I'm 95% sure lasers outrange HPM of the same tech level. And lasers outrange same-level beam FC's. This means you'll need to be at a higher tech than your opponent in both BFC range and HPM range if you want to use HPM's from outside laser range. At which point I question why you'd bother with boarding attempts.
If you're opposed to fighters, you could have a fast ship with mostly shields for defense. This would dart in, blast whatever it could in 1-2 increments with HPM fire, then dart back out and wait for its shields to recharge. Instead of using speed to avoid beam fire like fighters do, you let your shields soak it up.