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Post by ianhunter on Aug 24, 2006 13:37:21 GMT
I agree with everyone else that the organisation was brilliant and a huge thanks to all of our Belgian and Dutch friends and to Bart for his advice and translations. One thing I learned about convoy driving is KEEP UP. Once again many many thanks to all involved and my name is down for next year already. ;D
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Post by Rick Earle on Aug 24, 2006 14:18:43 GMT
Hi all, sorry its taken so long but i have been run ragged at work! If this reads like a txt its because im posting on my phone. I and li had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, a big thanks to our continental friends and their sterling efforts. As for your comment's jay, when we got separated from our group on the way from the ferry to the meetin point, i made a concerted ,..........
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Post by Rick Earle on Aug 24, 2006 14:24:18 GMT
Continued..... Effort to catch the group and slow them so you didn't get left on your own, simon was also with you. I feel you comments are both upsetting and down heartening if that is the right term, to both those that put so much of their time and money into organising what i can only describe as a first class international event. A big thanks to all of you guys who made this even't possible.
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Post by John Ponting on Aug 24, 2006 14:46:27 GMT
A general comment re organised trips:
I have been attending and organising motorcycle trips in UK and in Europe for over 20 years. During that time I have become increasingly amazed by the number of people who don't even carry a map of the area or country. Scale doesn't have to be good enough to plot tulips but a map of Belgium e.g. would allow everybody to find their way via major roads and motorways.
Maps of Belgium were on sale in the shop at Dover as well as on board the ferry to Dunkirque. Even if I was paying the costs of a courier and travel guide, I wouldn't set out without a recent map. Even less so with a volunteer group - should the entire group have to sit and wait while I change a tyre or fill with fuel? Normally YES but when chasing to get a boat with limited time then NO.
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Be nice, i'm new!
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Post by on Aug 24, 2006 14:53:27 GMT
I was well prepared - I bought a Michelin European Road Atlas 2006 edition from my local shop - £11.99 for maps of every country in Europe and some detailed city plans too. As long as I have my mobile phone and a map, I'm happy to drive anywhere!
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Post by John Ponting on Aug 24, 2006 15:03:05 GMT
As long as I have my mobile phone and a map, I'm happy to drive anywhere! Good on you Andie - ++ the AA/RAC Breakdown and David's Gold Card!
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Post by herbie on Aug 24, 2006 15:16:52 GMT
..... John don't forget to have many many Euro coins for the parking machine
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Post by Adrian Clifford on Aug 24, 2006 15:16:53 GMT
Jay, I have just been reminded that you also mention regularly your Sally sat-nav, this makes your outburst even more surprising as there was no way you were going to get lost especially with the amount of paper maps we were given.
You claim to be able to drive anything on the road but you suggest an inexperienced 20 year old left you behind deliberately. Others, on their own and inexperienced abroad even went out of their way to help you.
You also inform us of the speeds you drive at, therefore suggesting you can handle a car as well as, or better than others, so why could you not keep up on the run back to the ferry and then find the need to blame others ?
If you were trying to upset and belittle some of the people on the trip you certainly succeeded if the mail I have received is anything to go by !
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Post by Jonathan Tully on Aug 24, 2006 16:25:52 GMT
It was a fast paced convoy back to the Ferry - one of the main reasons being limited time to travel the distance to the ferry. In my experience of using ferry ports I aim to get there at least half an hour before departure, ideally an hour before departure. The reality was that we turned up very close to the departure time. As an aside: to achieve this goal I sacrificed my dessert which did look bloody good (and apologies to Andie for having to get you to move your car ).Jay did make it onto the ferry on time, and I am glad of this, but it was the eleventh hour. Boarding onto the ferry was not quick - I know Emma & I got asked for passports on three seperate occasions. They had to open up additional kiosks - presumably to cope with the group of MG's. If we had all turned up at the same time as Jay, processing all our boarding tickets and passports checks would probably have put us past the departure time. Whether Norfolkline would have been willing to delay the ferry - who knows? It is not a gamble that I would like to take given the long journey I had to do once back in England. I am sure that I do not have to preach to the converted when I say that it can be difficult to drive at the back of a motorway convoy- as reaction times to driving inevitably leads to gaps in the group. A greater level of concentration is required to keep up. That is why it is important for the cars in front to keep an eye on the cars behind to try and prevent this happening. Despite best efforts it can happen though, and I feel it is also the responsibility of drivers at the rear to keep up ( especially when driving a sluggish MPI steptronic like mine)- provided they feel comfortable that it is within their ability of course. If there was an issue I would find it reasonable to expect a communication by radio or by phone. I understood that most of the group had radios, so made (perhaps in error) the assumption that everything was fine. My perception was that we overtook as, a motivating factor to signal that, we needed to increase the pace. Emma did drop back to try and regroup with Jay, but with the increased pace this became more difficult to achieve. Personally I think that Emma did a good job. A decision had to be made, as to the pace of the rear group and the position of the breakaway group, and I think it was the right one given the circumstances. My thanks again to Adrian for his efforts. I know that he has done his fair share of leading groups over the weekend, when in fact he could have been driving for fun ( without responsibility of worrying about a group mainly made up of cars with drivers and no passengers. ) I can imagine it can be a PITA to have this responsibility, and I for one am glad that Adrian was willing to lead. Despite my experience driving in Europe it can still be stressful driving on your own in a convoy or Tulip rally. I hope this incident doesn't put Adrian off doing it in the future. To end my post on a positive note I am glad that we all managed to get on the ferry, and genuinely feel that if we had not driven that quickly there was a high risk of the whole group not making the ferry departure. I would have liked to stay an additional day to avoid the stress and rush, but to me the weekend was a success. Jon
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Post by Tony Williams on Aug 24, 2006 16:53:17 GMT
Being on the tail end of the front group I dropped back to the point I couldn't see the group in front or behind, we were also out of radio range for BOTH groups. I knew Adrian knew the way but thought as I did I better find the rear group incase no one did in that group.
We were going to pull over to wait for the back group until I saw Emma and Jon in the mirror, so we just continued at the slow pace until they caught up. Once they were with us we all picked up the pace a little top cathc the front group.
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PinkJay
Running out of stars!
The PINKSIDE - 'stronger it is' - but you can't beat Black Leather - LOL.
Posts: 1,685
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Post by PinkJay on Aug 24, 2006 18:08:37 GMT
J....... you also mention regularly your Sally sat-nav, this makes your outburst even more surprising as there was no way you were going to get lost especially with the amount of paper maps we were given. You claim to be able to drive anything on the road but you suggest an inexperienced 20 year old left you behind deliberately. Others, on their own and inexperienced abroad even went out of their way to help you. You also inform us of the speeds you drive at, therefore suggesting you can handle a car as well as, or better than others, so why could you not keep up on the run back to the ferry and then find the need to blame others ? If you were trying to upset and belittle some of the people on the trip you certainly succeeded if the mail I have received is anything to go by ! Firstly - after a very hard day's work driving people around - Wot a load of twonk!!!!
Yes- I can, and do drive most vehicles on the road from time to time. Yes I value my licence. Yes we were doing highly illegal speeds in a country with on the spot fines and instant removal of licence rights. Yes, I did drop back to a very sedate 70-80mph, and yes I did make the ferry with plenty of time to spare. 'Sally sat-nav' was set to Calais for some stupid reason and if I hadn't of stopped I could have easily of ended up there. I can handle a car as good as anyone else probably on the trip - where have I suggested anywhere that i'm better behind the wheel than anyone else??? Convoy driving, as penned by yourself, means looking out for the person behind you - so why were newbie European drivers left at the back??? And............please enlighten me as to this 'mail' that you have recieved accusing me of belittling people??? If someone has a grievance with me please confront me in person.
Again - let me please aliterate, that i have just finished a 12 hour shift and return to find remarks like this on this forum. If I seem upset - you're right!!!!!
I had a fantastic trip. Met loads of new and exiting people, but feel strongly that I have been let down by the 'convoy exploits' of just a couple of people.
Adrain - thank you very much for the Triangle - super quality and a bragain at that price - plus thanx again for getting the Jack - toolkit is now back up to full strength - well, at least until I break summut else.
(Winge over and out)
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Post by Steve White on Aug 24, 2006 18:11:28 GMT
I'd just like to join in in thanking the voluteers for there time and effort. Having a fair bit of convoy driving under my belt now I know its always hard to keep a convoy together even if its very small. Yes there is some responsibility to keep the car behind you in sight, but there is an equal responsibility to try and keep up with the car in front. I was present on 2 of the occasions when Jay got separated so feel I need to write something in my defence. On the trip from Dunkirk you where behind me. This was odd for a start as you were not even supposed to be in my (yellow) group. But as we were the last group to leave I didnt have any issues with absorbing anybody into my group who had been left behind . We then hit the motorway, which we all knew we would be on for 20+ miles. Most of us sped up the speed of the traffic and tried to keep the other groups/cars in sight. Others didn’t. Rick then overtook you and sped up to catch me and ask me to slow when he noticed you were not keeping up. If it was possible for Rick to do this, how come you couldn't do it Jay? It was almost a certainty that the group would get split, but I knew this wasn't a big issue as the most important thing was that everyone was together when we exited the motorway, hence why I wasn’t overly concerned about you dropping behind. This is also why 3 miles from the exit everyone pulled to the right and slowed to allow the rest of the convoy to catch up, as well as announcing over the radios which exit you should take. On the second occasion it was on the way to the Kempenrit. Again Jay was behind me. While travelling through a town the lights changed and I made it through, Jay didn't. When I saw the convoy had been held at the lights I slowed as much as I could but still keeping the car in front of me in sight. It became apparent that the lights where going to take some time to change so I had to make the decision of continuing with the main group or stopping to wait and being lost myself. Had there only been a single car behind me I would have stopped without a doubt, but knowing that there was at least half a dozen cars behind Jay including a 'local' I knew there would not me an issue in continuing with the main group. I was not in the vicinity on the 3rd occasion but I am on the side of those who wanted to catch their ferry and so put their foot down. I’d have done exactly the same as Emma and the others had I been in that position.. At no point were you forced to wait for us to finish eating and leave. You could have left earlier to allow yourself more time to complete the journey without breaking any speed limits if that was a major concern. Most of us took the risk an left as late as possible knowing it would be a push to get to the ferry on time, and were very relieved to make it. When I checked in at 8:59 I was half expecting to be told I had a 2 hour wait for the next boat. I finally made it home at 2 am Monday morning after catching up Simon and following him most if the way. Would I do again? Oh yes See you next year....... “If there's one gripe re this event, it's the fact that several drivers haven't got a flippin clue how to travel in convoy!!!!! I thought you made sure you could see the driver behind you at all times, not sod off into the distance like a mad demon possesed and sod the person behind!!!!" I find that comment a bit odd, especially as the person it is aimed at recently co-drove on a 2K mile trip to Sweden and back so can categorically be described as an expert in driving in convoy on the continent.
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PinkJay
Running out of stars!
The PINKSIDE - 'stronger it is' - but you can't beat Black Leather - LOL.
Posts: 1,685
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Post by PinkJay on Aug 24, 2006 18:21:36 GMT
BTW - I shall def be doing this event next year!!!
But prob will make own way to Mechelen etc etc. Just had a couple of emails from other drivers who also feel similiar to myself, so it's not only me then???
Anyways - like I said - thoroughly had a great time and will recommend this event to anyone that asks. The organisation between Adrian, Daphne, Bruce, Luc etc etc, was awesome and the little 'blue' convoy was superb.
Just one thought: How comes the convoy of over 30 cars on the sunday stayed together?
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Post by johnstark on Aug 24, 2006 18:25:19 GMT
Ref to the concerns about convoy driving, did we all download the info that Adrian put onto the site, before we left for this trip. If so like me you would have realized that you had a responsibility only for the car in front & the one behind you, NOT the whole convoy
On the way to Dunkirk Adrian led our group ( as Jon's already stated he did this on numerous occasions ) Jerry was behind with me following & Steve behind me.
On numerous occasions I could see at first Ralph & then when she caught up, Emma was driving with lights on as per tail end Charlie. ( Well done Emma)
During this journey the two cars around me did drive in a perfect convoy format, with either Steve or myself blocking the road for the front two cars when required to be able to pull out & overtake when required. This being mine & Lyn`s first convoy trip abroad.
Only on two occasions did we go above the speed limit! which I confirmed with Jerry on the ferry, due to cars slipping in between us (with the car I`ve got its the same way I drive in the UK)
Again I would like to take this opportunity, in thanking All those who during there own valuable time made this all possible ( Dutch Belgium & UK MG F/TF Fanatics
John & Lyn
PS: Adrian yes we will still be coming next year!!!
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Post by colintf on Aug 24, 2006 18:26:01 GMT
Oh deary dear - it's all gone Pete Tong!! Lets not stray from the facts that our organisers (both sides of the wet stuff) and hosts did a fantastic job for us, and did us proud! I'm sure we all enjoyed ourselves. Everyone I've spoken to since has said as such, and are looking forward to 2007!!! Let's stop the winging - I would hate for those who put so much time and effort into our weekend to get the wrong idea, and think that we don't appreciate them, and worse still, turn them off for next year!
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