2 things that you need to do. First, ditch the dry cell battery pack and either go nicad 5 cell or LiPo with a voltage regulator. Sooner or later the dry cell pack will give you troubles. Second, you need to get the antenna vertical and out of the boat. Once you do these 2 things test the boat on land by working the rudder and throttle while someone watches them and you are walking away with the antenna at about 1/2 of its lenth.