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Magic Carpet Ride
The Freeman 33 is a superior power catamaran that won’t beat you up on those dusty days offshore.
By Sean O’Leary
Standard Equipment:• Extra deep round “half pipe” tunnel that eliminates “head-sea tunnel slap” and adds exceptional strength and wave dampening. Optional Equipment:• Custom polished anodized aluminum T-top, hard top option, electronics box, custom Coffin box, stereo package, coaming pads, T-top curtain package. |
Like the renowned South Carolina sportfishing boat builders of the past and present, Billy Freeman is serious about delivering a well-designed, superbly-built fishing machine, and his new 33 has turned out to be one of the nicest looking and best-performing power cat models to come onto the center console market in a long time. With a lifelong passion for fishing, hunting, and restoring and building boats, Freeman will tell you that he is a huge believer in the multi-hull design for offshore sport fishing. His 1990 24-foot Manta was one of the cat designs that helped set the stage for the multi-hull’s introduction in the U.S., but Freeman had visions of a brand-new design from the keel up. So, he left his full-time job as an installation expert for a large telecom company to devote himself to building a successful boat business.
The Freeman 33 was six years in the development stage, and the company is now well underway. With his blueprint for the cat complete, Freeman has delivered hulls number one and two, taken orders for hull three and four, and plans to ramp up production. The reason for the increase in orders? Simple. Freeman is delivering on a unique formula, designing and building a fully custom center console with cold-molded construction that utilizes epoxy resins and biaxial fiberglass along with Joubert Okoume plywood for the composite and Douglas fir for the stringers, keels, and deck beams. Bonded Okoume veneer is considered to be the strongest marine plywood on the market today, a perfect lightweight panel for hull construction. Freeman, who considers these materials the gold standards for custom boat construction, states confidently, “Demand for more efficient fuel economy for a boat this size and the need for greater stability in rough, offshore conditions combine to make this the ultimate offshore fishing machine.”
Freeman 33 Specifications LOA: 33’ 7” |
Freeman’s second customer, Captain Billy Wells of Cypress Cove Marine in Venice, Louisiana, describes his new Freeman 33 as a “magic carpet ride.” On one of his first fishing charters, Wells ranged 35 miles offshore. “We ran in a tight, deep, nasty chop, and even in a beam sea she rode on top, scootin’ at forty-five miles an hour,” Wells reported. “Runnin’ twin Suzuki 300s with about 175 gallons of fuel, we went out and back over a 22-hour period and found the boat to be very stable, with no bow steering and very minimal side-to-side action in a following or beam sea. And we caught ten yellowfin tuna that day!”
A couple of weeks later, on a windy day off of Mt. Pleasant, SC, Tom Crowley, a Connecticut native turned Charleston-based musician and Center Console Angler salesman and I met up with Billy Freeman. The night before, Billy and I connected for a couple of beers and some buffalo wings on Market Street in downtown Charleston, where he explained how he had started out as an apprentice in a T-top fabrication shop.
He soon realized he had the skills and the drive to start up his own restoration and boatbuilding company — at the ripe old age of 23. Twelve years later he considers himself fortunate to be doing what he loves. In discussing the features and design elements of the 33, it was clear to me that Billy jumped into the traditional South Carolina boat business out of passion, not just to try and make a quick buck. We discussed at length the benefits of the multi-hull design and formulated a float plan for the next morning, which would include running the 33 through its paces off Fort Sumter in the middle of Charleston Harbor.
My first look at our test boat was a profile view. It was impressive! Unlike some of the cat designs of the past, this boat did not give me the sense that I was looking at a stacked pyramid. The sleek lines are similar to an attractive mono-hull center console. Billy maneuvered the boat in heavy current and a gusty wind, and as he approached the dock bow-first I was able to get a good look at the tunnel, a half pipe design much like a Roman arch that Billy said gave the boat its incredible strength.
“Wow!” I thought to myself as I hoisted my gear over the gunwale. Everything about the boat was big, the result of the 11-foot beam—the “wide” difference between a mono-hull and a cat. The coffin box measured a huge 75” long and 34” wide, and I took a picture of Crowley inside it for scale. Obviously a fishing nut, the new owner ordered the coffin box with dreams of catching the mother lode of fish.
I found rod holders around the entire perimeter of the gunwale, and a total of 13 rocket launchers were welded on the stern side of the T-top, easily accessed from the bolster seat. This boat was outfitted with two 10” Furuno Navnet vx 2 display units with plenty of space to spare. The console could easily accommodate 12” monitors if you decided to go that route.
The wind kicked up to about 15 knots, creating what appeared to be a directionless chop on top of a hard outgoing tide. Running out of the channel, we throttled up to cruising speed and topped out in a head sea off the port bow a mile offshore. Comfort level, dryness, and quality of ride scored high on the scale, with no notable feeling of skittishness underneath when running over big parallel wakes.
Back into the calmer channel and one-foot seas, I put the 33 through her paces. At 2500 rpm we hit 18.1 mph, with fuel consumption (displayed on the Yamaha gauges) an average of 7.5 gph. The boat ran smooth and I sat back comfortably jotting notes as Billy throttled to cruise speed—at 4500 rpm we hit 36 mph and a 23.1 gph burn, a more than respectable speed and efficiency output from our twin 250 Yamaha four-strokes. “Very nice,” I thought to myself.
You can fully customize your rig to your own specifications, including choice of outboard power, electronics, fish box, livewell, and T-top configurations, and of course, hull color. With an emphasis on speed, the owner of hull number one chose to outfit his boat with twin Suzuki 300s. But at 6000 rpm our test boat reached a top-end speed of 48.1 mph with a 33.3 gph fuel flow, incredibly strong performance with the Yamaha 250s.
Before we returned to Patriot’s Point Marina, I backed down and also ran the boat at trolling speed, looking for unusual hull slap or awkward turns. There were none. She handled in close quarters and at slow speeds as well as she did at top-end.
When I interviewed Capt. Billy Wells over the phone about his new Freeman 33, he ended the call with these few words: “Sean, you won’t understand until you ride on this boat.” And he was absolutely right!
For more information visit www.freemanboatworks.com or send an email to Billy Freeman at
billy@freemanboatworks.com.