[7] The Silhouette 17 is a recreational keelboat, with the early models built predominantly of plywood and later ones from glassfibre, with wood trim.

[1][2][3][5] The boat is normally fitted with a small 3 to 5 hp (2 to 4 kW) outboard motor for docking and manoeuvring, although a few models were offered with inboard engines.

[5] The boat is supported by an active class club, the Silhouette Owners International Association.

[8] In a 2010 review Steve Henkel wrote, "best features: She probably would be among the least expensive sailboats to buy on the used market, if you could find one in reasonable condition.

Worst features: Her shallow keel relatively high wetted surface keep her from being fast or weatherly ... She has the shortest waterline (slow under power), the smallest cockpit, least space below among her comp[etitor]s. Her old-fashioned hard-chine, tortured hull shape, originally dictated by the fact that she was to be built of flat sheets of plywood, give her a strange look that some would call ugly.