Summer or winter, hot drinks or cold, there is no more frequently used piece of ancillary gear than a flask. And there is nothing better on a boat trip, particularly a dinghy trip, than a stainless steel flask. Small boats are particularly vulnerable places for standard glass construction flasks. Every time my stainless flask ends up on the floor I think to myself "That's another six quid saved". It only takes two or three mishaps like that to be showing a profit on the outlay for an un-breakable flask.

There isn't a lot else you can say about a flask other than it keeps drinks either hot or cold and is easy to clean on account of its wide neck. The Shakespeare range meets both of these criteria. But a flasks most important feature has to be the ability to retain heat despite constantly opening the top to pour a drink, and to retain heat over a long period of time. Having a pourer type top (can be removed for pouring soup) helps conserve heat at the pouring stage. With regard to long term heat retention, I filled this one up with boiling water which was still hot enough to sting my finger 30 hours later.

Shakespeare stainless steel flasks come in 3 sizes, all £13