A favorite TV character of mine once quipped that “remember when” is the lowest form of conversation. I have repeated that line in jest numerous times to old friends when our gatherings descend into wistful recollections of times past. It always gets the laugh I was after.
However, there is nothing wrong with longing for yesteryear. Clinical psychologists have done numerous studies that show these remembrances have outsized, life-affirming, positive effects.
The journeys down memory lanes supercharge our serotonin levels. Nostalgia can tamp away boredom and anxiety. Friends and couples feel more connected when sharing fond memories. Even when we are having difficult times, the love and happiness that nostalgia triggers can wipe the slate clean, at least for a short while. To quote Mick Jagger, nostalgia can “be your savior, steadfast and true [and] come to your emotional rescue.”
Recently, I was looking in our catchall storage bin for an appliance user manual. I came across a small, ringed keepsake binder filled with ticket stubs. With each page I turned, the farther away I got from the schematic diagram I needed to change out the oven cooling fan. I was in Yankee Stadium, deafened by the cheering crowd after a walk-off home run in a must-win playoff game. I sung along to every word of “With or Without You” on U2’s 1992 Achtung Baby tour. I felt the salt spray on my face during the dinghy ride under the blazing August sun to Fort Adams State Park for the Newport Jazz Festival.
That last memory is directly linked to my current occupation and to many of you who subscribe to Passagemaker, follow us on our social media channels and listen to Trawler Talk, our official podcast. Our emotional connection to boating is a braided rope that binds us to the fine reminiscence of time on the water with loved ones. It is imbued in the elegant design of the classic yachts we admire, and in the designs of new boats that bring the best of the past into our present lives. It’s the family photo in the cockpit or on the flybridge that is a screensaver on our laptops or our phones.
The bonds of boating also break down the walls between us. Nostalgia makes people more generous with strangers and more tolerant of outsiders. There is no gatekeeping in boating. Many of us, if not all of us, have asked the old salt a few slips down for advice, for an extra set of hands or to help diagnose an unfamiliar whine coming from the engine. Information is freely given, and all are worthy compatriots of a shared passion.
There is also no hierarchy in boating. In my role as editor-in-chief, I’m among the journalists who have been welcomed into rooms and conversations with captains of the industry—CEOs, presidents and yacht designers of multinational, billion-dollar companies. They are thrilled to share the stories of their brands and invite us on the latest launch. There is a camaraderie and a connection that, like the tide, lifts all the boats.
I have also been invited on many of your boats for a tour, canapes and an evening cocktail. It is those memories that keep me in the crest of the wave.
This article originally appeared in the July/August 2026 issue of Passagemaker magazine.
