Its lineage runs directly back to the American offshore tradition of John Alden, Philip Rhodes, and Olin Stevens—the three firms where Mason trained. The 43 evolved from the earlier wooden Mason 40 racer-cruiser and later developed into the Mason 44. In concept, it is essentially a wooden-boat design translated into solid fiberglass, with a long, full keel, a cutaway forefoot, and a rudder protected on the keel’s trailing edge rather than the fin-and-skeg profile that would dominate later cruising design.
Design and Construction
The hull is solid hand-laid fiberglass, more than an inch thick at the top of the keel and retaining a half-inch laminate up to the gunwale. By avoiding the sandwich cores common among many contemporaries from the 1970s and 1980s, the builders favored laminate longevity. Older boats used polyester resin; newer ones moved to vinylester.
Lead ballast is encapsulated within the keel rather than bolted on. The resulting appendage can take a head-on strike against a coral head or submerged rock without opening the hull. On older boats, the hull-to-deck joint consists of a bedded fiberglass flange with full-length stainless-steel straps. The teak toe rail and genoa tracks are through-bolted, with their bolts tapped into those straps.
Older Masons have marine-plywood-cored decks. Where teak decking was laid over the fiberglass, the screws extend into that core. Inside, the tank mounts, floors, frames, bulkheads, engine beds, and furniture were built heavily—sometimes to the point of robustness. Early-model joinery is rich in dark teak of a grade rarely found on modern production boats.
Rig and Sail Plan
The Mason 43 was primarily cutter-rigged, although a staysail-ketch version was also offered. The ketch proved popular with shorthanded couples because it divided the sail plan into smaller, more manageable pieces.
With 899 square feet of sail, the cutter is a quarter to half a knot faster to windward than the ketch. Reaching and running, however, the ketch benefits from the extra area of its mizzen staysail. In a strong breeze, the ketch must drop the mizzen to control weather helm, while the cutter must reef.
Both versions tack through 85 degrees. Once the hull’s five degrees of leeway are included, that widens to an effective 95 degrees.
Performance and Handling
Under sail, the Mason 43 is a surprisingly good performer. Reported figures include a 6.1-knot average to windward in 8 to 25 knots, 6.5 knots running before steady trade winds, and 150-mile days without strain. A 200-mile day, however, is beyond her.
The full keel provides immense directional stability, and the boat tracks well off the wind up to her theoretical hull speed of 7.5 knots, after which she becomes squirrely. That same keel also increases wetted surface and lengthens the turning circle, making the boat less responsive in light air and harder to handle in a tight marina.
The rudder sits well forward by modern standards. As a result, the turning radius is large, and when backing, the stern follows the propeller rather than the rudder. In a quartering sea, the relatively small, forward-mounted rudder struggles to swing the bow out of a broach. Significant prop walk in reverse also demands planning around the dock.
Loaded with cruising gear, anchors, spares, and full tanks, a Mason 43 will displace close to 30,000 pounds, compared with its designed displacement of 23,860 pounds. That mass, combined with a 37.6 percent ballast ratio, allows the boat to punch through head seas that stop lighter boats. It also produces a slow, predictable motion that tires a crew far less quickly.
Accommodations
Despite a waterline length of only 31 feet 3 inches, the Mason 43 has an expansive interior with substantial hull volume for stowage. The layout suits a cruising couple or a family with small children.
There are good double cabins forward and aft, along with a reasonable pilot berth in the saloon. Five bunks can remain made up while cruising, and with four people aboard, no one needs to sleep in the saloon.
The companionway is offset to starboard. The aft cabin is among the finest ever built: it is completely open to the saloon but can be closed off with a proper door. It has a full bulkhead at the head of both bunks, its own hanging locker, ample cupboards, and an excellent starboard sea berth.
The cockpit is necessarily shallow because the aft cabin requires headroom beneath it. Owners identify the cockpit as the boat’s most criticized design feature, although period reviews also describe it as deep and well protected for offshore duty.
Systems and Known Issues
The engine is mounted beneath the saloon floor and well below the waterline. This makes servicing difficult—and impossible when the engine is hot—and creates a flooding risk from potential back-siphoning through the cooling loop.
On earlier boats, the furniture was built over the plumbing and wiring. Troubleshooting and repairs can therefore require dismantling the joinery.
The plywood-cored decks on older boats are vulnerable wherever teak-deck screws penetrate the core. Over time, moisture can enter the laminate and core, gradually rotting both. The stated remedy is to infuse resin into the punky areas, then re-screw and seal the soft sections of deck.
Refits and Ownership
Pacific Asian Enterprises retained ownership of the molds and supervised every construction detail on new boats. That oversight helps explain the consistency buyers still encounter decades later.
If osmosis appears, the thick solid laminate makes the hull a strong candidate for peel-and-epoxy treatment.
The Verdict
The Mason 43 is a serious offshore passage-maker, built to a standard that later production cruisers rarely match. It rewards sailors who place safety, joinery, and sea-kindly motion ahead of marina agility and light-air speed.
Pros
- Encapsulated lead keel and solid-fiberglass hull tolerant of groundings and collisions
- Expansive, well-finished interior with a standout aft cabin and five usable bunks
- Sea-kindly and directionally stable, with the ability to make 150-mile ocean days
Cons
- Shallow, much-criticized cockpit constrained by the aft cabin’s headroom
- Engine buried below the waterline, making it difficult to service and creating a flooding risk
- Older plywood-cored decks can rot where teak screws penetrate; early joinery conceals systems
