Page 162 - The Pocket Guide to Outdoor Knots

Purpose
Pronounced boh-linn, the common bowline forms a single fixed loop. It is a

classic knot but neither strong (about 60%) nor very secure unless the tail end is

taped or tied to its adjacent loop leg.

Tying

Make a loop and grasp it in one hand (palm down), then turn that hand palm up
to trip or roll a loop into the standing part, through which the working end is

automatically inserted (figures 1–2). Tuck the working end as indicated to
complete this knot (figures 3–4). In tightening the knot ensure that the tail end is

as long as a moderate sized loop.

Knot lore
At sea the bow line was a rope used to hold the weather leech of a square sail

forward closer to the wind, to prevent it from being taken aback (that is,
unintentionally blown inside out, impeding the ship’s progress), so the knot that

secured it was literally a bow line knot; but it has since become diminished, and
its pronunciation altered.

A.P. (later Sir Alan) Herbert, the English playwright, lyricist and wit—and
Member of Parliament for the University of Oxford, when that academic and

august institution had its own parliamentary representative—wrote in his poem
The Bowline that it was the King of Knots, and many knot tyers (some unaware

of the source) still use that sobriquet.