I was reading the thread and you mentioned putting in air ducts thru the rake. How about lowering the height of rake and its lenght? Now on Offshore site, a gentleman from near GreenBay, Wisc., has an electric airboat using a 7 blade fan and from pictures has no rake or hardly any but the deep blue color really doesn't show a rake.Now from what i can see is rows which are high on the outer top side and a lower section to let air flow like down pressure system. Do a search there- chops airboat -are words to start the search. Also when Cajun Airboats site was up, a guy from somewhere had a similiar boat but was really neat. I tried contacting the guy but never got a reply, it was that neat. I have several airboats and regular monos. Speaking of steps, i'm not sold on steps as i think they would flip in turns. I round my bottom edges cause i like to glide in wide turns.Self-inflicted from florida has airboatswith the bottoms look like shallow V of regular boats which allow air to flow and keep theairboat flat on the water. Enough out of me._____********** How about a adjustable airfoil in front to keep nosedown a higher speed??!! Someone will come up with one with a gyro, wait and see.