The cowboy bowline or left-hand bowline, is a variation of the

bowline The bowline ( or ) is an ancient and simple knot used to form a fixed loop at the end of a rope. It has the virtues of being both easy to tie and untie; most notably, it is easy to untie after being subjected to a load. The bowline is sometimes ...

loop knot. The cowboy bowline has the

working end A knot is an intentional complication in cordage which may be practical or decorative, or both. Practical knots are classified by function, including hitches, bends, loop knots, and splices: a ''hitch'' fastens a rope to another object; a ' ...

go around the

standing part A knot is an intentional complication in cordage which may be practical or decorative, or both. Practical knots are classified by function, including hitches, bends, loop knots, and splices: a ''hitch'' fastens a rope to another object; a ...

on the side closer to the loop and results with the working end outside the loop. In contrast, a regular bowline has the working end finishing inside the loop. (The "rabbit" goes around the "tree" in the opposite direction from normal.) ''

The Ashley Book of Knots ''The Ashley Book of Knots'' is an encyclopedia of knots written and illustrated by the American sailor and artist Clifford W. Ashley. First published in 1944, it was the culmination of over 11 years of work. The book contains 3,857 numbered en ...

'' states that it is "distinctly inferior" to the standard bowlineClifford W. Ashley, ''The Ashley Book of Knots'' (New York: Doubleday, 1944), p.188 #1034½. because of its similarity to the left-hand sheet bend.Clifford W. Ashley, ''The Ashley Book of Knots'' (New York: Doubleday, 1944), 16. Various tests of the different versions' strengths show little difference; conjecture about either knot's vulnerability to some failure remain pretty much only that – conjectures. However, the left-hand bowline is much more stable under ring loading, as it then acts effectively as a proper

Lapp bend The Lapp knot is an ends joint, i.e. it is used to join two cordage ends (whether of separate lines or of one, making a round sling). It is essentially a reverse sheet bend. The slipped Lapp bend also is an ''exploding knot'', which means that w ...

, while the simple bowline acts as the inferior version of the Lapp bend, which tends to slip. As for the tail of a regular bowline finishing "inside the loop ye, that is more a formal-image state than one of an actual knot, as the draw of the standing part will pull the tail around so that it actually points away from the eye, but there are various ways the knot can be dressed to affect this aspect. Some hearsay suggest the

Dutch Navy The Royal Netherlands Navy ( nl, Koninklijke Marine, links=no) is the naval force of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. During the 17th century, the navy of the Dutch Republic (1581–1795) was one of the most powerful naval forces in the world an ...

uses (or used) this variant of the bowline because they consider it superior since the working end is not so easily pushed back by accident. However, there is no documentation to confirm this claim, and some Dutch knot tyers outright deny it. Another piece of unverified lore is that it is called a winter bowline because the exposed working end on the outside would blow in the wind and prevent it from freezing to the loop on ships in the north Atlantic during winter. (This suggests that the standard bowline would be the summer bowline.) Standard bowline vs cowboy bowline

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There is a rule of thumb which states that the loose end should be as long as 12 times the

circumference In geometry, the circumference (from Latin ''circumferens'', meaning "carrying around") is the perimeter of a circle or ellipse. That is, the circumference would be the arc length of the circle, as if it were opened up and straightened out ...

of the cord for the sake of safety. Cowboy bowline is tested to be more resistant to cross loading (ring loading, transverse loading) than regular bowline. Like the right-hand bowline, it can spontaneously loosen under cyclic loading, and is not recommended for life-critical applications.

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See also

References