In a race, you work with every stroke to accelerate your boat towards the finish line with efficiency and power.  Dreissigacker Oars aid you in that effort, with an ideal blend of strength, hydrodynamic efficiency and light weight.  Our oars are the result of 25 years of continual evolution, a ceaseless effort to design and build the best racing oars in the world.

Back in 1977, we brought carbon oars to the rowing community, leading the movement away from the wooden oars of the day.  Since then, we have continued our tradition of innovation, based on our design knowledge, experimentation and testing.

Oar Testing: Pete and Dick Dreissigacker

If you're rowing for fitness or pleasure, you'll appreciate the fact that our oars are engineered for ease of handling, durability and comfort.

By 1976, composite racing shells had been successfully manufactured for several years, but no one had made an acceptable composite oar. Several attempts failed to meet the criteria of performance and economics. Nonetheless, Concept 2 felt there were significant advantages to be gained if a good composite oar could be developed. In 1977, after a series of prototypes, we produced our first composite oars. They were quickly accepted by the rowing world, and have become a standard for the industry.

Component System

From the beginning, one of the key features of Dreissigacker Oars has been our component system of construction. This has allowed us to offer a wide range of specifications using a small number of standard parts, each of which is manufactured in optimal fashion. It has also allowed us to make improvements in oar design without making our older oars completely obsolete because improvements in individual components such as blade, sleeve or handle can be retrofitted. The ability to change parts is also useful when repairing damaged oars.

Our Design Objective

From the start we've made our design objective to minimize the energy losses associated with oars. The four primary losses are: wind resistance, accelerations of oar mass, handling losses (e.g. crabs, poor releases, blade dragging on recovery), and work lost to the water through propulsive inefficiency.

Features of Dreissigacker Oars which help reduce these losses are a tubular shaft for decreased wind resistance, low total weight and more importantly low rotational inertia, ease of handling achieved by means of blade design and precision molded sleeves and oarlocks, and blade designs including Big Blade and SMOOTHIE that improve propulsive efficiency.

A Brief Chronology of Design Changes

• 1986 we introduced our ultralight shaft construction, made entirely of carbon fiber for lighter overall weight.
• 1986 we began offering delta blades
• 1988 we introduced a new sleeve
• 1989 we began manufacturing oarlocks.
• 1989 we began offering asymmetric blades
• 1991 we introduced the Big Blade.
• 1996 we introduced both the adjustable and fixed composite handles
• 1996 we introduced the SMOOTHIE Blade.
• 2000 we introduced the Vortex Edge
• 2002 we introduced Lighter Blades and new Collars & Sleeves
• 2004 we introduced the new adjustable handle system

Since 1977 Dreissigacker Oars have offered durability, low maintenance, component construction system and reasonable pricing. We are constantly upgrading our processes, precision and quality control. At Concept2, we specialize in providing the best performance and the best value in sculling and sweep oars for competitive and recreational rowers.