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Comment by dzhiurgis | Hacker News Reader

Practicality is also big one. There are tons, but I've learned bowline over 10 years ago and use it every day when sailing. It's easy to tie and can be taken apart by hands.

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The bowline is fine for non-safety-critical uses, but cyclical loading causes it to slip, so I'd suggest anyone who's learning the bowline to learn a "safer" variant and just always use that one (examples are Yosemite Bowline, End Bound Single Bowline, Double Bowline, Bowline on a Bight).

Been using bowlines for safety(fire dept) and sailing 35yrs. Never ever ever seen a proper bowline "shake loose". Can tie it weakside one-handed, upside down, behind my back, in the dark, underwater, while brushing my teeth.

You use a bowline for life-safety in rescue operations? That's really unusual, in my experience (firefighter/rescue tech in upstate New York)

I volunteer for a lifesaving organization in Germany and the bowline is one of the most important knots there. One example is diving, where the diver is secured by a bowline around his hip.

Interesting... Around here if divers are working off a line, they're tagged in with a short lead to the mainline. The lead will have carabiners on either end that are either factory stitched in place, or clipped into a figure-eight. Those aren't meant to be under any tension though, they're just for maintaining orientation.

If a diver is attached to an actual haul line (not common, but happens in swift-water recuse scenarios), then they're going to be clipped in via a carabiner, which is tied on with a double-loop figure-eight. The double-loop figure-eight is the standard "if your life is gonna depend on it" knot around here.

(I am not a rescue diver, but do support dive operations from time to time)

I left firefighting behind in the late 1970's. Bowlines were tied properly then.

It's the "proper" part that's the problem. Even the Yosemite finish is problematic. Google for "deaths from climbing with bowline" and you'll find lots of veteran climbers who have died or been seriously injured from their bowline coming undone, either because they did it messily and it capsized, or they screwed it up and didn't realize it until they took a fall.

Yup, that's why climbers replaced it with the figure-eight loop decades ago. Which is a bitch to untie after loading, but at least it won't self-upset.

Circling back late on this one. Lots of article, many rehashing the previous articel. Common themes seem to be "improperly tied" and "magically untied itself" which to me implies "improperly tied" again. No fault with the figure 8 tho. When we rappelled, and in ROTC mountaineering we used bowlines and Army Gold Braid lines. That should date me.

I use the Water Bowline (in which the "loop" is a clove hitch) in situations where the knot won't be continuously loaded and might flog.

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