Boston Whaler Montauk 17 vs 170: Which One to Buy

You’re looking at two listings. One says “Boston Whaler Montauk 17” and asks $13,000. The other says “Boston Whaler 170 Montauk” and asks $52,000. Same brand, same nameplate, same seventeen-ish feet — and a $39,000 gap that nobody in either ad bothers to explain. Here is what actually separates them, what our own listing data says each one is worth, and which of the three Montauk generations you should be shopping.

The short answer

They are not the same boat. Boston Whaler replaced the classic 17 Montauk with the 170 Montauk at the Miami Boat Show on February 14, 2002, and the 170 was redesigned again for 2018. That gives you three distinct boats wearing one name:

Generation	Years	LOA / beam	Dry hull weight	What you’ll pay
Classic 17 Montauk	1976–2002	16’7” / 6’2”	900–950 lb	$14,000 median
170 Montauk, gen 1	2002–2017	17’0” / 6’10”	~1,400 lb	$20,000 median
170 Montauk, gen 2	2018–present	17’4” / 7’3”	1,700 lb	$52,250 median

Prices are median asking prices from the BoatVerdict listing index — 225 listing observations collapsed to 58 distinct boats (28 classic, 15 gen 1, 15 gen 2). See the data section below.

The verdict most buyers should hear: the 2003–2017 170 Montauk at around $20,000 is the best raw value of the three. It carries a modern four-stroke without transom anxiety, it has already taken its depreciation, and it costs a third of what a 2018-plus boat costs. The classic is the better buy only if the hull is verifiably dry. The 2018-plus 170 is a wonderful boat that you are buying at close to new-boat money.

What actually changed in 2002

The classic Montauk traces to the 16-foot Whaler hull of the late 1950s — a nearly flat, foam-filled hull with the distinctive “smirk” in the bow sections. Boston Whaler introduced the 16 Montauk in 1973, reshaped the hull within the same dimensions in 1976 and renamed it the 17 Montauk. Finished hull weight went from 750 to 900 pounds in that change, and in 1998 rose again to 950 pounds when the maximum outboard rating moved from 90 to 100 hp.

Then four-strokes happened. By the early 2000s heavy four-stroke outboards were taking over the market, and the classic transom was never designed for them. So in 2002 Whaler stretched the boat to 17’0”, widened the beam to 6’10”, pushed the hull further toward a V and deleted the smirk. Dry hull weight jumped roughly 450 pounds. That is the 170 Montauk.

For 2018 — Boston Whaler’s 60th anniversary year — the 170 grew again: 17’4” long, 7’3” of beam, a reshaped running surface with a sharper entry, 16 degrees of transom deadrise, and 1,700 pounds of dry hull. The console got wider and taller, and, critically, the portable on-deck fuel tanks were replaced by a built-in 25-gallon tank.

That last change is the one buyers underrate. Both the classic Montauk and the pre-2018 170 carried fuel in portable tanks under the reversible pilot seat — usually a pair of 6- or 12-gallon jugs you fill at a gas station and lift into the boat. If you have never done that with a full 12-gallon tank, understand that it weighs about 80 pounds and it does this every single time you go boating.

The spec sheet, side by side

	Classic 17 Montauk	170 Montauk (2018+)
LOA	16’ 7”	17’ 4”
Beam	6’ 2”	7’ 3”
Transom deadrise	Very shallow, “smirk” hull	16°
Dry hull weight	900–950 lb	1,700 lb
Max horsepower	90, then 100 from 1998	115 (90 minimum)
Max engine weight	Rigged for ~250–260 lb two-strokes	410 lb
Fuel	Portable tanks under the seat	Built-in 25 gal
Draft	Roughly 9” with the engine up	12”
New price today	—	~$62,900 with trailer

Salt Water Sportsman’s test of the 170 with the standard Mercury 90 hp FourStroke recorded a 39.4 mph top end, a 20 mph cruise at 3,500 rpm burning 3.2 gph, and roughly 144 miles of range. That is a genuinely capable small boat. The classic, running a light two-stroke, is faster to plane and shallower — and considerably wetter and harder-riding in a chop, which is exactly the complaint the 2002 and 2018 redesigns were built to answer.

What our listing data says

We pulled every Montauk-titled listing in the BoatVerdict index, stripped out the 150, 190 and 210 Montauks and anything whose length didn’t read as a 17-footer, then collapsed reposts and price drops so each physical boat counts once. That leaves 58 distinct boats from 225 listing observations.

Generation	Boats	25th percentile	Median ask	75th percentile	Full range
Classic (≤2002)	28	$9,500	$14,000	$16,500	$1,700–$35,000
170, 2003–2017	15	$19,900	$20,000	$23,900	$13,900–$38,000
170, 2018+	15	$49,000	$52,250	$53,900	$29,500–$63,231

Three things jump out.

The Whaler premium is real and roughly 2x. Across 92 non-Whaler center consoles between 16 and 18.5 feet from model years 1980–2002 in the same index, the median ask is $6,900, with the middle half between $6,399 and $9,995. The classic Montauk’s $14,000 median is about double that. You are paying for foam-core flotation, a brand that resells, and a hull that people still restore forty years on.

The classic has almost no year curve. A 1985 and a 1997 land in the same money. Condition, engine and trailer decide the price, not the model year — which is why the classic range runs from $1,700 to $35,000 for boats with identical spec sheets. Read the boat, not the calendar.

The 2018-plus 170 is barely discounted from new. A $52,250 median against a roughly $62,900 2026 base MSRP means a used late-model 170 saves you about $10,000 on a $63,000 boat. Whaler resale is famously strong, and here it works against the used buyer. If a new one is within reach, run the new vs used comparison properly before assuming used is cheaper.

Sample-size caveat: 15 boats per 170 band is enough to trust the middle of the range, not enough to price a specific hull to the dollar. Use these as anchors, not appraisals.

The one thing that kills a classic Montauk

Waterlogging. Whaler hulls are a fiberglass skin bonded to a solid foam core, which is what makes them unsinkable — and what makes them ruinous when water gets in. Water finds its way through unbedded screw holes, cracked transom fittings, rub-rail fasteners and drain tubes, and the foam holds it. A saturated Montauk can gain hundreds of pounds. It sits low, it won’t plane properly, and drying it out is a project measured in seasons, not weekends.

Check for it before anything else:

• Weigh the boat and trailer at a truck scale or grain elevator. It costs a few dollars. A classic 17 Montauk hull is 900 to 950 pounds; add the engine, tank, trailer and gear and you should have a number you can reason about. A hull hundreds of pounds over is telling you why the ad says “needs a little TLC.”
• Look at the waterline in the slip. A classic that floats stern-down with nobody aboard is either overpowered or wet.
• Moisture-meter the transom and the bilge area and pull a couple of screws to see whether they come out damp.
• Inspect every through-hull, drain tube and fastener for the caulk-and-hope repairs that let water in to begin with. Soft or spongy transom is a different and equally expensive problem — the signs are in our transom rot guide.

Then there is the engine question. The classic hull was rigged around carbureted two-strokes weighing roughly 250 to 260 pounds. A modern 90 hp four-stroke runs about 350 to 400 pounds depending on brand and generation. Bolting one on works, but it squats the transom, dulls the hole shot and is the reason the Yamaha F70 at 253 pounds became the default classic-Montauk repower — it puts the boat back near its designed transom load. If the boat you’re looking at needs power, price the repower into your offer; our repowering cost guide has the real numbers.

One legal note for the oldest hulls: HINs became mandatory on recreational boats manufactured on or after November 1, 1972 under 33 CFR 181.23. A pre-1973 Whaler may carry a non-standard hull number or none at all, which can turn a routine title transfer into a paperwork project depending on your state. Verify before you hand over money — start with our HIN lookup guide.

What to check on a 170

The 170s are newer and far less troubled, but they are not free of homework.

• Confirm which generation you’re actually looking at. Sellers write “17 Montauk” on 2022 boats and “170” on 1981 boats — we found both in our own data. Measure the beam. Under about 6’4” is a classic, roughly 6’10” is a 2002–2017 boat, 7’3” is a 2018-plus. And remember: both a classic and a 170 exist in the 2002 model year.
• On a pre-2018 boat, look at how fuel is carried. Portable tanks are a lifestyle decision, not a defect, but you should make it knowingly.
• Check the engine against the hours, since almost all of these are single outboards and the engine is a third of the boat’s value. Our guide on how many engine hours is too many has the thresholds by engine type.
• Look hard at corrosion if it lived in salt. Whalers are common on both coasts, and the same boat ages very differently depending on where — see saltwater vs freshwater boats for what to inspect.
• Trailer condition. A 1,700-pound dry hull plus engine and fuel is a real tow. A tired trailer under a good boat is a $2,000 to $4,000 line item.

Our listing index found these concentrated in California (11 boats), Massachusetts (9), Florida (7) and Hawaii (6) — a genuinely national market, which means a boat two states away is often worth the drive.

Which one should you want?

If you…	Buy this
Want the cheapest way into an unsinkable 17-footer	Classic, $9,500–$16,500, hull dry and verified
Fish skinny water, beach the boat, tow with a small vehicle	Classic — 9” draft and under 1,000 lb
Want a modern boat without new-boat money	170, 2003–2017, ~$20,000
Carry four-plus people or run open water regularly	170, 2018+ — the 7’3” beam and 16° deadrise earn their keep
Need financing and easy insurance	170, the newer the better — lenders resist old hulls
Are cross-shopping other 17-foot center consoles	Read the center console buying guide first

The trap to avoid is buying a classic at 170 money because the ad photographed well. A $25,000 classic Montauk needs to be a documented restoration with a dry hull, a new or near-new engine, and a good trailer — because our data says the middle half of that market sits between $9,500 and $16,500.

What to do next

1. Establish which generation you’re looking at before you discuss price. Beam and model year settle it in thirty seconds.
2. Price it against the right band — $14,000, $20,000 or $52,250 — not against “Montauks.”
3. On any classic, weigh the boat. It is the cheapest test that exists for the one failure mode that ends the deal, and no seller can talk around a scale ticket.
4. Survey anything above roughly $15,000, and get a mechanical check on the outboard regardless. A marine survey runs $18 to $30 per foot, so $450 to $750 on a 17-footer — against a boat where a wet hull is a five-figure problem.
5. Build your offer from the data, not the asking price. Our offer guide walks through turning survey findings into a number.

Not sure where a specific listing lands? Paste the listing and get an instant verdict — you’ll get a Buy Score, the red flags, and fair-price context against boats that actually sold, before you call the seller.