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I have had a Yamaha F70 on my 1999 Alert 17 for 3 years now and I can tell you it is a great motor for a 17 ft Whale, great fuel economy,pushes my boat with 2 adults and our fishing gear 36.4 mph and I can coax anther 1 to 1.5 mph out of it with just me ( 160 ) and very lightly loaded. I run a Yamaha Performance Series stainless steel 13.25 x 14 prop mounted all the way up. That said if you want to haul 4 people you may want more power. IMO the Honda is too heavy for a 17 Montauk and will affect boat handling in an adverse way. If I needed more power than 70 hp my choice would be the 320 lb Etec90. I used to have 386 lbs of motors on the back of my boat ( main motor and kicker ) and my boat handled like a tank and also took an occasional wave over the transom, after repowering with the F70 and a 6 hp Tohatsu kicker for a total of 319 lbs I noticed a huge difference , the boat handled like a sports car, the ride was softer, and no more waves over the transom. Sometimes I take my kicker motor off and just run the F70 and it handles even better. I have found out 320 lbs is fine, thus if I needed 90 hp I would go with the Etec 90. I know some will say the 360 lb Honda is fine and maybe it is for them, but this is what I have found out from personal experience. I use my boat only on Lake Erie so I am talking about all kinds of sea conditions. Just my 2 cents. Hope this helps.