Kito de Pavant (Malice) : 5th in the leg - overall winner of the Single-handed Figaro
 « I said in Boulogne that it was a year for the old timers. Of my three Figaros, this was unquestionably the hardest and the most intense. I looked so deeply into the very depths of myself. This is the first time that I have won, and the first time that I have won the Single-handed, which is rather good ! Throughout the race, I often thought about Jean (Le Cam). I’ve been sailing on his trimaran for six months and that gives me confidence in whatever is to come.

It was really very tiring and I have slept very, very little. That’s down to there being so many of us in the running who were capable of winning. We were lucky not to have a race with any tricky finishes ˆ and with such big gaps that it would kill the race. The race has been an intense hand-to-hand combat right up to the last. Until the Raz Blanchard, nobody could say who was going to win. The last leg, with all the tacking in stiff conditions, was very hard physically. But 12 years on, the Figaro Bénéteau still brings great pleasure upwind. It’s still a superb boat, very seaworthy. I battled with Jérémie (Beyou) and it‚s not easy to get the better of. Upwind, against him, you can expect a bumpy ride. Maybe I wanted to be out in front more. I fully intend to come back next year and I have a project ripening in my head, which we will speak about again soon. »

Yann Eliès (Groupe Générali Assurances ) : 1st in the leg - 10th in general
 « Kito’s victory is indisputable and you can really say that because we’ve been running one against the other for a month. It’s a victory which rewards maturity and wiseness in the way you sail. In addition, it has given so much pleasure and it has just demonstrated the full extent of what he can give, new values, a new state of mind. He’s a fine winner even while it‚s true that the Single-handed can only have fine winners. This edition has been a bit like a Tour de France for cycles - without Lance Amstrong - with the meagre gaps between the competitors. The arrival of Ronan (Guérin) and Droug (Eric Drouglazet) epitomises the whole race : finishing within one second of each other ! The Single-handed Figaro is like a round the world race, you can do it every year. It‚s a superb regatta once you understand why you’re doing it and that it’s not simply a springboard to bigger and better things.

I had thought about a leg victory before leaving. I remembered when Eric won the two rounds of the day in the Générali Méditerranée after having seen his son. So yes, it’s a present for Titouan, who was born during the stopover in Gijon, and that I haven’t seen yet. »

Gilles Chiorri (32 01 from Météo Consult) : 6th in the leg - 2^nd in the general rankings

Gilles Chiorri, second in the wake of Kito, making yet another forty-year old on the steps of the podium of the Single-handed Figaro, feels that there is something new on the Figaro Bénéteau circuit !

 « We had a last leg which epitomises Solo racing with, truly, a very fine winner. I am delighted to be his dolphin. On the otherhand, it forces me to come back again next year when I had been considering early retirement from the circuit. I hope that this will get the competition sail moving in the south, that there‚ll be a real echo there and that we will achieve our aims. My outlook is clear : it’s the Vendée Globe. Already my third place in the Sables d‚Olonne has enabled me to confirm certain contacts. Here, all that remains is for me to tie up the details and sign up in order to be at the start in 2004. »

We know the outcome of the fourth and final lap at Cherbourg Octeville : Ronan Guérin (Saint-Nazaire - Escal’Atlantic), long term leader in the ascent of the Channel, had his star ranking stripped from him by his friend Yann Eliès, to whom he is the chosen godfather of the little Titouan. No hard feelings then ! Even if the leg victory escaped him so narrowly.

« Yann won, but it would be the same if I had won. This arrival - in battle with Droug one second from each other - will go down in history. The conditions were twisted at Guernsey, the wind dropped off. It‚s there that I lost first place, I saw a boat get ahead and I didn’t know then that it was Yann. I am happy for him, even if inevitably I am a bit angry not to have got the first place myself. »

Charles Caudrelier Benac (Bostik Findley) on the podium

Successively 4th, 19th, 1st and 10th during the fourth leg of the 2002 edition, Charles took the first solo podium in his sailing career. It’s worth noting that he is the only one, amongst the three frontrunners in the general rankings to have won a leg. At 28, the Finistere skipper believes that " victory leads to victory by the confidence it provides ". A good motto for someone who chose to make sailing his job three years ago.

Gwénaël Riou (Espoir Crédit Agricole), first newcomer

In the camp of the first participations, first place in the rankings returns to Gwénaël Riou, the young student from the Training Centre in Port La Forêt. 22nd in the general rankings, throwing gallantry aside to take a lead of 2hrs 26 mn, on the mademoiselle of the fleet, Jeanne Grégoire (Département de l‚Aisne). Meantime, in the bosom of the amorous couple of young ’figaristes’, Jeanne announces that she is a resilient young woman on the water. She did in fact gain the advantage on Arnaud Boissières, her companion on land, and her adversary at sea, who has experienced a difficult last leg due to the failure of his autopilot.