Team Laughing Roomba

Team members: Rod Sternagel, Haleigh Werner
Hometown: Olympia, WA, USA
Race vessel: SAVO 650E Rowboat
LOA: 21′
Human propulsion: Rowing
Connect: facebook

The first useful question in a partnership like this is simple: can you spend a lot of hours in a small boat together and still want to keep rowing?

Rod and Haleigh have answered that one. Repeatedly.

Rod has been working his way deeper into open-water rowing for years. Childhood rowboat miles eventually led to club rowing, then to the realization that exploring Puget Sound was far more interesting than circling a lake. Sound Rowers races followed, along with long solo rows and a steady expansion of coastline covered after he moved to Olympia.

Haleigh arrived by way of swimming—distance swimming, the patient kind where endurance matters more than speed. She learned to scull in 2019 and quickly discovered she preferred heading somewhere to rowing in circles. A question about one of Rod’s local races turned into mentorship, shared miles, and eventually a partnership that kept getting longer.

They’ve already done the useful part, which is finding out they can survive the miles and each other. In 2025 they rowed SEVENTY48 together and pushed all the way into prize money. Weeks later, they tackled WA360, where the curriculum included long days, big water and a lost rudder.

Since then they’ve been doing what rowers do when something bigger is coming: piling on miles. Thousands of them, mostly in a Maas double, with their expedition Savo waiting patiently for the route north.

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First things first, why Race to Alaska?
We have both completed SEVENTY48 and WA360 and feel the chance to row to Ketchikan can not be passed up – definitely with the understanding that we may not make it. The opportunity to experience these waters with others is much more appealing than venturing alone. We thrive on challenges and we know this row will challenge us in many ways.

What’s going to break first—and what’s your plan when it does?
The ability to remember the lyrics to the songs we plan on singing. We will have a song book we can refer to.

Night-Before Sleep (hh:mm)
02:35

Confidence Level
75%