You're close. The only problem with a bowline is that if it's under
no load, it tends to loosen. You can make it more secure in various
ways. I believe that it is one of the good knots that maintains more
of the strength of the line. OTOH, the figure-eight loop is easily
tied, even in the middle of the line and seems to stay tight, but
loses more of the inherent line strength, and perhaps as the obverse
of the above, is hard to untie. Many of us think a knot should be
easily untied.
BTW, I've seen figures that indicate an eye splice is actually
stronger than the line, and a cunt splice is the absolute strongest
way of fastening two laid lines together. But I still don't know how
to make an eye splice in the braided lines I like.
73, doug
From: Jon Ogden <na9d@speakeasy.net>
To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 09:54:53 -0600
Agreed, Phil. Yeah, the one handed bowline trick is pretty cool.
The only thing I thought of is looking at the type of load applied to the
knot. In sailing, we generally have pretty static (albeit large) loads
applied to the knot. Or the loads change relatively linearly.
In a fall, you have no stress on the knot, then suddenly a large peak stress
for a short period and then a relatively low force static load (ie: the
person hanging). Perhaps the bowline while it performs exceptionally well
under very large static loads, does not fare as well under impulse type
loads.
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