Club risk assessors occasionally find that portable lifting gear, including chain blocks, strops and slings are not checked and maintained on a regular basis. This Member has implemented a simple yet effective colour coding system for annual inspections of equipment. In the image shown, the colour code for the current calendar year is red and all inspected items are either marked with a red patch or have a red tag attached with the date of inspection. Crew can therefore see at a glance if equipment inspections are up to date. It remains good practice for crew to always check the condition of lifting gear on every occasion prior to use.