Thumbnail photo: Del Norte High School senior Elle Jacot painted two Kamome replicas for the Boats of Hope art tour. One will be headed to Rikuzentakata during a student exchange in January. | Photo courtesy of the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce Four years after the friendship between Del Norte and Rikuzentakata found an international stage at the Tokyo Olympics, replicas of the fishing vessel that sparked the relationship will be featured in a local art tour. The Boats of Hope art tour will feature seven mini Kamomes placed at various places throughout Del Norte County. The project is spearheaded by the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce as well as Carol Zocchi, advisor for Del Norte High School’s Japan Club. Zocchi put out a call for students interested in pitching a design and inspiration for their boat to seven partner agencies, according to a chamber press release. The students were also able to earn an artist stipend. “The students worked on their boats outside of school hours,” Zocchi said. “Some of the students who proposed a boat design were not advanced artists, but they were passionate about the story and the similarities between their cultures.” The boats were hand crafted by Del Norte High School art teacher Nunzio Lagatutta. Woodshop teacher Eileen Silvey created the wooden stands. The art tour’s inspiration washed ashore on South Beach about two years after the March 2011 Tohoku earthquake ripped it away from the marina in Rikuzentakata. When then-sheriff’s Cmdr. Bill Steven learned the boat came from Takata High School, he recruited his son and other Del Norte High students who scraped off the barnacles and, ultimately, brought the boat home. That act led to the forging of a sister school relationship between Del Norte and Takata High and student exchanges that are expected to continue with a trip in January, according to chamber executive director Cindy Vosburg. “The cool thing is we have an eighth boat going to Japan, (so) they’ll have one as well,” Vosburg told Redwood Voice Community News. Del Norte High School senior Elle Jacot painted the eighth boat, Vosburg said. The chamber created the Boats of Hope art tour using funding it had received as part of the Go For the Gold Campaign, a $59,000 public relations effort aimed at capitalizing on an NBC Sports documentary about the Sister City relationship between Rikuzentakata and Del Norte County. “Kamome” had initially been scheduled to air during NBC’s coverage of the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, however due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Olympics were postponed to 2021. By that time, the NBC Sports documentary had already aired on the network’s online streaming platform, NBC Peacock. According to Vosburg, seven funding partners contributed to the Go For the Gold Campaign including the City of Crescent City, Del Norte County, the Crescent City Harbor District, Elk Valley Rancheria, the Fishermen’s Marketing Association, the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation and the Yurok Tribe. For the art tour, each partner organization chose a design that “best aligned with them,” according to the chamber’s press release. “They are on display at each of the funding partners (locations),” Vosburg said. “People can go around and see each of these boats and then stop by the chamber office and we have customized Kamome stickers for them as a gift.” The boat replicas are located in the Howonquet Lodge Lobby at Lucky 7 Casino in Smith River, the Fred Endert Municipal Pool, the Flynn Center building, the Crescent City Harbor Office, Elk Valley Casino and the Yurok Country Visitor Center.For more information about the art tour, click here.