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Since I appear to be the bad guy in all of this, I only responded with some comparative pricing by another brand because I thought the OP was complaining about the over-pricing policies of the Yamaha Dealer. And by my standards and rigging experience, it seemed extremely high to me for 70 HP.
Regarding the "Dealer in Tenn", I actually did refer another contributor here (in Texas) to them, and he saved THOUSANDS (over the cost of a locally bought and installed pair of E-tecs or Yamahas) by purchasing a pair of Mercury 150 EFI 4-strokes from them. He has not indicated any problems with warranties or inspections as far as I know.
Also see my (son's) Personal website link for photos of my Outrage 18, rigged with twin Merc 90's purchased "shipped by mail" to my local Mercury dealer, who could not match the pricing and handled and bolted them on the jackplates (with my guidance) for a fee of $200. They cost $5000 each, no taxes, etc. No problems whatsoever, and ten grand for a 180 HP twin engine re-power seemed like a good deal. I installed them, doing the rigging the way I wanted it done. Clearly, this approach is not for most, but for me owning Whalers is both recreation and a serious hobby that I really enjoy.
And quite frankly, this idea the Dealers do the best rigging work is mostly hogwash from what I have seen. MOST of the classic Whalers that I have ever seen have terrible, poorly designed rigging work, including the three used ones that I have purchased. It all had to be removed in re-done to my much higher design standards. Usually, they don't even get the engine installation height correct, or offer the correct prop. Then there were the blind hole mess with OMC or Yamaha engines in the old days. Most appear to use low wage, low skilled, poorly trained people for this tedious work. And the after market electrical dealer rigging work I have seen is also of poor quality. Obviously there are exceptions, but generally, what I am saying is true. And most boat owners don't even know they got a poor rigging job.
Which is one of the reasons so many of the boat manufacturers now do their own engine installations.
The factory work that I have seen being done by Boston Whaler is excellent, much better than the work done locally.
Regarding the top speed potential on a classic Montauk between the 60 or 70 HP 40 strokes, Boston Whaler's test report of the 150 Montauk, a boat very close to the classic in overall size and weight, indicates a top speed of 36.1 MPH. So the 2 MPH difference I mentions deems reasonably accurate. Either engine could do better or worse depending on the individual boat.
