"US Presidential hopeful Marco Rubio defends boat purchase

Republican Senator and Presedential hopeful Marco Rubio has come under fire for spending $80,000 on a fishing boat.

Could the most powerful man in the world be a boat owner? That would be the case if Marco Rubio is elected as US President next year.

The Republican Senator has come under fire this week for his personal finances, after the New York Times revealed that he used a book advance to buy a luxury speedboat.

However, a member of Rubio’s campaign team has revealed that the “luxury” model was not in fact a multi-million dollar floating palace, but rather a humble 24ft fishing boat.

It seems that Marco Rubio’s taste in boats is as conservative as his politics, since he opted for an EdgeWater 245CC (pictured above) fitted with a modest pair of 150hp Yamaha outboard engines.

As Senator for Florida, Marco Rubio will be no stranger to high-powered superyachts, since the Southern state hosts two of the US’s biggest yachting festivals – the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show in November and the Miami Boat Show in February.

However, the Times article takes aim at his decision to buy the EdgeWater, claiming that Mr Rubio himself admitted to a friend that it was a “potentially inadvisable outlay”.

The Republican National Convention will pick the party’s candidate for the next Presidential election in July 2016, with Marco Rubio going up against Rick Santorum, Rand Paul and Mike Huckerbee among others.