Portuguese Bowline
loop knot
Life-safety notice
TyingPoint's illustrations are for learning. For any life-safety use — climbing, rope access, rescue, or load-bearing rigging — seek qualified in-person instruction, and always inspect and test every knot before you trust your weight (or anyone else's) to it.
Older Iberian and South American maritime rescue tradition documents a bowline variant built specifically to solve one practical problem: a rescue seat needs one loop that fits snugly and one that fits more loosely, and most double-loop bowlines produce two loops of essentially matched, fixed size. The Portuguese bowline's second loop, formed by an extra wrap of the working end before it's tucked through, can be adjusted somewhat after tying - letting a rescuer size one loop tight around a chest and the other looser around legs, or vice versa.
The tying method starts identically to a standard bowline and diverges at the point where the working end would normally make a single pass around the standing part - here it wraps around twice, forming its own separate loop before continuing through the original hole. That single change is what gives the knot its two-loop, adjustable-fit character.
As with the Spanish bowline it's often compared to, its main real-world use has always been improvised rescue - hoisting or lowering a person with a rough two-point seat when no rated harness is on hand. Whichever of the two knots a given rescue tradition favors seems to come down largely to local training lineage rather than any dramatic performance difference between them.
Because the loop sizes can be tuned somewhat after the knot is dressed, riggers sometimes describe the Portuguese bowline as the more forgiving of the two similar knots to fit to an actual person under time pressure, since the Spanish bowline's more rigid two-loop geometry is harder to resize once tied. Both remain fundamentally last-resort improvisations rather than an everyday tool, taught today mostly in advanced wilderness-rescue and traditional-seamanship courses rather than as a core skill.
How to tie the Portuguese Bowline
Tie the first stage of a standard bowline, forming the small loop and bringing the working end up through it.
Strength & security
Approx. strength retained: 55-65%
Unlike the Spanish bowline's two matched, fixed-size loops, the Portuguese bowline's second loop can be adjusted somewhat in size after tying - useful for a rescue seat where one loop needs to fit snugly around the chest and the other more loosely around the legs.
Cautions: It carries the same last-resort caveat as every improvised rescue loop: no padding, no fall-rating hardware, and a real risk of uneven loading if the two loops aren't dressed and checked carefully before weight is committed.
Alternatives
- Bowline on a Bight
Simpler to tie and far more commonly taught for the same double-loop rescue role, though it lacks the Portuguese bowline's adjustable second loop.
FAQ
How is the Portuguese bowline different from the Spanish bowline?
Both make two loops from a single bowline, but the Portuguese bowline's second loop is formed by an extra wrap that allows some size adjustment after tying, where the Spanish bowline's two loops are more fixed.
Is the Portuguese bowline still used today?
Mostly in advanced wilderness-rescue and traditional-seamanship training rather than everyday use - it's a genuine last-resort improvised rescue seat, not a substitute for a rated harness.
Which loop of the Portuguese bowline goes around the chest?
There's no fixed rule - riggers size whichever loop needs to be snugger to the body part it will support, which is the specific advantage this knot offers over less adjustable double-loop bowlines.
Can the Portuguese bowline's second loop be resized after the person is already in it?
Only within a limited range, and only by working slack through the extra wrap carefully - it isn't designed for major mid-rescue resizing, so getting it roughly right during the initial tie remains far more reliable than trying to adjust it under load.
Does the Portuguese bowline need thicker rope than a standard bowline?
Not necessarily, but a rope that's too thin can make the extra wrap feel fiddly to size and dress cleanly under time pressure; most riggers find a medium-diameter rope, comfortable to grip with a gloved hand, easiest to work with for this particular knot.
Is the Portuguese bowline documented in any modern rescue manual?
It appears in some technical rope-rescue and traditional seamanship references as a variant worth knowing, though it's far less universally documented than the bowline on a bight, which most current training materials treat as the default double-loop improvised seat.