least the coming year. Thank you. 5.5 PRESS SECRETARY: Graham Baines reported I am also the Press Officer and again there is nothing to report. The task requires very little commitment so, if anyone else would like to take on the task and perhaps make it a little more active, please feel free to take on the office. All that is required is to send reports of anything we would like publicity on, to the many Motorhome magazines. However, as nothing has been suggested and no queries received the job has been very easy this year. That concludes my report. 5.6 EVENTS COORDINATOR: Dave Reader reported Good morning, Unfortunately it seems to be the same old story, one try’s to get new events other than Warners but falls back to me because no one wants to go which does partly annoy me. As I think with a small club we’ve got enough people to support us. I know at rallies we have to get a minimum of five vans, basically Ray and I did most of them one or two people helped in but its not what we would like it would far better if most of the Benimar owners would come and do marshalling. I’ve tried to get new rallies to new things but as so far with no results not because I don’t put the effort in to it. Not only do I belong to this club but I’m in several other clubs but this is the

13 main one I try to get things going. So I’m hoping this year to put some new information to Graham to get more people to come to our rallies. It a social thing but why don’t they come? Because some of the rallies are cheaper than here but they still don’t come, so don’t know really what the answer is? I went a rally at Easter with MCC they expected about 40 vans but ended up with 70, on hard standing at schools. We all live all over the country and I think thats one of the problems really? That’s all I’ve got to say. 5.7 WEB MASTER: The Chairman reported that the Web Master post is covered by an outside agency and is dealt with by Ron Smith’s son-in-law. If there are any problems experienced with the website, please contact Ron or any of the committee. 6.0 - 6.9 ELECTION OF CLUB OFFICIALS Position Proposed Proposer Seconder VOTE Chairman: David Pilbeam Graham Baines Ron Smith Unan. Secretary: Carol Beach Honor Hewitt Ann Clark Unan. Mem. Sec: Honor Hewitt Carol Beach Judy Smith Unan. Treasurer: Honor Hewitt Graham Baines Judy Smith Unan. Mag Ed: Graham Baines Ray Beach Barbara Jones Unan. Press Sec: Graham Baines Dawn Bottle Barbara Jones Unan. Events Co-ord: David Reader Chris Wade Judy Smith Unan. Webmaster: David Pilbeam Judy Smith Honor Hewitt Unan. Position Proposed Proposer Seconder VOTE Chief Marshal: David Reader Chris Wade Judy Smith Unan.

7.0 APPOINTMENT OF AUDITORS: Position Proposed Proposer Seconder VOTE Auditors: Carol Beach Ann Clark Judy Smith Unan. Colin Florey Honor Hewitt Tim Hewitt Unan.

14 8.0 RESOLUTIONS: None Received 9.0 ANY OTHER BUSINESS. The Chairman opened the floor to any other business. Dave Pilbeam raised a small issue regarding the ACCEO licence and its requirements. He had noted in the clubs rule book, Rule 6c, that it states “members will be able to invite one unit/motorhome as a guest, preference will be given to club members and guests will be subject to additional charges. This is ok if on licensed land and where we are not using our exemption certificate, though this does not happen very often. Dave said he felt that the wording should be amended as there is no mention of this and therefore we cannot have non-members on an unlicensed site. Dave asked Ron if he agreed, to which Ron said he did. Dave went on to say that as far as he was aware, all the Rallies that Andy Camper's group had arranged were not legal as they were on unlicensed sites. Kevin Foster asked Dave how could we monitor that particular rule. Dave advised Kevin that the Rally Marshal is the responsible person to oversee all. Dave Pilbeam proposed that we establish a closed Facebook Group to be known as Benimar Owners Club (www.benimarownersclub.co.uk) with a minimum of two administrators preferable three administrators he also suggested that the Chairman and Event Co-ordinator be the administrators of the group. Dave’s reason for this proposal of Facebook is that he feels 'FB' will give the club a wider publicity, especially to new people. The club can’t pick up on people who’ve gone to Andy Campers FB because chances are they won’t go looking, but new people buying a Benimar could pick our FB site as there will two to choose from, or they could pick up from our Web pages. We’d have to run the two sites side by side. Dave went on to explain further, Facebook is much used by the public, it is free, and it's pretty easy to setup and operate without much problem. It will be a 'closed group', which means that it will only be accessible to paying members of the club or existing members once they’ve got signed in and logged on. Dave said there was no way he’s looking to kick existing non Benimar members out. Chairman asked Dave how would that be done? If a non Benimar person tried to log in for example, plus he felt that whoever takes on the roles of the administrators should be competent in computing. Dave Pilbeam went on to say the BOC Facebook Administrators would

15 have the authority to give somebody access beyond the front cover page of the group. The front page is to allow for advertising of the group for the general public at large. Dave went on to say that once the whole thing is set up it should be really easy to run. The site will only be accessible to club members, so in reality as long as we all show good manners to each other, there should be no issues with what anybody writes. Kevin Foster queried the role of the administrators in regards to content being monitored and being allowed through. Kevin went on to say if he wanted to put a photo on the site, the admin would know about in minutes? Graham Baines said that an 'advisory notice' comes through to people in the group as an update. Kevin Foster asked if someone were to put on something untoward ie made a bad remark, could we take it off ? and we could do that within minutes am I right? Dave Pilbeam said you could set it up like that, but it involves an awful lot of work to keep it monitored. We’re all grown up, we’re all members of the club and we should be respectful of each other’s space. Dave went on to say that the process he’s thinking of is, if somebody see’s something that is upsetting to them, they can report it to the administrator and the administrator can remove it. Kevin Foster pointed out that everybody in the club are great friends, but we haven’t got a great friend in someone we talked about last year. He is not a member? but if he gets through the administrators and wants to put a photo on and make a comment. So are we saying that if he’s not a member through the BOC membership, he can’t do it, can he? Dave Pilbeam That’s correct, members only. Honor Hewitt said, every member has a membership number, and should be made to use that number to sign up. If for example they say '2312 Mr smith' incorrectly and it’s actually a Mr Jones then it would be the wrong person gaining access. Dave Pilbeam said, the security should be fairly simple. Don Clark said, after joining a closed group The Scottish Wild Campers, he could go on their website before joining the group and read things. However couldn’t ask another member for instance, to recommend a 'Night Stopover

16 site' until he had officially joined the group and been accepted by the administrator. He could then ask other members of recommended places to stay. It was only after acceptance that he could post and get this information. Dave Pilbeam replied, That’s exactly how I want it to work. He went on to say, basically what I’d like to use it for most of all is to promote events such as Rallies and to give the Events Co-ordinator the opportunity, if somebody were to suggest an idea, the opportunity to sound out members if that is something they'd be interested in. We might then have more varied rallies coming along. I know Don that you were looking at something in Wales. Don Clark said, it’s difficult now with more legislation, lots of places won’t do it. Honor Hewitt agreed, saying I think the Club needs more varied Rallies other than just Warners Shows. Dave Pilbeam replied, yes we are looking for a bit more in addition to Warners and that it would give us the opportunity to ask of members “are you interested” you could get a fairly quick response. Whereas, with the Magazine going out every three months at present, there would be a delay before receiving feedback. It would speed the whole thing up, give a much more public awareness and with a bit of luck will push things along a little bit faster than we’re paddling at the moment. Graham Baines pointed out the only fly in the ointment might be if a 'provocateur' got somebody to join the Benimar Owners Club then our FB pages in order to publish things on our closed group. David's idea of being able to 'unsubscribe' them almost instantly would negate that. Mel Jones pointed out that ex BOC member and Treasurer Alan Williams was now Andy Camper's righthand man? Ron Smith said he believed Alan was not a BOC member now? Mel Jones went on to say, that Alan Williams was the chief recruiter for Andy Camper's Facebook group. Also in reference to what was mentioned earlier about them having rallies, they did have one rally however they all got stuck in mud and were not going to have any more. Dave Pilbeam responded. In reality I don’t see why if somebody wants to set up another Benimar Club to run themselves and do it legitimately and have F/Book pages they shouldn't. That’s entirely up to them and all good

17 luck to them. We are currently not promoting ourselves in the market place and should just concentrate on our own affairs and forget about him now.. Bruce Lawson asked if a Benimar owner who’s not a member of the club wants to get onto our Facebook Pages, how do they get on and find out about the rallies and things if they’re not members? Dave Pilbeam replied, That’s a really good question, the rallies that we hold are usually advertised on the BOC Web Page, the concept would be that the Facebook page would direct people to our Web page and they would get an overview of what’s going on there. That’s why I was happy to take on the webmaster post. Chairman David Pilbeam asked for a show of hands to indicate how many were not on Facebook. He then asked for a show of hands for all those in favour of the proposal to go ahead and set up a Closed group. The vote was taken by a show of hands and was carried unanimously in favour of the proposal. Graham Baines asked regarding publicity, could we have an announcement to go to our press office for informing Motorhomers magazines such as MMM, advising them that we have a new Facebook pages. Don Clark asked, could we advise MMM that this an official Facebook page? Dave Pilbeam asked, does everybody read the MMM? Honor Hewitt replied, that it was too expensive. Dave Pilbeam asked, did anyone read the article he had written and was published in the MMM, I think it was the April issue? and did anyone make sense of who it was pointed at? It was regarding Safe Rallying. I aimed this at a particular audience but to be perfectly frank, I don’t think many people can have read it, because it doesn’t seem to have had much impact on people from what I can make out. Ron Smith said, I think new Benimar owners and people who have just bought a van are those people are likely to buy MMM and subscribe to it. Graham Baines. Regarding our web Forum. An enquiry, possibly from a new member asked why the Forum had been discontinued. As was discussed at last year’s meeting, the Forum had been closed because of Andy Camper persistently monopolising it to promote his own FB group. To monitor it required going on every day, sometimes up to three times a day, to see what

18 his latest additions were for promoting his own FB group. With no one else willing to take over monitoring the Forum and, with the Clubs permission I put the Forum into 'sleep mode'. The aforementioned new member hadn't felt he wanted to be involved when joining, but now said perhaps he did. Could he be the administrator he had inquired? He’s a brand new member and we know nothing about him as yet. He’s not attended any meetings and doesn’t think he’ll be able to get to many meetings. So he’s basically asking for access to run our forum. Do we wish to do that and re-open the Forum or should we rely on the Facebook pages? Kevin Foster asked, should the club do some research on this person before writing him off? Graham Baines. Could I ask if you, rather than the committee would start the ball rolling. Would you have a look and see what can find out? Kevin Foster. Let me have his details after the meeting. Graham Baines. So just to confirm, we are going to leave the Forum closed until we do some research on the volunteer. Kevin Foster said, I think personally we’ve got a great man with new Chairman Dave taking us forward, I really do. He’s going to take it to the next level, Dave and Graham appear to have things sorted out about the Facebook page. Can I suggest a poster Graham? We are the Benimar Owners Club. This is our Face, if you want to put a face on? our contact details, our Facebook page, our website page and email. Pop along and get it on the walls of your local Benimar Depots. Chairman said, its got to be Benimar owners to do that. Graham Baines replied, great idea which we tried three years ago. We sent out a flyer by email to all the sales depts of all the New Marquis branches that would be stocking them. The email was headed Something to put in the window of your new vans awaiting delivery. The flyer led with New Benimar Owners? It told them all about the club, how to get in touch, what we did and what we're about. I asked the dealers if one could be placed in all the new Benimars they supplied. You can’t force them to do it and we cannot personally put things on Marquis' notice board? Ron Smith. Just one point on Marquis’s attitude, I pretended I was interested in a Benimar on their stand here. I got the information from the salesman and, as a passing shot I said “Is there an Owners club” and he said “I don’t

19 know”. He said there might be, have a look on the Marquis website and see what you can find. That was Marquis here promoting Benimar and he didn’t know. I had great hopes for Marquis & us but I’ve now lost all confidence. Graham Baines asked, how about for the next rallies we print out what has been discussed, staple it to a membership form and perhaps someone can take some to the Marquis stand to give them before the show starts. Chairman David Pilbream thanked all for attending and closed the meeting. THE MEETING WAS CLOSED AT 11:30 am.

10. DATE OF NEXT MEETING.

The next Annual General Meeting will be held at:

The National Motorhome Show Peterborough on Sunday April 19th 2020 at 10am.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

< As the BOC does not have any club apparel as yet, Brian decided to have his own cap made while on tour in Spain. As for me, Chris reckons this Editor job is aging me.> * * *

*The cat just chewed the Xmas lights!*

20 **** *** **********

“Go to Spain for some Winter Sun they said” !!! ****************************************

January 22 nd , Storm 'Gloria' hits Javea.

Seafront Los Pinos Denia

Javea Sea Front Camping Los Pinos

21 tech tips

Home Comforts Probably many of you have already taken the step of installing a remotely controllable thermostat in your home heating system, allowing you to turn down the heat setting even after leaving home and having forgotten to do so. Nicer still to arrive back to a lovely warm home having saved both money and pollution in the process. We had toyed with the idea, so when I saw the TADO thermostat on offer we made the decision. The TADO requires no contract and can be fitted by anyone who can handle a small screwdriver and a little knowhow*. It is simply a matter of removing your old thermostat, usually only a couple of screws (having first turned off the power), connect and fit the new thermostat. Finally plug a small box into your internet router and follow the instruction. Hey presto, dual control on both home thermostat and your smartphone. The smartphone screen right shows the present home temperature and the desired temp. Also 'Geofencing' which can be programmed so that when all occupants have left the house, the heating will automatically reduce to your pre-set 'away from home' temperature. It will automatically switch back to your 'occupied' setting when you return. Left s h o w s c u r r e n t h o m e temperature and humidity. While away you can monitor the house temperature & humidity and adjust accordingly. So with estimated power cost savings of around 40% for every 5 deg reduction in temperature it's easy to see how the purchase price of around £75 (from Amazon) can easily be recovered with such versatile control. The unit has never faltered in our test operation and can be extended to control individual radiators. A real travellers companion.

*****/5. Highly Recommended

*Only a Competent person should be involved with connecting Electrical Equipment*

22 tech tips 2 12 volt hairdryers? I have recently noticed a query on one of the forums about 12 volt hairdryers and what could be recommended. Most reports were in the negative, so we did a little research of our own. Two things became apparent. Either they weren’t hot enough or they consumed more amps than the average 12 volt aux socket could supply. On the one we tested, it required almost 18 amps! So with most of the aux. sockets fitted in Motorhomes these days fused at 10 amps, it was a no-go. (Please DO NOT attempt increasing the fuse size, it could result in overheating the wiring and causing a fire, therefore your insurance will be null and void!!!) The only safe way it could be operated was to use an in-line cigarette lighter type of socket, 20 amp cable and croc clips connected direct to the battery or easier and safer the 'Jump Start' tab under the bonnet! That worked fine and supplied a good safe heat. Just bear in mind that is nearly 20 ampere hours used from your 90/100 ah battery if wild camping. Obviously a dedicated 20amp socket could be installed, or even better, use a mains dryer and a 'Sine Wave' inverter of suitable wattage.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AGM NEWS

BOC SECRETARY Carol Beach has asked me to inform the membership that she will be standing down as Club Secretary at the forthcoming AGM.

Requirements The main job is to record and print the minutes of each years AGM. This can be as simple as Headings, Points made and Voting. However, it is essential for the Club's continuance. So, if you wish the Club to continue please consider taking on the position.

23 WALES BEACH GUIDE as featured in our facebook pages Secret Beaches of Wales. Member Don Clarke posted this guide on our Facebook pages, it appears to show some stunning beaches as you can see below. The web-pages are simplicity itself to navigate and give you so many options.

You can select from 7 coastal areas of interest, see blue buttons below.

Then the type of activity you are interested in.

more info from: https://beachguide.wales/beaches/secret.php

24 WATCH THAT PAYLOAD

The article by Ron Smith regarding overloading in a previous mag, rang a few alarm bells when we came to replacing our Motorhome recently. Should we continue with over 3.5tonnes and hope I pass the HGV medical every 3 years, or should we try to limit our payload now just in case. The thinking was, could we manage with a limit of 3.5t for Rallies and short breaks in the UK while having enough payload to install a towbar (60kg). A tow-bar and trailer would increase our legal payload enormously, in fact up to 5 tonnes on a normal licence with trailer addition (cat B+E). We had found a model that met this criteria, which if I passed the medical could be increased from 3.5t to 3.85t at no cost as this is just a paperwork exercise. Indeed, with the addition of rear axle air suspension and stronger front springs our GVW would increase to 4t. The cost would be £1600. Having taken delivery, the next exercise was to check the actual weight against what the manufacturer & dealer had claimed. Onto the weighbridge we went, shock surprise it was more than claimed, thankfully not disastrously so. Then we loaded everything via the luggage scales or personal weight scales. Finally we were at 3,850kg but where was the remainder of our kit going to go? Replacing the spring assisted table telescope with a table mount we already used saved us 27kg. The rear twin beds had a central ribbed support to make a double which we wouldn't need, another 15kg saved. Then, finally I unloaded the 12kg mains voltage stabilizer I had bought last year to rectify the very unstable mains at our regular campsite. New mains had been installed at the site and reports sounded promising. Bad decision, the cold snap triggered all heaters on and the volts dropped to 185v once more. Our AES fridge was chattering away all night so had to be run on gas, could I bring the regulator back as hold baggage on our planned short trip home I wondered? we await the airlines decision. Stop Press NO!

Finally, weighbridge specification tolerance. Well now, here was a surprise.

1. If a single plate weighbridge has been used to weigh individual axles or bogies or to add up those results to produce the gross/train weight of a vehicle, the accuracy limit is +/- 50 kgs per axle or as specified for that weighbridge by a Inspector of Weights and Measures.

25 2. The accuracy limit for gross or train weights of a multi-plate weighbridge is +/- 50kg multiplied by the number of plates used for the weighing. Where an axle or group of axles is weighed on the same plate the accuracy limit is +/- 100kg. 3. The accuracy limits of portable weighpads is +/- 100 kg per axle, with a consequential accuracy limit on gross/train weights of +/- 100 kg multiplied by the number of axles on the vehicle: compensating axles are to be assessed as a combined weight (applying the +/- 100 kg accuracy limit for each axle included).

4. So, it appears that I might have taken my 'weighing everything' a bit far, nonetheless I now have have a list of the weights of everything we might ever need to carry in the future. (Also the Quartermaster is now happy).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TRAVEL INSURANCE

During our travels we meet many 'Silver Surfers' and the topic of conversation rarely misses Travel Medical Insurance, the cost of which can be very high as we reach the 'cruising altitude' of motor-homing age. We personally experienced this after a major operation for 'the big one' some years ago. After which, even though given a 'clear for take off', our insurer suddenly upped the premium to £750 for 90 days in the EU. Many MHO's we have chatted with, have or are, suffering what can only be described as outrageous quotations, even with a now clean bill of health. We decided not to take this lightly and had a good look at the marketplace. Having researched on-line and spoken with many chums, we concluded the best premiums were being offered by the banks as an attachment to a Current Account. The two most mentioned by fellow tourers were offered by the NATIONWIDE BUILDING SOCIETY and BARCLAYS. Benefits varied depending on type of current account you open but the benefits are clear to see. With insurance premiums around £175 per couple for 90 days, extendable as a small extra, as long as no major surgery in the past 12 months and not on a waiting list it seems. If you can change banks, it appears to be a Win Win situation.

26 TRUSTED DEALERS AND CONTACTS Here you'll find listed some of the dealers members have used and been very pleased with. Please email me your recommendations too. [email protected]

LeisureTechServices, www.leisuretechservices.com CLITHEROE LANCs. (Well worth the journey!) (General servicing plus Fridge/Heating/Cooking/Aldi/Dometic) These guys have been in business for 40yrs and really know their stuff. Any problem with your Motorhome it really is worth getting in touch.

Tayna Batteries. https://www.tayna.co.uk Mail Order. 01745 823399 Internation delivery no problem. Batteries by mail order. Swift, reliable & Good prices. (I needed 2 leisure batteries while in Spain, they arrived in 5 days at half local prices). Marquis Preston. See new purchase review in BENIMAG Issue 71 Sept 2019. OutSmartTheThief Ltd. http://www.606060.com MOTORHOME SECURITY SYSTEMS SUPPLY & FIT. This firm have received great reviews on the Forums. Dragon Valeting Motorhome Valet & Roof cleaning, attend most Shows. 07762 076 829 AutoGas 2000 Thirsk. North Yorkshire. REFILLABLE GAS SYSTEMS FOR MOTORHOMES. https://www.autogasleisure.co.uk Very Helpful. Highly Recommended. Also stockists of Autogas.

Jackson Leisure WAKEFIELD https://www.jacksonsuk.com MOBILE SATELLITE SYSTEMS. TV's. SatNav. Solar. Phone 01924 848566 Great after sales service. (one member was phoned back in Spain at no cost with instructions on his Oyster upgrade procedure!).

27 Aires and Graces VOUVRAY, FRANCE.

THE RIVER CISSE near to the Aire de Accueille - VOUVRAY