M, 

all spray skirts are going to have a thick cord that goes underneath the coaming and snugs up against the risers (the vertical part).

while the petrel coaming is sunken, there should be plenty of space for the cord (maybe not your fingers and the cord, but certainly the cord).

if you don't have space for the cord, you might want to file back the coaming lip to open up the space enough.  it sounds like you may have slightly mispositioned the coaming a little too far aft which may be why it is closing up like that.  

on my petrel, i push the skirt's cord under the coaming lip in the back as my first action and then pull it forward to complete getting the skirt on.  its pretty much impossible to do it if you don't start in the back first.  so order of putting the skirt on may also be an issue.

h

H,

Thanks for the response. I should have been clearer. The Seal skirt has an almost 1/2" OD preventing attachment of the skirt into the recessed hatch gap on the S&G at 4&8 o'clock. Alignment of combing is fine it's just that particular skirts band is ginormous. I'm looking for the skirts folks with S&G Petrels use for comparison.

Thanks,

M

just measured my CLC-purchase seal skirt for my petrel....yep...just under 1/2 inch OD.  fwiw...while you may consider it 'ginormous', this is a standard size band for a neoprence skirt (i have three of them from different manufacturers and just looked at them all).

that said, it fits my petrel just fine

a nylon skirt may have a slightly thinner cord...but not sure there is a manufacturer who would do a neoprene skirt that would be different than what you have.

i would call CLC and ask them about the fit.   they have lots of experience and a petrel S&G in the shop for demo purposes (i live close to their place in annapolis and am a frequent visitor).  they can give you a definitive answer if this is a skirt problem or maybe just an indication that you need to trim the lip back a bit or some other issue. 

sounds frustrating....curious to hear how it resolves.

h