When the fish are farther out.

Performance, range and the offshore catamaran have changed what a serious center console can do.

Freeman Boatworks / Water — Boats & Yachts

Sometimes finding the fish means going farther. And sometimes going farther changes the boat you want underneath you.

Freeman represents a very different side of modern offshore fishing — large power catamarans, multiple outboards and open-deck layouts designed around covering serious water.

It's less floating lodge. More offshore machine.

The catamaran

Two hulls change the conversation.

The twin-hull form has become one of the more interesting developments in offshore fishing. Width without weight. A ride that treats a building sea differently than a deep-V does. Deck space that would be unthinkable on a monohull of similar length.

None of that makes the cat universally better — it makes it a different set of trade-offs, chosen deliberately by people whose fishing happens a long way from the inlet.

Overhead view of a Freeman catamaran running, showing its twin hulls and outboards

The run

When farther becomes possible.

Aerial view of a line of Freeman catamarans running together offshore

Range is the quiet feature. Not because anyone needs to run flat out, but because having the fuel, the ride and the confidence to reach farther water changes which days are worth going.

The best offshore crews aren't chasing top speed. They're chasing arrival — getting there early, fishing longer, and still having something left for the trip home.

Aerial of Freeman catamarans running side by side across dark open water — Image courtesy of Freeman Boatworks

The deck

Built around the fishing.

Open cockpit. Helm forward under a hardtop. Rod storage, live wells, fish boxes, electronics and enough clear deck for a crew to work a fish from any corner of the boat.

The layout reads as simple, which is the point. Everything that isn't fishing has been designed out of the way.

The power

A wall of outboards.

Freeman catamaran running with its bank of outboards visible on the transom

Modern multiple-outboard installations have their own visual language — a transom lined with identical cowlings, digital controls, joystick docking, and a level of reliability that made long offshore runs on outboards normal.

Exact power packages vary by model and by owner, so we'll leave the numbers to the builder. The impression, standing on the dock behind one, needs no specification.

Why WakeLuxz

A different way to chase the same adventure.

Put Viking and Freeman beside each other and you begin to see how broad the sportfishing world really is. One approaches offshore fishing through the sportfishing-yacht tradition. The other through the modern performance center-console cat.

Different machines. Same horizon.