A flexible base that holds your cocktail, can, or 40 oz tumbler steady on the cockpit cushion, the sunpad, or the helm — through the wake that rolls in at sundowners, the heel when the sails fill, and the raft-up where three boats rock as one.
See it at steadilabs.com →Free shipping · 30 days to change your mind · Molded in small runs in Orange, California
Will your cup fit? Grab a sticky note — the 10-second test ↓
The situation
Where the drink goes once you're aboard is a puzzle solved fresh each time you cast off, because the one or two molded holders on deck were never going to be the whole answer.
Vinyl-wrapped foam, crowned to shed water and seamed to flex — a can set down on it sinks and tilts off vertical almost immediately, and there's rarely a molded holder within reach of where people actually sit.
The best seat on the boat is the farthest one from any console holder. Drinks get set flat on foam that dips under every elbow and every boarding step someone takes climbing aboard.
The molded recesses look purpose-built, but owners report them too shallow and too wide for a can or a cup — and the table itself turns into a ramp the moment the boat leans into its heel.
Older console holders were sized before insulated tumblers got this big, so a 30 or 40 oz cup won't seat in them. The skipper's drink ends up riding loose on an angled dash with both hands already busy on the wheel and throttle.
None of it swamps the afternoon. It's the same small workaround, run every trip aboard — wedge it, brace it, hold it — until the moment it isn't in your hand when the wake hits.
You know the moment
The anchorage has been flat calm all evening. A boat comes in too fast, and half a minute later its wake rolls through, tipping every glass standing on the cockpit table at once.
The boat settles onto its heel and the cockpit tilts. The molded holder in the table lets go at the same moment everything else not in a hand starts sliding to leeward.
Three boats tied gunwale to gunwale, drinks parked on the sunpads while everyone steps from deck to deck. Each boarding step rocks both hulls and flexes the foam under every can.
The helm needs both hands, wheel and throttle. The drink gets wedged behind the windshield brace, and the burst of reverse as the dock gets close sends it over.
The mug comes up from the galley out of habit, and the only holders aboard are shaped for something narrower — its handle finds no fin to sit in, so it waits on the swim platform, where the first wake of the morning finds it at the waterline.
What you get
A wide flexible base spreads its footprint across cushion, gelcoat, or teak, and flexible fins hold the drink from the sides. Take a gust, catch a wake broadside, feel someone step past on the sunpad — the base flexes with the boat and the drink resists tipping instead of sliding to leeward.
Cocktail cups, cans in a koozie, and 30 to 40 oz tumblers all outgrew the molded holders most boats shipped with. This one takes a can or bottle on top and grips a cup or tumbler by its bottom inch, whatever size actually came out of the cooler.
No hole saw, no through-bolts, no dedicated seat at the helm. It sits on the bench, the sunpad, the swim platform, or the table — wherever the drink and the person holding it actually end up.
The fit test
A square sticky note: 3 inches, exactly.
The standard square sticky note is exactly 3 inches on a side — a fact about sticky notes, and it happens to be the ceiling of what fits.
Look at the bottom, not the rim — a tapered tumbler or a flared cocktail cup can look wide and still have a narrow foot.
Base sits inside the square? It fits. Hangs over the edge? Too wide. A tiny puck lost in the middle, under about 2 inches? Too narrow.
No guessing dockside — just a sticky note and the cup you actually bring aboard.
Will it fit my cup
The rule is one line: a container base about 2 to 3 inches across settles in, on deck the same as anywhere else. Every verdict below follows from it.
There's a floor as well as a ceiling — under about 2 inches the base sits too loose, same as it would on any table ashore. The handled mug is the honest exception aboard: the base size is right, but the handle lands exactly where a fin needs to grip.
How it works
Cushion foam compresses unevenly and gelcoat is often canted or curved — either way, a narrow base has nothing level to stand on. The wide flexible base spreads its weight across whatever's underneath instead of tipping off it.
Flexible fins hold the drink by its bottom inch, from the sides, so a boarding step or a gust doesn't rattle it loose the way a shallow molded recess does.
A gust heels the boat, a wake rolls through, someone steps aboard at the raft-up — the base flexes with the motion and brings the drink back level instead of letting it ride the tilt.
Aboard, surface by surface
The reason drinks fail aboard isn't clumsiness — it's that nothing underneath them stays level for more than a few seconds at a time.
Vinyl-wrapped marine foam, crowned to shed rain and stitched at the seams — springy enough that a can sinks and tilts the moment it's set down, with rarely a molded holder within reach of the bench itself.
A wide field of vinyl and foam with no rigid feature anywhere on it, and the farthest spot on the boat from any console holder. Every elbow and every boarding step flexes the pad under whatever's balanced there.
Solid teak or molded fiberglass, bolted rigidly to a hull that heels and rolls. The shallow drink recesses molded into it were sized for smaller cups, and under any real heel the tabletop turns into a ramp.
Mirror-smooth in places, molded non-skid in others, and regularly wet with spray or dripping swimmers. A sweating base skates on the smooth gelcoat, and the textured non-skid that keeps shoes planted is exactly what a suction cup can't hold onto.
Angled fiberglass that vibrates under power, with molded holders sized decades before insulated tumblers got this big. A modern 30 to 40 oz cup doesn't seat in them, so it rides loose on a slanted shelf.
Versus what you do now
They only bond to smooth, dry surfaces — cushion, non-skid, and canvas are all off limits — and one popular brand's own instructions warn against resting past 25 degrees for long, which ordinary sailing heel exceeds. One sailor reported the holder letting go within the first hour, beer and all, over the side.
In one published group test, a basket went missing — drink included — not long after getting underway, because the hook that held it to the lifeline was too open. The open wire frames also snag sheets, lines, and clothing.
The nicer versions cost roughly ten times what a basic holder does, install with wrenches and Allen keys near steering wires, and testers cracked bushings just clamping a couple on. Even mounted, the drink lives at the wheel — not wherever the guests happen to be sitting.
The factory-molded recesses are the ones owners already call too shallow and too wide. Sizing a new one to fit today's tumblers means a hole saw through the boat's fiberglass — and the hole serves exactly one seat, forever.
Before you buy
That's the reason it's shaped this way. The wide flexible base spreads across cushion or fiberglass instead of needing a level surface, and the fins hold the drink from the sides. Heel into a gust or take a wake broadside and it resists tipping — it flexes back level instead of going over.
Different mechanism entirely. Suction only bonds to smooth, dry surfaces — it can't grip cushion, non-skid, or canvas, and most brands warn against much heel at all. This one doesn't suction to anything; the wide base and the fins do the holding, on wet gelcoat or foam alike.
Measure the bottom, not the rim. A base about 2 to 3 inches across settles in here, and the 40 oz Stanley fits — the same size that outgrew most factory console holders.
No. Nothing clamps, mounts, or gets drilled into the boat. It sits on top of whatever's underneath and moves from the cockpit to the sunpad in a second.
Wherever a drink lands: the cockpit bench, the sunpad, the cockpit table, the helm, the swim platform. It doesn't need a dedicated seat or a factory holder built into that spot.
Yes — it works at least as well on hard, flat fiberglass as it does on foam. That's useful right where the older molded holders are the most likely to be too small for a modern tumbler.
Motion is the whole design brief. The base flexes with the roll and brings the drink back level. It resists tipping — it isn't magic, so a direct hard knock is still a direct hard knock — but an ordinary wake rolling through the anchorage is exactly what it's built to shrug off.
Rinse it or run it through the dishwasher. It's one piece of solid molded material with nothing to come apart and nothing for salt or spray to get into.
It's called the Steadi, molded in small runs in Orange, California by Steadi Labs — veteran-founded and patent pending. Every order ships free from steadilabs.com, with 30 days to change your mind.
Who makes it
The maker is Steadi Labs, a small veteran-founded company in Orange, California. It's injection molded — the mold, the material, and the color runs all sit within about three and a half miles of the shop, and every batch is molded there in small runs. The people who make it are the same people who answer hello@steadilabs.com.
Use it for a month. If it doesn't do what this page says, email hello@steadilabs.com and it gets made right — no forms, no fight.
Veteran-founded · Patent pending · Made in Orange, California
Heel, wake, raft-up — the drink rides out all three right where you set it down: cushion, sunpad, swim platform. By evening, the only thing wet on the cockpit sole is spray.
Get yours at steadilabs.com →Checkout is on steadilabs.com — Steadi Labs is the company that makes it.