#BOATS FOR SALE – A 2005 version of an Aquador 28 sports cruiser is on the market through Fitzgerald Marine of Kinsale in Co. Cork.  This Finnish made boat is a popular model in Ireland thanks to the pionneering efforts of distributors MGM Boats who showed off the boats suitability of the robust hull to rough Irish waters when they first imported the Scandinavian craft more than a decade ago.

The Fitzgerald marine boat at €99,000 is less than half the price of a new boat. The 28 is the largest hard top boat in the Aquador range and a bigger example of the 26 Hard Top. Aquador always make a big play about the feeling of space  below deck and while this is true it is the practicality of the all weather hard top, the proven hull and wide walk-around decks that makes the Aquador 28 so safe for family use and thus so appealing for Irish boaters. Full advert here.

See all our motorboats for sale on the Afloat Boats for Sale site

#RESCUE – Castletownbere's All weather Lifeboat, the Severn Class Annette Hutton recently assisted an Aquador 32 motorboat with gearbox failure off Three Castle Head. There was a crew of 2 on board the cruiser. Footage (below) was taken from the lifeboat's PTZ camera and the crew's helmet camera.

As part of ongoing plans to expand its brokerage service (and promote the ranges of Sunseeker, Aquador and Bayliner Boats) MGM Boats Ltd of Dun Laoghaire is opening a new sales office on the waters edge, at Pier road, Kinsale. The office is expected to open by the End of February. "We have invested heavily in our Brokerage Department over the past two years resulting in a steady increase of Boat owners submitting their boat to us for sale" says MGM's Martin Salmon.

The Dun Laoghaire firm also has bases on Strangford, the Shannon and the English South Coast in Hamble. Salmon says the firm currently has 'tremendous value to offer the Cork boaters in quality used sportsboats, sailboats and motor cruisers'. In spite of the hard-times the award winnig dealership says it is looking forward to a 'prosperous season' on the south coast.

Kinsale is a leading sailing port in Ireland and this year the town and local yacht club hosts one of the biggest events of the Irish sailing calendar, the Sovereigns Cup in June.