I have one of these, also helped a new guy build one a couple years ago. I my first one I made the mistake of having too high of an angle on the prop shafts. The ship did not turn well and when I backed up the stern went under the water. Another guy had the same ship, it turned on a dime and backed up forever without sinking. So I asked him about how he did it and we compared ships. That winter I rebuilt my motor mounts and dropped the angle of the shafts to nearly flat. Now my ship turned on a dime and backed up without sinking. Your shafts have a pretty high angle and will have the same problem I did. The angle is high because you are using gear boxes. You don't need them in a cruiser, just use direct drive. I'd suggest changing. If you want to copy what I did look at the build articles on portpolarbear.com
You could also drop the gearbox below the hull to get the angle, then sand the bottom flush. I need to do this on my northamption, will post pictures.
Having longer shafts also helps with getting the angle down, as well as sanding down the bottom of the gearboxes.
