Finally, somewhere to put your drink on the boat you rented.
4.9 from 119 Steadi reviewsA flexible-finned base that holds your drink steady on vinyl benches and a moving deck — no suction, no clamp, nothing stuck to a boat that isn't yours. It rides home in the tote and the boat goes back exactly as you found it.
Get yours before the next rental — from $14.95Attaches to nothing — packs flat in the tote, ships free, 90 days to send it back if it's not it.
Will your cooler's tumbler fit? A sticky note answers it — the test is below ↓
The picture
Eleven people came aboard. The cup holders were gone before the buoys.
Nobody on this boat owns it. The layout is a surprise until you're standing on the dock, the deposit signature is still fresh, and the handful of molded cup holders fills with phones, keys, and sunscreen before the first can is even open. Every drink after that improvises.
A boat rated for eight to eleven people ships with a few recessed rings about 3.5 inches across — sized for a bare 12 oz can, in the era of the 40 oz tumbler. Whatever the phones and the sunscreen don't claim, the one cup that actually seats does.
Marine vinyl over foam, hinged over a storage locker, worn loose by a season of renters. The foam dips when the can goes down and springs back when your neighbor stands up — and by mid-morning the vinyl is slick with spray, sunscreen, and can-sweat. The first broadside roller takes whatever was parked there.
The fencing ends in a flat aluminum cap an inch or so wide — the instinctive shelf for anyone standing at the rail, with open lake on the far side. A drink that tips inboard is a mess. A drink that tips outboard is gone.
The flattest, most central surface aboard, which makes it the day's de facto side table — except it's domed, filmed with meltwater, and it opens every few minutes for the next round. A drink parked there lives round to round.
One small top on a single stem, shared by the whole crew, and it amplifies every roll. One pontoon-forum account describes a passing cruiser's wake putting everything on the table straight into the water.
None of this ruins the day. It just runs underneath it the whole time: a boatload of drinks improvising around a deck that has to go back spotless at five.
What you get
Three reasons it earns a seat aboard.
Steady on a boat that moves
The wide base spreads its weight across a vinyl cushion or the deck instead of balancing on a point. A wake rolls through, the surface tilts, and the base's low, wide weight rocks with it instead of tipping — the drink settles back down.
Sized for what the cooler actually holds
Slim seltzers, 12 oz cans, the plastic water bottle, and the 30 and 40 oz tumblers the boat's own molded rings won't seat. Cans and bottles slide in through the fins; cups and tumblers drop in and get gripped by the bottom inch.
Leaves the boat exactly as found
No screws, no clamps, no suction, no residue — one piece of flexible molded material that comes aboard in the tote with the towels and packs out the same way. The return walkthrough finds nothing to note.
The sticky-note check
Run the fit test tonight, before the marina.
lands in here
A square sticky note: 3 inches, exactly — same ceiling as what fits aboard.
The classic square is exactly 3 inches on a side. That's a fact about sticky notes — and it happens to be the exact ceiling of what fits.
The tumbler headed for the cooler bag, the water bottle, a can from the fridge — or that same can in a koozie, since insulation adds width. The bottom decides it, not the rim.
Base lands inside the note? It fits. Hangs over the edges? Too wide. A little puck lost in the middle — under 2 inches? Too narrow.
Ten seconds per cup, at home, the night before — so the only surprise at the dock is which boat you got.
The competition, honestly
What people bring aboard now — and where each one quits.
| A clamp-on rail cup holder | The Boat Rental Cup Holder | |
|---|---|---|
| Fits this boat's specific rail | Square or round, sized to guess before you're standing on the deck | Sits on the rail, the bench, or the lid — no rail spec to match |
| Getting it on when you board | A spring clamp that takes real hand strength to open | Set it down, done |
| Once it's actually mounted | Locked to the rail — doesn't shift with the roll | Sits free on the surface — resists tipping and settles back through the roll |
| Reach from wherever you're sitting | One holder, one seat within reach of the fence | Bench, cooler lid, floor, or rail — wherever you're actually sitting |
| Moving from the rail to the sandbar | Stays clamped where you mounted it | One grab, moves with you |
| Packing out before the walkthrough | Unclamp each one, coil the strap, stow it | Already flat, already in the tote |
| Cost | One per seat you want covered — adds up on a crew of eleven | One small piece, easy to justify |
Sold in rail-shape-specific versions — square-rail models don't fit round rails, and sizes vary by builder — so a renter doesn't learn whether theirs fits until standing on the boat. When it does fit, it serves exactly the people within reach of the fence, one holder per drinker, and the spring clamps take real hand strength to open.
The product guides are upfront: it needs a smooth, non-porous surface — gelcoat, glass, slick acrylic. Textured pontoon dash plastic defeats the vacuum, vinyl was out of the question from the start, and the smart-suction style is flagged as not designed for heavy 30-plus-ounce tumblers. The failure mode is a sudden full release.
Owner forums hunt for these because big tumblers won't seat in the roughly 3.5-inch molded rings. But an expander perches the container higher out of a shallow ring — it trades a fit problem for a top-heavier one.
Reviewers report it shifts when cushions fit loose — and a rental fleet's cushions are the loosest, most worn vinyl on the lake.
A koozie fixes temperature, not tipping — the can stays just as light and comes out slightly wider than the molded ring. The floating holder is honest about its job: it helps after the drink is already in the lake with you.
Why more than one
Two identical tumblers. One question: whose?
Half the cooler on this boat is the same 40 oz tumbler in the same handful of colors, because that's what everyone already owns. By the second hour nobody's sure whose sweating tumbler is whose, and grabbing the wrong one off the cooler lid is the kind of small annoying thing that can end a good afternoon.
Build your set
Give everyone their own.
Pick a pack, then give each one a color — so nobody has to ask which drink is theirs.
From the reviews
What buyers say.
Real reviews of the Steadi — these ones mention boat life.
Steadi- Just what I was looking for! I purchased these to use at our annual NASCAR race this month. They delivered beyond my expectations. Our seats are metal benches with a slight slope towards the back, making it impossible to set down any type of drink. We were able to use these for a 20oz bottle with a koozie on it
Holly J. · 2026-06-09My Steadi order arrived just as we were packing for our annual three generation family vacation. So into the car they went. Our time away is at a rental property and preventing spills in someone else’s house seems like a good goal. Additionally, most of our time is spent outside, at the house and nearby parks. The
Haila B. · 2026-05-31We have a couple of these and we absolutely love them! They have prevented many spills and saved many drinks from being spilled over from a very active toddler knocking into them. It's so nice to use them on our boat and not have to worry about spills and can leave drinks out worry free!
Peter H. · 2026-05-26Brilliant idea. These are great on the boat!! Hold up nicely in the wind when my can is almost empty.
Wendy C. · 2026-05-22All 119 reviews are for the drink base itself, collected across every place people use it.
Compatibility
The bottom inch decides what comes aboard.
One line covers the whole cooler: a container base 2 to 3 inches across settles in. Every verdict below follows from it.
- Slim seltzer can fits
- Standard 12 oz can fits
- 16 oz tallboy fits
- 40 oz Stanley-style tumbler fits
- 30 oz insulated tumbler fits
- 16.9 oz plastic water bottle fits
- 28 oz sports-drink bottle fits
- Party cup fits
- Coffee mug, handled handle in the way
- Glass anything banned aboard anyway
There's a floor as well as a ceiling — under 2 inches, a base sits too loose. Two cooler-specific notes: a koozie counts as part of the can, so run the test with it on. And the handled mug stays home — its base fits, but the handle lands right where a fin needs to grip.
The full fit database — Stanley, Red Bull, Yeti, and 30 more, with sourced base measurements →
Fair questions
You're probably thinking…
Nothing attaches — no suction, no clamp, no adhesive. It sits on the bench, the deck, or the cooler lid and packs out in one grab, so the walkthrough finds the boat exactly like you found it.
A boat that seats eleven usually ships with a handful, each about 3.5 inches — sized for a bare can, not the 40 oz tumbler in the cooler — and phones and sunscreen tend to claim them before you clear the no-wake buoys anyway.
There's nothing to suction and nothing mounted to fall. The wide base settles onto whatever it's set on and resists tipping through a real wake — see it hold on an actual rental deck, not a studio table.
Honestly — it doesn't float, so it gets treated like a phone: stays inboard of the fence. The fins grip the drink, so it isn't the thing sliding loose in the first place.
Next to the rental, the gas, and the cooler run, it's the smallest line in the budget — and a lot cheaper than a cleaning fee if a drink dries into the vinyl before the walkthrough.
Worth knowing
Asked at the dock, answered here.
Does it really work on a boat that's underway?
Moving, uneven surfaces are exactly what the shape is for. The wide base keeps its weight low across the deck or the cushion, so it rocks instead of fighting it, and the fins keep the drink from rattling loose through throttle changes and wake crossings. It resists tipping and settles back when the surface moves — and when the captain calls a big one, grabbing your drink is still good seamanship.
Will it hold a full 40 oz tumbler in chop?
That tumbler is why the packing guides tell you to secure drinks underway — tall, heavy when full, standing free on flat surfaces. It fits, and it seats down into the fins and gets gripped by the bottom inch, which is the help a tall container needs. In real chop, give it the low seat anyway: deck floor over rail top.
We're not allowed to attach anything to a rental. Does this count?
It attaches nothing. No screws, no clamp, no suction, no adhesive — it sits on the bench, the deck, or the cooler lid, picks up in one grab, and goes home in the tote. The walkthrough finds the boat exactly as it left the dock.
What happens if it goes in the lake?
The honest answer: it sinks — it doesn't float. Water itself is no problem at all — spray, cooler slush, a full dunk to rinse it off the swim ladder — but keep it inboard of the fencing, same as your phone.
Will it slide around on wet vinyl?
A sweating can skates on wet vinyl because it touches the seat along one narrow ring. The base meets the cushion across its whole wide, low footprint — a different conversation with a slick surface — and the drink inside is held by the fins, so it rides the boat's motion instead of skating with it.
The marina banned glass. Does that change what fits?
It shapes the whole cooler — rental operators commonly ban glass on the water, which pushes the day into cans, plastic bottles, and insulated tumblers. Those are the lightest, tippiest containers aboard, on the slickest surfaces, and they're exactly what the base is sized for: bottoms 2 to 3 inches across.
How many for a crew of ten?
One per drink you want parked. Most crews would place a few — the table, each bench cluster, one up on the bow where the factory holders run thinnest — and since each is a flat piece of flexible material, several ride in the tote without claiming real space.
Is it an insert for the boat's molded cup holders?
No — it doesn't go in a cup holder, and it isn't an expander. It makes the surfaces work instead. The molded rings will still be full of phones and sunscreen ten minutes out; this puts a place for a drink next to wherever you're actually sitting.
How do I clean it after a sticky-soda day?
Rinse it over the side, hose it at the dock, or wipe it down at home, or put it in the dishwasher. It's one piece of flexible material with no parts to come apart.
Who makes it, and where do I buy one?
It's called the Steadi, injection molded in small runs in Orange, California by Steadi Labs — a small veteran-founded company, patent pending. Orders ship free from steadilabs.com, with 90 days to change your mind.
The shop
Molded in Orange, packed for the dock.
The maker is Steadi Labs, a small veteran-founded company in Orange, California — inland, nowhere near a marina. It's injection molded in small runs, and nothing about it travels far to get made: the mold, the material, and the color runs all sit within about three and a half miles of the shop. The people who make it read hello@steadilabs.com themselves, usually well before anyone's back at the dock.
Ninety days, long after the boat's back at the dock.
Take it out for a month, not just an afternoon rental. If it doesn't do what this page says — on the bench, the cooler lid, wherever you set it down — email hello@steadilabs.com and it gets made right. No forms, no fight, no walkthrough either.
Veteran-founded · Patent pending · Made in Orange, California
Give every drink on board a seat.
The wake rolls through the sandbar and the drinks settle back where you parked them — and at five o'clock, the walkthrough finds a boat that looks exactly like it did at ten.
Pack it for the next trip — ships freeCheckout is on steadilabs.com — Steadi Labs is the company that makes it.