: I've been staggering my way thru this same question.
: Why not build a test sample. A section of frame, a 3/4 square
: stringer ~ 2.5ft long. make up the joint you like best and one
: that someone else likes. Clamp the frame to a table leg, add
: weight to the stringer until it or the joint breaks. Beef up the
: joint until the stringer breaks in additional tests.
: Now you have as much strength as you can ever use.
: Publish so we all know.

I agree a test is the way to go, but I am not sure what would constitute an appropriate test. I have made joints with different adhesives and tested them to destruction to determine how best to make such joints. That seems appropriate for an all-wood boat in which failure of a joint or wood leads to potential failure of the boat. But I think the force interactions in a skin boat are more complex than for a rigid boat.

A skin boat can flex within the limits of the elasticity of the skin. The skin is an important structural component that provides much of the boat's strength, so the frame assembly itself needs to be able to flex to an equivalent degree. If the frame or any part of it is too stiff it will take a disproportionate share of the load and will soon fail. That is part of the argument in favour of using lashed joints. But I think such a test of a lashed joint would yield to such a degree as to render the test meaningless.

In the case of the Platt Monford Geodesic Aerolite designs, I have always thought the main value of the diagonal roving was to stiffen the frame to prevent distortion applying the skin, but PM's purpose may have been to obtain a stiff frame to relieve the skin of stress and/or to yield a stiffer boat which some people prefer. The roving works by converting bending forces into compressive forces which the light frame components are better able to withstand. On the other hand, the people who long placed their trust and lives in skin boats in the far North never used anything resembling diagonal roving.

This doesn't help us to decide how best to assemble a frame for a skin boat. I suppose it's good that we can at least ask the question; current practice needs to be questioned now and then. When theory cannot predict the best course of action all that is left is the experience of many boats and trial-and-error.