KEY POINTS:
Sonia Waddell knows about the preparation needed to be a winner. On Friday night New Zealand time, the former Olympic rower stood with her two children waving to NZL92 from the roof of Emirates Team New Zealand's headquarters, as the black boat was towed out for its first race in the Louis Vuitton series.
"These guys are so well prepared," she said. "They have done everything they possibly can to go as fast as they can."
As Waddell sat in the sun waiting for the hooters to signal that NZL92 was on its way, a Team New Zealand doctor checked over her 22-month-old son Hayden who, like many of the America's Cup syndicate children, has been unwell. She, like the other partners of the crew and the shore team, come each race day to wave the boat off. Most of the younger children call it "Daddy's boat".
Far from being banished like the World Cup cricket wives and partners, the women of Team New Zealand, including Mandy Barker, wife of skipper Dean, were encouraged to come to Valencia. The team has rented 90 apartments not far from Port America's Cup and the beach. Team chief Grant Dalton wants the men on the black boat to be happy and settled.
Waddell, like some of the other team partners who are in Valencia for the second time, is picking up a bit of Spanish. Her 4-year-old daughter Sophie has been attending a Spanish preschool. Hayden started last week.
With many Kiwi and Australian kids in town, the school has employed an English-speaking teacher. The older ones are learning Spanish.
With no family and friends on call, the Team New Zealand families become a link to home. A social committee organises barbecues at the beach and some of the women have formed a playgroup for their youngsters.
But as everyone is contracted only until one month after the last race, there's no partying and big spending.
A few older children go to private schools in Valencia, but most are being home schooled, using the internet to connect with their classes back home. Viv Regan, wife of head of boat construction Sean Regan, is home schooling Connor, 9, and Hailey, 7. They keep in touch with their classes at Long Bay Primary, buy English newspapers and read the New Zealand Herald online.
But lessons are interrupted on race day mornings so the children can wave off the boat their father had a hand in building.
American Shelley Hutchinson, wife of strategist Terry Hutchinson, has enrolled her three children in Spanish public schools, where they are the only children in their class speaking English. The Hutchinsons have been in Valencia for a year, so Elias, 8, Katherine, 5, and Aden, 3, are all fluent in Spanish.
This is Hutchinson's third America's Cup - so she knows plenty of people in other syndicates. And she's used to moving around.
"This is the longest we've lived in one place for eight years."
Barbara Loretz, wife of trimmer Grant Loretz, has 16-month-old Harrison in a buggy with another baby expected in five months. Loretz has found the past few weeks hard going. Valencia turned on unexpected cold, rainy weather, which meant younger kids were cooped up in the small apartments, and some have been sick with flu and tummy bugs.
"It's been hard with sick children," Loretz says. "It's a bit rough, with no family."
