Going Down With The Ship
By Clayton Wallace, Condo Owner Magazine, June 15, 2013
On Memorial Day weekend, almost 200 boats gathered together in the Gulf of Mexico 17 miles south of Alabama Point, near the Florida/Alabama border. The boats were on hand to see the sinking of the LuLu, a stripped and decommissioned former coastal freighter that officials say is the largest man-made reef in Alabama waters.
The sinking was a joint effort by the Alabama Coastal Reef & Restoration Foundation, the Alabama Gulf Coast Area Chamber of Commerce, Gulf Shores and Orange Beach Tourism, Walter Marine and many others. “It all started in June of last year when David Walter approached the Chamber about a 271-foot-long decommissioned coastal freighter he bought with the intent of sinking it as a reef,” said Vince Lucido, Chairman of the Alabama Coastal Reef & Restoration Foundation. “Within a few weeks, we had brainstormed and decided to form the foundation. This project went from idea to sinking in less than a year.”
Walter Marine, located in Orange Beach, deploys more than 90 percent of the artificial reefs in the world, according to Stewart Walter, son of company founder David Walter. Stewart Walter said his father, a veteran of more than 30 years in the artificial reef business, purchased the LuLu – then named the M/V Yokamu – “on a whim and hoped he could sell it.”
According to Lucido, Walter said he needed approximately $500,000 to get the ship ready to sink. After approaching several chamber members, the cities of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach along with Alabama state officials, Walter said he had approximately half the money needed. That’s when Mac McAleer, a former Krispy Kreme CEO and owner of Homeport Marina in Gulf Shores came through with a $250,000 check to make the sinking a reality. According to Lucido, the foundation raised more than $650,000 to sink the LuLu.
Along with the check came the naming rights to the vessel. McAleer presented Walter and Lucido with the check during a Chamber of Commerce gathering at LuLu’s at Homeport Marina, and announced the new name of the ship would be the LuLu. He said the name had a two-fold meaning. Lucy “LuLu” Buffett is a close friend of McAleer, so it was in honor of her. However, he said the definition of “lulu” also meant an extraordinary person, place or thing.
Lucido said he feels confident the LuLu will put Alabama on the map, so to speak, as a diving destination. “We hope the LuLu can do for us what the sinking of the Oriskany did for Pensacola,” he said. The U.S.S. Oriskany is a decommissioned U.S. Navy aircraft carrier that, since 2006, has found its home in 220 feet of water 22 miles south of Pensacola.
The “Mighty O” as it was called was part of a pilot program for the Navy that sunk decommissioned naval ships for use as artificial reefs. A 2008 study conducted by the University of West Florida said the Oriskany has had a profound effect on Pensacola as a diving destination.
According to Visit Pensacola Communications Director Val Palmertree, the study concluded that 4,200 chartered dive trips were taken to the Oriskany during the first year, with average expenditures from non-local dive trips estimated at $463 per person with dive-trip related expenditures of $2.2 million, creating an economic impact of nearly $4 million for Escambia County in 2007. She said although no studies have been commissioned since 2008, all indicators point to the economic impact being greater now.
“Data indicates that the Oriskany has been a strong tourism driver for Escambia County over the past seven years, and we’re confident that diving enthusiasts continue to be drawn to the Pensacola Bay Area, due largely in part to the Oriskany,” Steve Hayes, vice president of tourism for Visit Pensacola said. “Over the past few years, we have seen continued tourism growth across the Pensacola Bay Area, and this is in part due to increased awareness of our destination. Without a doubt, our natural assets are a big draw to those visitors looking to get back to nature or explore it in very immersive ways. Certainly diving on the world’s largest artificial reef is one of them.”
Lucido said there are several differences in the diving experience for Oriskany and the LuLu. “The Oriskany is certainly a much larger ship – about three times as long as the LuLu – and it’s a much deeper dive than the LuLu,” he said. “To get down to the Oriskany’s decks, you have to be an advanced technical diver because it’s deeper than 130 feet. We wanted to place the LuLu in waters that divers of all experience levels could explore, so it’s sitting in about 120 feet of water with the deck about 90 feet from the surface.”
Lucido said the foundation has plans to sink two more ships by 2015, and plans are in the works to make a “diving trail” for boats off the Alabama coast. “Eventually we’d like to have our own trail,” he said. “But in the meantime, I’ve been in contact with some people from the new Florida Panhandle Shipwreck Trail to see if we might be able to be a part of that since the LuLu is so close to the Florida line.”
According to Hayes, the Florida trail has already made an impact on the area as a diving destination. “The Florida Panhandle Shipwreck Trail provides visitors with the opportunity to learn first-hand about the Pensacola Bay Area’s rich maritime history, while exploring our underwater heritage sites. Here along America’s first European settlement, our history is certainly a story we aim to highlight, and the trail grants us the opportunity to do so in a new way, by maximizing the visibility of our dive sites through their historic significance,” he said. “Though the trail was just launched late last year, we have reason to believe that we’re already attracting travelers looking for that kind of experience along the Gulf Coast.”
Before the LuLu was sunk, David Walter, who has now deployed 13 ships as artificial reefs, said he felt confident in the plans they had for sinking the ship. “If I do it right, it’s supposed to be sitting upright with the highest tip 60 feet below the surf,” he said. “If it doesn’t end up like that, I’ve messed up. I hope I get it right.”
According to Lucido, he, along with about 20 other divers explored the LuLu on Memorial Day. When asked if Walter got it right, Lucido said “Oh yeah. He got it right. I’d give the whole project 10 out of 10.”