Spithill's LDV Comanche vessel finished in second place for line honours behind Mason's Wild Oats XI in the annual ocean race, however a close call in the early going has seen LDV Comanche awarded the win after a protest was lodged.
The incident involved a near miss not long after the start of the race at 1pm on Boxing Day.
"We kind of thought there was not a hell of a lot in the incident coming out of the heads. It was a 50-50 call at the end of the day," Mason said.
On their arrival into Hobart, LDV Comanche lodged their protest and it was upheld by an international jury of five from Germany, Australia and New Zealand.
They handed Wild Oats XI a one-hour time penalty, which saw them lose line honours and their record finishing time.
Both now go to LDV Comanche.
When asked if there were any hard feelings, Mason replied: "Absolutely there is. We reckon Jimmy's getting a little bit desperate for a win. But, anyway, he can take that, that's cool."
"We're obviously shattered. We broke the record and we're going to lose that. An hour penalty, we're struggling the fathom the reasoning, but that's sport.
"It's an ocean race. In all respect, we were surprised they wanted to go to the room but they've done that and this is the result. At the end of the day, you don't want to go to the protest room – stay out of it
"We were confused that they gave us an hour. We thought the penalty, if we were in the wrong and did our terms, would have probably cost us five minutes."
With an international jury, there is no right of appeal.
This is the first case since the disqualification of the American yacht Nirvana in 1983 in which there been such drama affecting a winner.
That year the drama was played out on the Derwent River when Nirvana failed to give Condor sufficient sea room and she ran aground and was stuck for five minutes.
Nirvana went on to win the race by 2min 16sec but the next day was disqualified by the race committee and the fastest team win awarded to Condor.
