Page 17 - Mark Gommers "Bowlines Analysis

Orientations of a standard Bowline

There are four possible orientations of the standard #1010 Bowline.

Confusingly, Ashley referred to the 2 structures at right as being ‘left-hand Bowlines’
(#1034 ½ ). This author finds that name unfortunate because it confuses the notion of ‘left-
hand’ and ‘right-hand’ nipping loops. Evidently, Ashley did not consider ‘handedness’ as a
factor when he published his masterpiece.
Ashley referred to these structures as
‘left-hand’ Bowlines

Original
drawing from
ABoK at page
188.

Left hand nipping loop Right hand nipping loop Left hand nipping loop Right hand nipping loop
[ ] tail inside eye [ ] tail inside eye [ ] tail outside eye
[ ] tail outside eye

Each of the 4 orientations is based on a single helix nipping loop – and this author
considers all of them to be based on the standard #1010 Bowline, regardless of tail position.
Note however that the tail position does influence how the structure behaves under certain
loading profiles (refer to the section on ‘ring loading’).

In the same way, there are four possible orientations of the ‘Anti-Bowline’ (refer to page
38) as follows:
(Note: This structure has been identified as an ‘Eskimo Bowline’ by some authors which has attracted some
criticism because it may be considered offensive to the Inuit people. This is another reason why the term
‘Anti-Bowline’ is preferred).

Left hand nipping loop Right hand nipping loop Left hand nipping loop Right hand nipping loop
[ ] tail inside eye [ ] tail inside eye [ ] tail outside eye [ ] tail outside eye

Page 16 of 59 Bowline Analysis Version 2.7a 16 July 2016 © Copyright Mark Gommers