Advice for best way to attach solar blanket to reel ?

I bought a solar blanket and reel. Assembled the reel (more of a project than I would have guessed), and carefully measured and cut the blanket just right to fit my irregular Roman style pool, with semi-circle walk outs at each end. The cut is perfect – I thought I was cruising, until I encountered a problem with best way to attach to the reel.

The fastening system that came with the reel (“Elite Reel Systems”) seems to assume that the reel is place at the very edge of a rectangular pool. They provide a cover plate system that would require the strap to then fold around the edge of the blanket. However, with my Roman style pool, I have to position the reel about 4 feet inside to where the pool becomes rectangular (and then have that 4 foot section flap over.) So it is impossible to have the strap fold around the edge of the blanket the way the plate system assumes.

I found these solar blanket fasteners online, and they seem like they would provide a workable solution to attach the straps to the blanket.

http://www.doheny.com/poolsupplies/S...FQoZQgodtkdJTg


But I am also wondering what the best way is to attach the other ends of the straps to the aluminum tube. The straps come with Velcro tabs, and the idea is to just use the built in adhesive to attach the Velcro tabs to the tube, then Velcro on the straps. It strikes me as not very durable or lasting. When I look at the fasteners in the link about to attach to the cover, it seems like a screw is going right thru the cover and two plastic pieces holding it tight, and looks like it would be durable. I am wondering if really it would be better to just use something similar to screw into the aluminum tube rather than just Velcro.

Anyone have any good experience or suggestions with a good way to attach, both the straps to the cover, as well as the straps to the aluminum tube.

Thank you