Greece to Normandy Convoy '09

[Lang]

Having just retured from 6 weeks in Europe flying around in vintage aircraft I now have time to start restoring my Chev ute and get more information to the convoy participants. (Members might be interested to see Youtube - look up "Vimy at Farnborough" or something similar, of a bit of excitement I had at the Farnborough Air Show a couple of weeks ago)

It was nice to catch up with some of the MLU members at Beltring - my impression of my first time visit to this show was it is a very expensive business having anything to do with military vehicles in Europe and UK particularly. There seems to be much less willingness to help each other out for a "carton of beer" or exchange of bits with everything having an increasing price (not just with dealers but amongst the enthusiasts themselves). Everyone understands this but it definitely makes military vehicle ownership a much more competitive and less friendly hobby.

Anyhow, we are lucky in Australia and although that attitude certainly exists with part-time "entrepreneurs", most of our convoy members have had willing help from many people to get their vehicles restored.

Lang

[Lang]

We have just been given a problem with Athens/Piraeus port and our convoy route is about to be hugely altered to start from somewhere else. It is good to see just about everyone involved came back with variations of "I am happy to go along with the majority"

I will put up the new (and I think even better) route for everyone to see as soon as shipping confirmation on the new port arrives.

Lang

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Lang

It was nice to catch up with some of the MLU members at Beltring - my impression of my first time visit to this show was it is a very expensive business having anything to do with military vehicles in Europe and UK particularly. There seems to be much less willingness to help each other out for a "carton of beer" or exchange of bits with everything having an increasing price (not just with dealers but amongst the enthusiasts themselves). Everyone understands this but it definitely makes military vehicle ownership a much more competitive and less friendly hobby.

Anyhow, we are lucky in Australia and although that attitude certainly exists with part-time "entrepreneurs", most of our convoy members have had willing help from many people to get their vehicles restored.

Beltring is indeed big business. As many shows do, it started small, a local show organised by club members donating their spare time. It has grown into a full-time business with permanent staff who have to earn a living. With entry prices for vehicle exhibitors and stall holders, people tend to feel they have to at least earn their money back.
Positive side of the full-time entrepeneurs in this hobby is that we see parts and vehicles shipped across the globe and money being invested in buying old stock which otherwise would have gone into the skip. I have friends who have invested sizeable sums in buying up spare parts for Sherman tanks, CMP trucks and jeeps which were about to be scrapped. These guys have to charge serious money for their parts to earn their investment in time and money back.

But it is great to see the CMP scene is still dominated by enthusiasts, rather than entrepeneurs.

H.