GULF SHORES, Ala. — Besides partnering for 12 years to make LuLu’s into the iconic Gulf Shores destination it is today, Lucy Buffett and Mac McAleer are great friends.

“We’re the best of friends,” Lucy says.

And being great friends, they give each other great gifts.

“He gave me a boat for Christmas and he’s going to sink it,” Lucy said. “I’ve always wanted a big boat. I’m like ‘you’re giving me a boat? To sink?’”

The big boat is the Yokamu, currently docked at Walter Marine in Orange Beach just west of the Foley Beach Express bridge. Sometime soon, hopefully this summer, it will be sunk as a reef about 16 miles offshore in about 110 feet of water.

David Walter of Orange Beach originally bought the Yokamu earlier this year and had it towed to his business here. The big ship made quite a splash as it made its way from Mobile Bay westward to Orange Beach.

One spot it passed was LuLu’s Restaurant at Homeport Marina.

Walter said at the time it would take $500,000 to sink the boat. McAleer donated $250,000 as the naming sponsor of the reef and it will be called “The LuLu.”

“They asked me to name it and I looked up the definition of lulu,” McAleer said. “And the definition of lulu is a remarkable person, place or thing. I thought I’ve been associated with and lived with or worked with for a dozen years a very remarkable person. And we together have built this very remarkable place. So this is going to be a very remarkable adventure and we’re calling it The LuLu. Simply put.”

The state of Alabama donated $100,000 in seed money for the project. The Baldwin County Commissioners ponied up another $200,000. The cities of Orange Beach and Gulf Shores added $50,000 each. The most recent check pushed the total to $650,000.

Walter couldn’t be happier with the result.

“McAleer is a marketing genius,” Walter said. “He’s talking about having a barge out there with palm trees and a band for the actual sinking.”

“It’s another adventure for us,” McAleer said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun. There’s a lot going to happen around that. A party 20 miles out. We hope to have a barge out there with a band on it like we did when we brought this business here.”

McAleer said it’s just a continuation of the mission he started when LuLu’s first moved to Gulf Shores.

“I developed this place,” he said Saturday. “We’ve been partners for about a dozen years. It was an opportunity when they brought the boat down.

“For us and for me in particular, it’s a way for us to say thank you. We’ve been blessed down here for a long time. To be a part of LuLu’s for such a long time and the way the community has supported us.”

Buffett says its part of the way LuLu’s does business and a big part of that success is McAleer.

“He thinks outside the box,” Lucy said. “He comes up with the ideas. He asked me what I think and I think it’s a great idea. This is another way we like to do things a little differently.

“I think businesses get shortsighted and they get scared. What we have found is the community is what it’s made of and when we give back to the community it comes back to us in revenue. It just does. Not because it’s intended that way, that’s just how it works.”

According to Vince Lucido of the Alabama Gulf Coast Reef and Restoration Foundation, the project will bring more jobs and a different brand of tourist to the area.

“Scuba diving is adventure travel,” Lucido said. “Adventure travel is resilient and it’s trending upward at a difficult time. Adventure travelers are usual affluent, educated and spend money to do their sport.”

Just when the ship will be turned into an artificial reef is in limbo. The most likely time is June 2013, said Walter. But producers of the show “Reef Wranglers” have expressed an interest in filming the project for their show on the Weather Channel.

“If the television thing doesn’t happen, it will be around June, when the tourists come down and the water has settled,” said Walter.

If the television deal does happen, the actual date will be readjusted to fit their schedule, Walter said.