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← Where the theory applies
Loop — fixed

Yosemite Bowline

Interlock · Climbing

DiagramsHow to tie it

Does not pick a knot

This page does not pick a knot for you. DNA, molecules, quantum braids and vortices stay off Decide.

Finished structure

No drawing of this exact knot yet. The written steps are the reference.

Failure modes

When this family fails, it fails as these. The recovered end still outranks the name.

Bowline family

Fixed eye whose lock is a collar seated on the standing part.

  • !Open collar — the eye capsizes under cyclic load
  • !Cowboy / wrong-direction loop
  • !Tail too short to backup, or a Yosemite finish on an unfinished bowline
Fails when
  • !The tail was pulled before the bowline was set, so the bowline is lost and the knot can slip or collapse into a noose
  • !The collar works loose while the finish is tied. Wikipedia warns a Yosemite bowline that is not dressed correctly can collapse into a noose.
  • !The base knot has no collar around the standing part, so the finish is added to a knot that is not a bowline
Geometry

  • Yosemite tuck dressed before the collar

    Eye inverts or the collar walks after the finish

    Dress the collar first — the tuck is a backup, not the lock · step 03

  • Tail not captured in the nipping loop

    This is just a bowline with a wandering tail

    The Yosemite path returns the tail down through the nipping loop · step 02

  • Collar never seated

    Finish cannot save an open-collar bowline

    An unfinished bowline cannot take a Yosemite finish · step 01

If you saw this

  • Eye distorts or the collar walks after the finish

    Check

    • ?Collar seated first
    • ?Tail parallel inside the nipping loop
    • ?Eye still a bowline

    Then

    • →Untie and dress collar then tuck
    • →Use a figure-8 loop if the finish keeps inverting

  • Yosemite tuck dressed before the collar

    Check

    • ?Eye inverts or the collar walks after the finish
    • ?Inspect step 03

    Then

    • →Retie. Do not dress a defective structure and call it seated.

  • Tail not captured in the nipping loop

    Check

    • ?This is just a bowline with a wandering tail
    • ?Inspect step 02

    Then

    • →Retie. Do not dress a defective structure and call it seated.

  • Collar never seated

    Check

    • ?Finish cannot save an open-collar bowline
    • ?Inspect step 01

    Then

    • →Retie. Do not dress a defective structure and call it seated.
Same family

Same failure class, different geometry. Open the plates — Diagnose still starts from the symptom.

This failed — start Diagnose

What holds it

  • ·A fixed loop is a standing eye. The collar or figure-eight body must survive a straight pull without becoming a noose.
  • ·Bowline and sheet bend are the same crossing pattern under different load. That identity is seamanship, not a reason for Decide to swap one for the other.

What topology does not predict

  • ·Fixed vs slipped is a load-path question. Invariants do not choose bowline over figure-eight.
  • ·Ring-loading and slack-shaking failure are physical. Topology does not grade them.
  • ·No UIAA or manufacturer number is inferred here.

Not for

  • ·A lure that must swing on a non-slip loop — this standing eye is a different job
  • ·Letting a climbing identity pick your fishing knot
  • ·A thirty-second dock eye (plain bowline is enough)
  • ·Wrong dress order — that inverts the bowline

Same pattern, different job

Sources