Sawyer 8-1/2' Polecat Fiberglass Oar Shaft, single piece

Please note that the actual length of this shaft is 6' (72"), and not eight and a half feet. It is 8-1/2 feet with the blade installed. Also note that we are no longer taking shopping cart orders for single oar shafts, though as yet there is nothing in the actual cart to prevent single-shaft orders. If you want a single oar shaft please contact us by phone at 925-820-BOAT and we'll see what we can do.

Sawyers's Polecat shafts have a beefy reinforced end where the blade hole is drilled, and these are just as strong as Sawyer's more expensive composite shafts, albeit a tad heavier.

It is important to note that you can mix Carlisle blades with Sawyer shafts, but the overall length of a Sawyer blade is 2.5" longer than a Carlisle blade - and the length of their shafts is 2-1/2" less than Carlisle's equivalent. This means that if you mix a Sawyer brand shaft for the 9' length with a Carlisle blade, the oar will actually end up being only 8'9-1/2" long, not a full nine feet. If you put a Sawyer blade in a Carlisle shaft, you will have an extra 2-1/2".

Two other important details regarding Sawyer shafts: (1) Since the blade end on the shaft is reinforced with a second, thicker outer layer (the striped portion on the left in the picture), and the handle end has a round protruding retainer screw head, the standard version Oar Sleeves will not slip over them unless you take out the screw. Even then it is difficult. You can use a table saw to cut a thin slit lengthwise down the sleeve, or pay $3 extra per sleeve to order pre-slit ones from us. Cutting the slit in an oar sleeve with either a chop saw or a table saw is dicey work that involves holding the sleeve with your hand, or creating a mickey-mouse jig for the chop saw. Both methods are dangerous so it is not something we really like to do.
(2) The little set screw that helps hold the handle in protrudes from the shaft a bit. And these oars cannot be shipped to dealers one to a box without massive packaging & UPS upcharges. This is an important detail, because what it means to you is almost every Sawyer Polecat shaft has some degree of marring adjacent to this set screw. In other words, when they are shipped to dealers - usually 8 or 10 to a box - the screws rub and dig into the oar next to them. And this means many of them have anything from fairly minor scratches to deep rubs & indentations near the handle end, in a circumference line with this set screw. Understand this before you order. We cannot ship oars back and forth for exchange because of this cosmetic defect. Even with the deepest of gouges from the set screws, the shaft's strength is utterly unaffected and if they did ever break at this point on the shaft, they are fully warrantied.

If you want two-piece Sawyer shafts we will only be stocking them in the 9-1/2' and 10' sizes. We can order this size in two-piece but Sawyer's lead time is always long, and you end up with two very mismatched lengths on this short of a shaft. They are made so that the short half of the shaft WITH the blade installed equals the length of the other piece of the shaft. So the shorter half of the shaft in the case of the 8-1/2' ends up only being around 18" long, if that. Sawyer shafts are yellow (they make black, and the white shown in the photo above as well, but both are very hard to find if you drop them in the river).

Shopping cart prices are for orders of two or more shafts. Single oar/oar shaft orders need to be phoned in and are subject to a $10 handling fee. Also be aware that from this length up, UPS charges the 30 pound rate.