" ... as this thread is about ..."
... like an unmoored boat drifting with a change in current or breeze ...
Apologies, but to answer further some questions raised, ...
Re security of knots
I note that there does not seem to be any mention of seizing to provide, what I would consider the ultimate security.
Because for many applications, the
knot is used in part for its temporary nature,
and seizing is not a broadly, well-known accepted practice, nor so quick to do/undo.
Commercial fishers, to my finding, indeed to some kind of seizing on most of their
non-temporary ties -- well beyond what's necessary, I'm sure. They use "hog rings"
to bind ends to other parts; they tuck ends through the lay once or more; and I have
some photos of eyeknots that are combinations of a bowline and overhand. (In one
case, the Overhand eye knot is tied in the Bowline's eye to include the end; in the
other, an Overhand in the S.Part is brought down around the body & backturned
end of the Bowline (!!). Consider these simply oddball cases, but some indication
of at least one knot-tyer's thinking). Again, in many cases, I think that complete
security in their applications could be obtained with the knot alone, absent adde d
binding -- though in some cases the binding of the end also serves to
tame the end,
keeping it out of the way.
When I go aloft in a bosuns chair, the halyard has a round turn through the ring of the chair, then a bowline,
which is drawn up and the end is seized to one leg of the loop. If we consider a knot important it is probably seized.
I would dispense with the gratuitous seizing, here: in place of the mere round
turn, you could put in the Anchor bend, and then as a
guard to that (if not the
added turn advocated here of Ashley's #1843) tie off the end into the Bowline.
Beyond that, or just with the Bowline, there are ways to secure that with a 2nd
wrap & tuck of the end like its initial collaring of the S.Part. Of course, rock climbers
consider their tie-in knots as important as your bosun-chair tie, and it will have to take
a fall, not just the body weight. Some of them will tie off the end, but usually
a Fig.8 eyeknot suffices; bowline users should add some further security in knotting
(which is easy to do, in many ways).
Re 1410: Adding 'stopper knots' and tying a different knot etc suggests some serious doubts on this knot.
Save yourself the trouble and do what we do on our boat, don't use it.
Sorry, did you miss the part about decades of usage? But, yes, there remain
doubts -- and there are varying circumstances, as noted (such as different-diameter
ropes). So, taking some simple precaution to improve the security is in order,
and the added stopper or the revised knot structure come at small extra effort.
But your logic can be returned: do you doubt the Bowline so much to seize it,
but continue to use it (why not use a Fig.8 eyeknot, then, like rock climbers)?!
I imagine that rockclimbing rope is more a challenge to secure than the more
flexible boating halyards.
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Anybody already dug up some evidence that the Cowboy Bowline actually was used by cowboys and/or that they used it because they hated to use the Bowline Proper
I think that this is mostly pointed my way. I believe that, like much, there isn't
a sound basis for it; my use of the name was in thinking it was clearly understood,
or as much so as "left-handed Bwl", and avoided the other names' myths or mis-
understandings. Possibly "C.B" had nautical origins where it was meant as a kind
of denigration, seeing cowboys as less proper than sailors, but that too is but a
hypothesis. "The end-outside Bowline" could be tried, though I can think of things
to say -- and did so, above -- about the notion of the end actually being
inside
of the eye for #1010 (it is mostly so only in diagrams, not after loading). One can
anticipate the draw of the S.Part on the end and position it on tying so as to have
it end up in various positions upon loading --something some testing could shed
light on.
One more thing: I find that for myself, and have seen this also elsewhere, when
I make a Bwl with that capsizing method of pushing a bight of the S.Part like
for a "slip knot" (actually, would be an Overhand noose) and then tucking the
end through this bight, and then loading to capsize it all into a Bowline,
I tend to end up with the
Dutch End Cowboy Outside Marine bowline,and not #1010. -- a lack of practice/understanding/attention, for sure,
as that's not a tying method I much use but for the heck of it.
--dl*
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