The survey's $1,500. The boat's $299,000. The mistakes cost more than both, and nearly all of them happen before the surveyor even steps aboard. It's the question you didn't ask, or the paperwork you never pushed for. Or the patch of deck you walked straight over without a clue what was under it.
We bought a cat, refitted her stem to stern, held NZ Cat 1 through four offshore seasons and wrote twelve free guides about what we learned along the way. The guides give you the know-how. The Buyer's Pack is the version you actually take to the boatyard, printed out, tick-the-box, pencil in hand on survey day.
What's in the pack
- The pre-survey checklistWhat to check and ask before you spend a dollar on a surveyor. It's the fifteen-minute walk-through that rules out the wrong boats for nothing.
- The survey-day checklistWhat to keep an eye on while the surveyor works, what to photograph, which answers you want in writing, and the questions surveyors wish more buyers asked.
- The sea-trial checklistEvery system, under way, in order: engines, rig, sails, steering, electronics, autopilot. Nothing gets skipped because everyone's a bit excited.
- The NZ Cat 1 preparation listThe certificate that takes a lot of the guesswork out of an offshore purchase, itemised. What the inspectors look for, and what it tells you about a boat that holds it.
- The US tariff & landed-cost worksheetA fill-in spreadsheet that turns "so what would she actually cost me to get home?" into a number. Tariff by country of build, shipping, state taxes.
- Questions to ask a sellerThe one-pager that sorts the honest listings from the good stories. It includes the questions we'd want asked of us, and we answer them.
USD $39 · one-time · instant download
A 15-page illustrated PDF, every checklist laid out with real tick-boxes, plus diagrams for the walk-through route, the Cat 1 domains and the tariff rates. The landed-cost worksheet comes as a working .xlsx spreadsheet that does the sums for you. Buy it once and use it on every boat you go and look at.
Not ready yet? All good. Join the list and we'll let you know about updates and new packs.
Why it's $39 when the guides are free
The guides will always be free. They're how you found us, and we don't reckon the know-how should sit behind a paywall. The pack's different: it's the working documents, set up to print, laminate and tick off with a pencil in one hand and a torch in the other. If it saves you paying for one survey on the wrong boat, it's paid for itself forty times over. If it catches one thing the excitement would've walked straight past, it's paid for the delivery fuel too.
Questions we get asked
Is this specific to the Fusion 40 or NZ?
No. The checklists work on any cruising cat, anywhere. The Cat 1 list and the tariff worksheet are the extra depth for the two routes our readers take most, buying in NZ and importing to the US.
Does buying this get me anything toward Mā Tori herself?
If you end up buying our boat, mention the pack and we'll knock ten times its price off at settlement. Fair's fair, you did your homework.
What if it's not useful?
Email us within 30 days and we'll refund it, no questions asked. We're cruisers, and our name around the anchorage is worth a fair bit more than $39 to us.
Do the free reading first: buying a catamaran in New Zealand, best cruising catamarans under $500k, US boat import tariffs and owner-built vs production cats. And if you want the boat that taught us all of it, Mā Tori's for sale.