Tony,
As I recall, I followed the offsets quite closely. It has been about 3 months since I laid out the panels and cut them (I'm not working very fast on this boat!), but I do remember having a compound curve in my batten. I think the bulge is probably there to keep the sheer in line when the side panels are spread to the proper beam. (If you imagine looking at the side profile of the hull and increasing the beam by spreading the center top of the side panels, you could reach a point where the beam is equal to the total width of the bottom and side panels, the center of the hull is flat, and the bow and stern are pulled way up in the air, thus putting a very severe curve in the sheer of the boat. Of course, the plywood would probably break before you reached that point, so this is just a thought experiment.) Anyway, you might check with Grant Goltz, the Cormorant designer, to be sure you've laid out the offsets correctly.

I weight 176# and therefore, wasn't very concerned with the maximum load. Again, Grant could comment, better than I, on how heavy the boat could be loaded and still achieve reasonable paddling performance. I've never paddled a Cormorant and have no experience with the boat.

Keep us posted,
Dave