Cowboy bowline

Cowboy bowline
Names	Cowboy bowline, left-hand bowline, Dutch bowline, Dutch marine bowline
Category	Loop
Related	Bowline, Eskimo bowline, sheet bend
Releasing	Non-jamming
ABoK	#1034½

The cowboy bowline (also left-hand bowline or Dutch marine bowline) is a variation of the bowline loop knot. Some hearsay suggest the Dutch Navy 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.^{[citation needed]} However, there is no documentation to confirm this allegation, and some Dutch knot tyers outright deny it. The Ashley Book of Knots states that it is "distinctly inferior" to the standard bowline, but Ashley gives no reason for this judgement.^[1] Various tests of the different versions' stengths show little difference; conjecture about either knot's vulnerability to some failure remain pretty much only that – conjectures. In fact, though, this version of the knot is much more resistant to failing on "ring-loading" – i.e., where the eye of the knot is loaded as though it is a ring / sling.

The reason for the superior performance of the Cowboy bowline when ring-loaded is that the knot is then loaded as the correct form of the Lapp knot , a secure bend, whereas the bowline, when ring loaded, is loaded as an incorrect form of the Lapp knot, an unsafe bend. See the comment in the International Guild of Knot Tyers forum message.

As for the tail of a regular bowline finishing "inside the loop [ eye]", 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.

Comparison of standard bowline (left) and cowboy bowline (right).
(a) – free end of the rope, (b) – load.

Difference from bowline

The cowboy bowline has the working end go around the standing part on the side closest 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.

Security

There is a rule of thumb which states that the loose end should be as long as 12 times the circumference of the cord for the sake of safety.^[2]

See also

• List of knots

References

1. ^ Clifford W. Ashley, The Ashley Book of Knots (New York: Doubleday, 1944), 188.
2. ^ realknots.com