At this point, I experienced a minor disaster. When carrying the boat back to the deck where I'm working on it, I must have run the stern into something. I managed to tear a small hole in the fabric, right at the stern. It's about an inch long.
Since this is a brand new boat, not yet even finished, I'd really like the repair to be invisible as possible. My first thought was to carefully remove a few of the staples from the stern (or undo a bit of the stitching, such that I could get to the inside of the rip. Then I could glue a small patch of fabric over the rip with epoxy. Sanded smooth from the outside and painted, it would probably disappear. However, I'm new to this sort of boatbuilding and will welcome any suggestions!
I forgot to mention, the round hole by the shear is intentional - it's for the stern rope handle.