Fisher’s new Freedom 220 DLX has changed our views on pontoon boats for good! If the social aspect of boating is really what appeals to you, then look no further than Leisure Marine’s new Fisher Freedom 220 DLX – she’s big and bold, delivers in all the right places and ticks all the right boxes. Leisure Boating reviews this luxurious pontoon boat.
To be frank, I’ve never seen much use for pontoon boats. I’ve always thought of them as big and clumsy, and nothing as attractive as the sleeker, sportier and flashier-hulled deck boats we’ve reviewed here at Leisure Boating – or so I’d always thought.
However, my opinion changed in a big way when I joined Leisure Marine co-owner Phillip Jones and his family for a review of the Fisher Freedom 220 DLX along the Vaal River. From the notion that all pontoon boats are inept, I came to view these cruisers in a new light.
Within five minutes of being onboard, I was conjuring up images of bikini-clad models, basking in the sun and sipping on cocktails from this boat’s large lounge seats. With enough space to send a group-invite to all your Facebook friends, I quickly realised the social potential of the Freedom 220 DLX as a classy and sophisticated party barge.
However, I’ve been on pontoons boats before where construction and finish was a disconcerting issue. Whether it was the poer-poer putter of a tiny 2-Stroke outboard, or the clanking, rattling and banging of a loose hatch or grab rail — it was enough to put me off the whole social experience of a pontoon. So what makes the Fisher Freedom 220 DLX different from the abundance of proverbial rust-buckets currently on the market?
Small horsepower motors are usually the order of the day when you’re talking about pontoon boats, but not the Fisher Freedom 220 DLX! She comes rigged with a 125 HP 4-Stroke Mercury Optimax outboard, which offered more than enough horsepower to shunt the 220 DLX along at a comfortable pace, at least just for cruising.
