Home / Seamanship / Knots and ropework on board / Tying a bowline, step by step
The bowline, step by step
If you learn only one knot on board, learn this one. The bowline makes a loop that does not close under pull and that still comes undone afterwards, even when a tonne has hung on it.
What it is for
A mooring line into a ring or around a bollard, a sheet into a clew, a line onto someone else's anchor. Anywhere you need a loop that keeps its size.
How it is formed
Make a bight in the standing part, bring the end up through the bight, around behind the standing part and back down through the bight. The old aid: the rabbit comes out of the hole, around the tree and back down the hole.
The most common mistake
The bight made the wrong way round. The knot then looks almost the same but does not hold and slips under load. You can check it by one mark: the short end lies inside the loop, not outside.
Where it does not belong
Not as a join between two lines, that is what the sheet bend is for. And not where the load changes constantly and the knot can work loose, such as on a fender that chafes for hours.
What this has to do with insurance
A bowline in a mooring line is good. A bowline that pulls the line across a sharp edge is not: that is where it chafes through, and a chafed mooring line is wear, not damage. Wherever a line runs over an edge, it needs chafe protection over it.
