Mason sailboats for sale

Buying a used Mason: two design generations from one yard, one importer

A used Mason is a bet on a full-keel, offshore-cruising design carried through one Taiwan builder and one importer's support network rather than on any single model. Pacific Asian Enterprises controlled the entire chain — commissioning the design, contracting the build at Ta Shing, and marketing the result — so a boat's documented maintenance history matters at least as much as which model or model year it carries, since the underlying design itself changed only once across the whole run.

Which era to target

The first Mason generation — Al Mason's 33, 43, 53, and 63 — launched in 1978 and numbered 132 hulls by the time production wound down in the mid-1980s. From 1984 to 1988, PAE reused those same hulls but fitted new deck designs and interior layouts to create the 34, 44, 54, and 64; Jeff Leishman carried out that redesign alone, after Al Mason had withdrawn from active design work, and roughly 80 of these later boats were built. Choosing between the two generations means choosing between Mason's original deck and interior arrangement and Leishman's later reworking of it on the same hull, worth confirming before comparing two boats that share a hull form but not a layout.

What to inspect across the range

On the Mason 43, boats.com's review found the cockpit to be the design feature most criticized by owners, and flagged the engine's position, mounted below the saloon floor and well below the waterline, as both hard to reach (especially once hot) and a flooding and back-syphon risk. Older 43s with teak decking laid over a plywood-cored deck are also worth checking for water intrusion at the screw penetrations, which the same review found can rot both laminate and core over time; the documented fix is resin infusion and re-sealing of the soft sections. On the Mason 53, sailboat-cruising.com reports that owners' most common complaints are the maintenance issues that come with an aging boat generally, leaks, corrosion, and outdated systems, a reminder that even a well-regarded Mason rewards a full systems survey rather than a hull-only inspection.

Navigating the lineup

Size is the simplest way to sort the lineup: the 33 is the smallest and most affordable entry point, the 43 and 44 form the marque's mid-size backbone, and the 53 and 63 sit at the top as the largest offshore boats Mason built. From there, the full model directory on this page is the place to compare specific listings within whichever size and era fits.