part of the line. The bowline is commonly used in sailing small craft, for example to fasten a halyard to the head of a sail or to tie a jib sheet to a clew of a jib. The bowline is well known as a rescue knot for such purposes as rescuing people who might have fallen down a hole, or off a cliff onto a ledge. This knot is particularly useful in such a situation because it is possible to tie with one hand. As such, a person needing rescue could hold onto the rope with one hand and use the other to tie the knot around their waist before being pulled to safety by rescuers. The Federal Aviation Administration recommends the bowline knot for tying down light aircraft. A rope with a bowline retains approximately 2/3 of its strength, with variances depending upon the nature of the rope, as in practice the exact strength depends on a variety of factors. In the United Kingdom, the knot is listed as part of the training objectives for the Qualified Firefighter Assessment. Tying A mnemonic used to teach the tying of the bowline is to imagine the working end of the rope as a rabbit. 1,2 – a loop is made into the standing part which will act as the rabbit's hole 3 – the "rabbit" comes up the hole, 4 – goes round the tree (standing part) right to left 5 – and back down the hole This can be taught to children with the rhyme: "Up through the rabbit hole, round the big tree; down through the rabbit hole and off goes he." A single handed method can also be used; see this animation. There is a potential with beginners to wrongly tie the bowline. This faulty knot stems from an incorrect first step while tying the rabbit hole. If the loop is made backwards so that the end of the rope (the bitter end) is on the bottom, the resulting knot will be the Eskimo bowline, looking like a sideways bowline, which is also a stable knot. Security As noted above, the simplicity of the bowline makes it a good knot for a general purpose end-of-line loop. However, in situations that require additional security, several variants have been developed: Round turn bowline The round turn bowline is made by the addition of an extra turn in the formation of