: The Return does have these spots. I just ignored them (I couldn't reach in to
: fix them anyway), but you could try to glue to the frame in those places.
: CA gel works well with the polyester. The heat tape may not be good in
: those situations. It is very strong when stressed in the direction of the
: fabric, but weaker when you pull up perpendicular to the fabric surface.

You may not need to worry too much about the fit of the fabric in areas that are concave. It seems to me that water pressure is going to force the cloth skin to assume a concave shape in any area that is relatively unbacked by wood stringers. Even if the fabric is stretched so that it sits above the stringers, as the boat is loaded the fabric will flex in -- and keep on flexing until it is supported by the solid wood. If you have a lot of stringers you have a lot of small concave surfaces. If your stringers are rather far apart you have a larger concavity.

It seeems to me that you could "tune" the skin to match any amount of concavity you desired by the construction of wood supports under the skin, and/or by loosening or tightening the tension of the skin. While current construction methods emphasize getting the skin tight, perhaps someone should look at the performance characteristics of a skin that is not so tense, and which can assume a shape influenced by external water pressure.

Just a thought

PGJ