OUR CAPTAINS:
Capt. Dennis Kendrick aboard the DESTINY
Capt. Dennis Kendrick, age 58, was born in Birmingham, Alabama. He has 1 sister and 2 brothers. He came to Destin in March 1980 looking for work when the economy was shut down in most places. When asked what he likes to do in his spare time, he says he doesn’t have any spare time, but if he did, his favorite thing to do would be to watch football. His favorite team is a college that starts with the letter “A”. He was first introduced to fishing by his dad, became a boat captain at the age of 34 after spending 16 years on the deck of other boats, and has been a charter boat captain for 24 years.
He says the thing that makes the DESTINY so special is the hard work that the crew put in. On every trip, he hopes to catch every single fish he possibly can and make everybody have the best time they’ve ever had on a boat so they won’t want to go on another boat. When fishing with Capt. Dennis, you can expect the best service possible and that he and his crew will do everything possible to make sure that the customers have a great trip. He owned and operated his boat, the SCAMP, for 14 years before coming to the DESTINY. His favorite feature on DESTINY is that she has lots of room.
Capt. Dennis’s favorite fish is the Black Snapper because they are the hardest to catch and very good to eat. When asked for his favorite fishing story, he says he has too many stories to tell – LOL. His best fishing advice for inexperienced anglers is to stop watching fishing shows on TV and listen to the mates who are trying to help you catch fish. He says the most underrated piece of equipment on the boat is the angler themselves. His best advice for anyone going fishing is to take non-drowsy Dramamine (or similar) the night before the trip and take another one in the morning when you get up.
We asked the owners how the DESTINY came about, and they said they had one party boat, the DESTIN PRINCESS, and she was running 2 trips a day, but they still had more business than they could handle. It was suggested to them that they build a second boat to handle the additional customers plus make her a little bigger with additional capacity. Being accustomed to having a first-class vessel of which they could be proud, they had G&S Boats custom-design and build the 72’ DESTINY with a lot of class. As to the name, they wanted something similar to DESTIN PRINCESS, and after discarding about 100 name suggestions, they all agreed upon DESTINY. It was perfect, and she’s lived up to that every day.