BENI-MAG The Magazine of the Benimar Owners Club p 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.