I had a two-year relationship with Her Majesty'S Sail Training Yacht, Merlin in the 1970's. She was built in Bremenburg in 1936 ,or thereabouts, as one of a fleet of 100- square- metre recreational yachts used by the German Nazi hierarchy for racing in the Baltic.
After WW2 , a number of these vessels were (joyfully !) appropriated by the Royal Navy of Great Britain , and called the "Windfall" class .Each carried 1000 square feet of sail on the one mast,Supported by "runner back-stays", which had to be deployed whenever she changed tack or went about ; the minimum crew allowed was 10 men ( or, sometimes, Naval Nurses !).My point about the bowline is that, when bending on the Genoa
,sheets, we always used the beautiful bowline, without which we would have been lost !
The bowline was always taught as the only safe way of putting a bight on a safety line if trying to rescue a "Man Overboard" situation , in the Royal Naval Seamanship Manual .
Alas, most Windfall-class yachts have ended up in Fiddler's Green along with their crews, BUT ; Merlin sails on as the Dutch Yacht "Zee Arend" ( Sea Eagle" ).Sadly, I do not know the Dutch for "bowline" (Het spijt mij !).